Page 46 of The Billionaire Love Match

She took a breath and stood next to Tessa in front of the mirror. They were a funny pair—Tessa so tall and lean and dark with Casey more pixie-like with her light hair and short stature. “Well, aren’t we a pair.”

Tessa laughed, her perfect dark waves shaking and tickling Casey’s neck. “A perfect match. Now let’s go do battle.”

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CASEY’S EMOTIONS FELTlike they had been in the equivalent of a 20-car pileup on the 405. The episode could not have made her feel worse or look worse.

She had been worried about the near-drowning and how embarrassing that would be to watch. But that hardly mattered given the last shot they showed from her date, which was at the very end of the show. The cameramen caught her hugging Ty and looking up at him adoringly, her eyes suspiciously bright. Then it cut to Ty and Colt arguing behind the glass wall in Ty’s office.

Casey had looked over at Colt with shock, but he had his head down and did not meet her gaze. As the credits rolled and the lights came back up, even the studio audience was silent. Casey felt her cheeks flaming. She tried not to move, as though being still and silent would make her somehow invisible and take away the giant target she knew was on her back.

“We’ve got a lot to talk about,” Chris Haversham said, using a serious tone one might save for a cancer diagnosis. “Tonight we’re going to flip this. We’ll do the Q&A first, then the ceremony. Just to give Colt more time to think about and weigh his decision. Let’s start on a bright note—Tessa, why don’t you join us down here.”

From the clapping in the audience, Casey could tell that Tessa was fast becoming the fan favorite. No wonder. She truly was kind and sweet and beautiful. She never almost-drowned on dates and certainly didn’t give meaningful looks and hugs to her date’s BFF. Casey blew her bangs out of her face and tried to wipe the lovesick (and just plain sick) look from her face.

She pictured her luggage, neatly packed in the rolling bag just off-stage. Every week you had to pack your bags, a gut-wrenching reminder of the reality of reality TV. Just go. Run off stage, grab your bag and go.

But Casey sat, working on having a face that didn’t show the depth of her misery. Sucker. You are a sucker for that man and it’s not good.

As Tessa gazed lovingly at Colt and talked about their amazing group date, Casey had a series of mental arguments with herself about staying seated or running for the door. She didn’t want to watch Colt’s face as Tessa talked. What if he looked at her the same way he looked at Tessa?

What if this was all just in her head?

No. The Morse code. The kiss in the bathroom.

Casey tried to hold onto these things, to tuck them away into the pocket of heart. These were the only things that might be real. She needed to trust them. Pull them out when she needed a reminder of what she was doing here.

“I just feel like,” Tessa was saying, “we have a connection.” She ducked her head, then looked up at Colt and at Chris. “I’m sure all the other women feel that way too.”

“Colt,” Chris Haversham said. “Let’s talk about your connection to Tessa. How do you feel like this date impacted your feelings for her?”

Morse code. Kiss in the bathroom. Morse code. Talking on the beach. Breathe.

Casey looked at Colt’s face then. She couldn’t read what was behind that practiced, perfect look he was so good at. Was he hiding feelings he had? Or hiding that he didn’t have feelings?

How could he not have feelings for someone like Tessa? Beautiful. Fun. Refreshingly honest. Casey loved her. Of course Colt would.

She could not get through the rest of this night. Casey felt suddenly struck with guilt for every time she had laughed at a reality show like this. Now she knew exactly how it was to be wrung out like a wet towel and hung up to dry in front of a watching world.

But she did get through the rest of the night, channeling her fierce self that she met face to face in the dive pool a few days earlier.

Except that things got worse with each woman that went into the hot seat. Other than Tessa, her name was brought up almost every time. Sometimes by Chris, sometimes by the woman.

“Some people are clearly not here for the right reasons.”

Casey almost snorted at that one.

“Tell me more about that comment.”

Eyes flicking up to Casey. “I feel like we’ve seen a lot of drama from Casey. It shows that she wants attention, not Colt.”

Attention, sure. Casey wanted to crawl under her chair and bawl her eyes out.

“If you had to send someone home tonight, who would it be?”

“That’s such a hard question to answer. I mean, I don’t want to be mean. But it would have to be Casey.”

Home sounded good.

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