Page 39 of Hot Summer

Cas waited, smoothing moisturizer into her skin, but that was apparently all Lexi had to say.

“Right.” Cas put toothpaste on her toothbrush but didn’t start brushing right away. “Look. I know Maddison is your friend and you’re probably not trying to be rude. But I’m here. She isn’t. Get over it.”

“I’m just saying that it’s not fair,” Lexi started, and Cas scoffed.

“It’s not fair that Femi wanted to stay partnered up with me? That he decided to stick with me, despite what the public had to say?”

“It’s not fair that you got to stay and she didn’t.” Lexi shrugged. “I just think the people in last place should’ve gone home.”

“Well, they didn’t. And you don’t get to decide whether Femi’s choice was the right one—he did what was best for him, and I’m grateful to him for it. I’d also appreciate, in future”—Cas switched on the water and wet her toothbrush—“if you showed me some actual respect and said this to my face instead of chatting shit to Charlie behind my back.”

Charlie raised his hands in a faux-innocence gesture—because of course he was going to leave Lexi out to dry—and Cas rolled her eyes before popping her toothbrush into her mouth.

Cas was still fuming when she made her way down to the bedroom a few minutes later.

She’d tried to remain calm while she was in the bathroom, especially because Lexi and Charlie had continued going about their own nighttime routines, albeit more awkwardly than usual. The second she walked into the bedroom, though, she huffed angrily and dropped down onto the bed.

Reece and Tia were lying on their new, now shared bed at the other end of the room, Tia’s leg threaded through Reece’s. She rolled halfway onto her back as Cas arrived, brow furrowed. “You okay?”

Cas nodded and tugged the duvet down before wiggling herself underneath. “Yeah. Just tired.”

“Yeah, same.” And Tia rolled back toward Reece.

It had been a nice distraction, that little disagreement with Lexi upstairs, from her anxiety. But she needed to tread with caution, couldn’t let herself get carried away—the public wasn’t exactly looking for reasons to like her, but people would pounce on anything she did that solidified their opinion that she was the worst.

Though, maybe, this was exactly what she needed. Friday Cas clearly hadn’t impressed them, so maybe it was time for real Cas, the one who would never stand for this passive-aggressive shit, to make an appearance.

She was lying on her back staring at the ceiling as, one by one, more of the lovers started returning to the bedroom. It sounded like a few of the boys had made their way back out to the kitchen—Cas could definitely pick out Femi’s and Jayden’s voices, and she assumed Brad must be there, too, because she hadn’t seen him since they’d left Maddison at the door. She’d just closed her eyes when someone picked up the duvet and slid in underneath.

Cas didn’t even need to open her eyes to know who it was. She caught the sweet smell of Ada’s perfume again, peach and smoke and a little bit of salt air. It should have been light now, faded after hours of wear, but the scent seemed to cling to her skin.

“Hi, Ada.”

Ada huffed, and when Cas looked, she was frowning. “How’d you know it was me?”

She’d done her hair in a plait, and it fell loosely over one shoulder. She wasn’t wearing anything special—an oversized cropped T-shirt with strawberries on it and a pair of matching sleep shorts—but something about it made Cas’s heart molten in her chest.

It was strange, an uncomfortable feeling, one she swallowed down.

Cas rolled onto her side so she and Ada were facing each other. “Your perfume. What is it? It smells so nice.”

Ada’s cheeks flushed the slightest pink and she tugged the duvet a little higher up over her shoulders. “It’s not my usual perfume.”

“What is it?”

“It’s...” She looked down at the microphone hanging around her neck, her fingers tracing the cord in a way that might have appeared absent to anyone not two inches away from her.

“Oh god. Is it Claire’s body spray or something?”

Ada laughed. “No, god. It’s just expensive, that’s why I’m embarrassed.”

“Oh, so it’s Tom Ford or Chanel or something.”

“Tom Ford,” Ada confirmed. She still wasn’t meeting Cas’s eyes. “I splurged on it when I found out I got onto this show. Scent memory is apparently one of our strongest senses and... I don’t know.” She flicked her gaze up so that her eyes found Cas’s. “I wanted to remember this place.”

“I personally can’t imagine wanting to remember this place right now, but I hear you.”

“Fair enough.” Ada’s fingers moved to the end of her plait and she started brushing them through the loose strands. “My best friends were completely taking the piss out of me about it. A lot of ‘why would you want to remember men gyrating at you all summer?’ ”

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