Page 33 of Hot Summer

“I swear, sometimes it feels like no matter what you do, people are going to have something to say about it. I’m in the top with Sienna right now, but who’s to say that won’t change next week? That I might do my hair differently or laugh too much or laugh too little or say something to piss off Brad and then he’s running around talking shit about me all week and then that’s me, hanging out in the bottom with you.” She cringed as soon as the words left her mouth. “Sorry. No offense.”

“None taken.” And really, there wasn’t. “You better partner up with someone else tomorrow, though. Brad sucks.” She knew she was trying to pivot the conversation away from herself, but it also needed to be said. Ada needed to get the hell away from that relationship.

“It won’t be up to me tomorrow,” Ada said. And it wouldn’t—with more girls than boys in the villa, the boys would get to choose whom they wanted to partner with. The girls were completely at their mercy.

“See if you can pull someone in twenty-four hours,” Cas said, smiling. “I’m sure you can manage it. Look at you.”

Ada exhaled a laugh and rolled her eyes. “I’m not going to try and steal someone. I’d rather, like, recouple with you, but maybe it’s too early for Hot Gay Summer.”

It was a little throwaway joke. But it still made Cas’s heart start racing in her chest.

“Femi, though,” Cas said. She tried to say it dramatically, like all would be lost for Femi, but her voice sounded raw. “I couldn’t abandon him yet.”

“I don’t think you’ll need to worry about Femi for much longer,” Ada said.

“What do you mean?”

Ada shrugged, her eyes sparkling. “Sienna.”

“You noticed that, too?”

“It’d be impossible not to,” Ada said. “You saw them tonight.”

She had.

Cas was surprised to note that she, too, was yearning to feel something like it. To look at someone the way that Femi was looking at Sienna.

“She’s still considering Jayden, though, right?”

Ada shook her head. “She says she can’t figure him out. He’s on the quieter side and spends all day with the boys like he’s trying to avoid her or something.”

“We have to get her together with Femi, then,” Cas said.

“I don’t even think it’ll be that hard, to be honest. They just need a little nudge.” She punctuated it with a tap of her shoulder against Cas’s, a brief moment of contact that Cas felt, electric, down her spine. “If tonight doesn’t seal the deal for them, then maybe we can make that our mission. Get your mind off these pointless rankings and get our lovebirds together.”

Cas couldn’t afford to forget the pointless rankings entirely, not with everything she had at stake, but she could pretend. Could spend a little more time trying to relax and actually enjoy her time here.

It might even help her if she could figure out how to do it right.

“I think that sounds like a plan.”

#HotSummer—Live Updates

@moonlighthiker: it’ll be real interesting to see if this changes anyones game

@averyart: you mean like if people recouple based on weekly rankings and stuff?

@moonlighthiker: yeah... like... I bet it’s going to happen at LEAST a few times

@dayla14: how would they think they’d get away with that though? Like obvs we’re all going to be watching for it

@tiffstuff:... you’re acting like they bring rocket scientists onto this show

@tiffstuff: there was a boy who couldn’t find Spain on a map two years ago

@dayla14: lolololol fair enough

@gracekellylol: not surprised Sienna is at the top! She better coast to the finale in the top spot or I stg

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