Page 11 of Hot Summer

“Usually, yeah. I’m hoping I find someone here. It’s a bit lonely, only going on first dates all the time.”

It was a lie, her hope of finding someone, but it rang suspiciously true, that comment about her loneliness. It was uncomfortable to think about, too much to unpack right now, and Cas felt herself start to get nervous as Ada opened her mouth to reply. Luckily, before Ada could say anything, they heard a loud shout from the villa.

“Hi, girls!” There was a woman standing at the very end of the walkway near the outdoor kitchen, and she threw her arms up into the air when Cas and Ada spun round to look at her. She’d already been grinning, but her smile only grew as she sprinted across the deck toward them. “I’m Sienna. Look at you two, you’re gorgeous!”

“Please,” Ada said, giving Sienna a squeeze. “You’re stunning!”

Sienna’s dark brown skin was perfectly highlighted, shimmers of gold on her shoulders, across her collarbone, and on the high points of her cheeks. She was wearing an electric blue bikini that complemented the neon orange eyeliner she had swiped across her lids, and her hair was slicked back into a perfect high-top ponytail that swung as she walked.

“These men better be worth it, I’m telling you,” Cas said, handing Sienna a glass of champagne. “We’re tens, so if these men are threes...”

Sienna laughed and knocked her elbow playfully against Cas’s. “That’s exactly what dating in London is like, so at least I’ll be used to it.” Cas was thrilled to have another Londoner about, someone to talk to if she found herself missing home.

Maddison came through next, pausing for a moment at the top of the stairs, hands on her hips, like she was waiting for the camera to finish catching all her angles. She seemed nice enough, if a bit aloof, but Cas supposed she could be forgiven for that given the oddness of their situation.

Lexi was last through, and despite the volume of the group’s conversation, they could hear her cheer before she even stepped out into the garden. From the moment she opened the door, Lexi was screaming, her Essex accent thick as anything.

“Oh my god, the pillows! The lights! Oh my god, it’s fucking gorge!”

Cas choked, and Ada started patting her on the back in concern. “Are you okay?”

“I think so.” Cas sounded like she’d swallowed a handful of gravel. “Or maybe I’m dying. Unclear.”

“Pretty sure our contracts prohibit dying,” Sienna said quietly, and that just made Cas choke all over again.

Lexi practically danced down the stairs, talking at lightning speed about everything she saw, and grabbed them all in enthusiastic hugs when she made her way to the table. Her dirty blond hair was perfectly curled, and she was wearing a white thong bikini that showed off her slightly orange self-tan. “I can’t believe we’re here, girls, we’re going to have the best summer of our lives! You’re all so lovely, truly, I can’t wait to get to know you all, like, ah! Girl gang, right? Morning chats, coffee, all that!”

Cas felt like she was going to have a cognitive-overload-induced aneurysm.

“Amazing,” Maddison agreed, and she handed Lexi the final glass of champagne. “Save some of that energy for the boys, though, eh, Lex?”

Lexi laughed loudly, the sound echoing through the garden. “I might kill those boys if I bring this energy.”

“I’ll cheers to that,” Sienna said, raising her glass. “Who needs boys?”

“To killing boys and having the hottest summer of our lives,” Cas said, raising her glass and meeting Sienna’s in the middle.

Soon, with Lexi whooping loud enough that Cas was pretty sure her right eardrum had burst, everyone’s flutes were in the center, and together, they clinked their glasses.

“To the hottest summer of our lives!”

4

They’d barely finished their champagne when someone shouted from inside the house.

“Ladies! Are you ready to have a hot summer?”

The whole table fell quiet for a flash of a moment before the excited whispering began.

“Is that...”

“Mila?”

“Oh my god.”

The first person round the corner, though, was not Mila Sexton, the longtime host of Hot Summer, but a cameraperson. Then, barely visible behind the camera, Mila herself.

Even over all the whispering, Cas could hear the sound of Mila’s heels on the stone tiles, her solid, sure footsteps a death knell that they’d amp up a hundred decibels and synchronize with a steamy dance track in the final edit. The moment Mila stepped to the top of the stairs, her long brown hair blowing gently in a breeze that Cas would’ve sworn wasn’t there a second before, everyone at the table started screaming.

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