Page 7 of Hot Summer

Cas nodded blankly. “Will we be getting phones like in previous years?”

The phones didn’t seem that useful—they were basically jail-broken iPhones with, like, four apps, none of which were the internet—but she needed all the information she could get.

Chloe was scribbling something on her clipboard. “Your phones will be on your bedside tables after you’re partnered up. It’ll have a case with your name on it, but there are obviously limitations. You can take pictures, receive texts, but that’s about it.”

Chloe finished writing, and after a quick scan over her notes, she looked up at Cas. “When I get out of the car, Joe is going to lock the doors, but that’s to serve as a signal for when you should get out of the car at the top of the hill. We’ll have you standing up through the open top, so hold there”—Chloe pointed her pen at the roll bars above them—“and we’ll be filming as you approach, so make sure your face is right.”

That comment felt more barbed than necessary.

“Once we’re set up to film your exit, Joe will unlock the car doors. The moment you hear it unlock, open your door and step out. There will be a camera right there, and it will follow you as you turn back toward Ada’s car to greet her. You have to collect Ada before you make your way into the villa.

“The drive up will have a voice-over from your initial interview, but if you want to shout excitedly or something, we can cut that in.” Chloe said it like she thought the last thing Cas would do was shout excitedly while she was sticking out of the roof of a car, and while she wasn’t wrong, Cas wanted to prove the point now.

“Hmm.” Cas tilted her head to the side, reveling in the feeling of her hair skirting across her shoulders.

“Okay.” Chloe’s voice was short, clearly getting tired of what must be her first of many of these conversations. “Now, unless you have questions, I need to go run Ada through this.”

“No questions,” Cas said, though her confirmation didn’t appear to matter because Chloe had already opened the car door before Cas could even finish.

The silence hung heavy in the car for a beat before Joe locked the doors, the mechanical clicking so loud that Cas almost physically startled. They sat in silence for fifteen minutes before Joe finally glanced back at her.

“Here.” Joe smacked his palm against the back of the center console. “Stand right up against the front seats.”

It took a bit of maneuvering, but Cas managed to slot herself through the roof, her palms curling over the roll bars as she scanned around. There were people dotted along the road, all of them currently pointing massive cameras in her direction. Her grip tightened on the bar, her knuckles going white.

Cas was just about to slap on her best camera smile when she felt fingers skate across her skin to the mic pack on a belt around her middle. She jolted and found Joe’s hand in the air in a whoa gesture.

“Just turning your mic on,” Joe said.

Cas glared at him. “You could have asked.”

“I’m sorry,” Joe said, and he genuinely looked it. “Normally the contestants don’t mind it.”

“Well, I do.”

The surprise touch was way too reminiscent of the bad Friday nights, the ones that left her feeling a little slimy in her own skin and with a mountain of paperwork to complete to make sure that person was never invited back again. The bad nights were less frequent these days, but someone still tried to put their hands on her every few months, thinking her laughing and talking and smiling was some kind of invitation.

It was a major part of why she needed to get the hell out of events.

Cas exhaled softly as she cast her gaze back out to the scene in front of her. She rolled her shoulders discreetly before tilting her head to the left, then the right, a repeat of the little ritual she did before every one of her Friday hosting nights back home. She’d long since lost her actual nerves before these things, but there was something to the practice that helped her feel that much more grounded and ready for whatever was going to come.

The car started slowly up the drive, enough that Cas’s hair began gently flowing in the wind. As they drove, the camera crew along the road took swift steps backward, careful to keep pace with the car without tripping. In the final edit, Cas knew they’d be playing her interview with a bright pop backing track, and the contrast with her reality, the crunch of the gravel and muffled conversation from the crew and the wind in her ears, made Cas laugh out loud.

It was natural and unexpected and, god, she knew it would look glorious in the final cut.

The moment the car stopped at the top of the hill, Cas dropped through the sunroof, careful to avoid knocking the front seats with her elbows, and positioned herself at the back door. The windows were heavily tinted, but she could just see the rush of the camera crew along the pavement as they positioned themselves at their next marks.

“I’m going to unlock in five,” Joe said, eyes trained forward on the producer he could see through the windscreen. “Remember, there’s going to be a camera right in your face when you open the door.”

“So make sure my face is right,” Cas said, echoing Chloe from earlier.

“I’m sure your face will be right,” Joe said absently before he flicked the locks and Cas immediately opened the door. Just as Joe promised, the camera was almost directly in front of her, but Cas smiled naturally, casting her gaze off to the trees in the distance. She stepped out carefully onto the gravel, positioning her foot just right so that her stiletto didn’t slip over the irregular stones.

It was warm outside, but the soft breeze now blowing against Cas’s skin was a welcome change to the stuffy heat inside the car. The wind was brushing her hair back across her shoulders, and as the camera very obviously scanned over the length of her—catching the bounce of her breasts as she stepped out, the tantalizing press of the ties across her body, the miles and miles of perfectly highlighted skin—Cas felt a knowing smile tug up at the corner of her lips.

It was tricky business, letting the camera consume her like this, but Cas would do anything if it meant she got through the next eight weeks unscathed.

Following Chloe’s instruction, Cas started making her way toward the Jeep parked a few meters behind her own. The car door was opening as Cas approached, but then the woman—Ada—shut the door and Cas felt her heart stutter in her chest.

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