Page 27 of Hot Summer

“See, I told you,” Femi said, admiring his handiwork as Sienna examined her face in the mirror. “You look hot.”

“I always look hot,” Sienna said. “But, yeah, you did all right.”

In spite of those bright moments, by Friday evening, Cas felt like she understood how people eventually started going a bit mad in this place. She’d always thought that those conversations on the Missed Moments episodes were fabricated (because, surely, no one would invent a game like the infamous Banana Toes from Season 3 unless the producers put them up to it), but they’d spent so many hours staring at one another over the last few days that Cas had found herself thinking that, really, you could turn anything into a game if you were bored enough.

Cas was just about to roll off the deck chair and suggest a Banana Toes reprise (she was pretty sure she’d seen a few bunches of bananas in the kitchen) when Brad shouted from across the garden.

“Text!”

Cas sat straight up at Brad’s announcement, her mind already flying through the possible things that could be on that text message.

A date. A new arrival. A challenge.

It probably wasn’t a new arrival—Tia was still settling in, and though Reece was trailing after her like a puppy, they hadn’t yet had a partnership ceremony to cement any changes. And, oh god, it wasn’t Saturday yet, but it could be a partnering. It was close enough to the regular schedule, since partnerings happened on a weekly basis, but just different enough that they’d be surprised. Here they were all lying around comfortably and thinking they had twenty-four more hours before everything went to hell. Suckers.

Cas really needed to pull Femi aside now that she was thinking about it. Figure out what their plan was.

She’d enjoyed spending time with him, but it was painfully obvious to her that there wasn’t any sexual chemistry between them. Still, they got on, and it probably wouldn’t be too hard to convince him to stay in a friendship couple with her. Especially because neither of them seemed that interested in anyone else.

Or, well, Cas wasn’t. Cas had definitely seen Femi’s eye wandering in a specific direction this week, but she didn’t think he was quite ready to act on it yet.

“ ‘Lovers.’ ” Brad was reading in his best announcer voice and it made Cas want to punch him. “ ‘Please gather around the fire pit for an announcement.’ ”

“Oh fuck.”

Cas hadn’t meant to say it so loudly, but there it was.

Ada laughed, but there was a tightness to her expression that belied the sound. “It’s probably fine. Maybe there’s a DJ coming tomorrow or something.”

She didn’t sound convinced.

The mood was appropriately somber as they made their way across the garden, all eleven of them flocking from the corners they’d scattered to in an attempt to find something like privacy. They settled automatically into their couples, Tia sandwiched uncomfortably between Reece and Jayden.

Cas dropped down on Ada’s right side, leaving just enough space at the end of the bench for Femi. Or, at least, she thought she had. When he sat down, his thigh was hanging off the edge of the bench, and Cas swore quietly.

“Sorry, sorry.” She shifted to the left and her thigh immediately rubbed up against Ada’s. Cas jolted. “Fuck, sorry.” Cas pressed her thighs together, trying for even a half centimeter’s worth of space, but she could still feel the heat of Ada’s thigh along the outside of her leg.

Ada just smiled. “No worries.”

Charlie’s phone beeped the second everyone was finished getting settled.

“ ‘Lovers,’ ” Charlie read, his words slow and careful, like he was defusing a bomb rather than reading a text, “ ‘this summer, we’ve decided to do things a little differently.’ ”

Maddison’s phone chimed.

“ ‘In previous summers, you’ve had to wait until the public nominations in week seven to find out what the British public think of you.’ ”

Maddison stared at her phone for a long second after she finished reading, the blue light illuminating her face eerily.

Cas’s phone.

She almost didn’t think it was hers at first. It had to be Ada’s, Femi’s, maybe even Brad’s. But Ada’s head whipped round at the sound, and Cas had no choice but to accept that she needed to tug her phone out from the strap of her mic belt.

To find three little words written on her screen.

“ ‘But this summer... ’ ”

They were really trying to stretch this out for all that it was worth, weren’t they?

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