Page 42 of Too Busy for Love

‘Right,’ Gus declares. ‘We’re doing this. Beatrice, if you need to take a couple of hours away to recover, we’ll cope without you. Remember, even if HQ goes for it and we film it today, it won’t screen until tomorrow night, so don’t expect anything to change immediately. Try not to look at your social media for a while, OK? It won’t do you any good.’

As soon as I’m dismissed, I practically sprint to my annexe, where I rip off all my clothes and stuff them in the dirty clothes bin, before spending as long as I dare under the hottest shower I can bear. I know Gus is right and I’m not unique, but it doesn’t stop me feeling violated. I just hope their plan works.

16

I wasn’t sure about Dom’s idea, but it turned out to be brilliant. We filmed a segment where I was behind the pool bar and Flo came over to get a drink. She asked if I was OK, and that got the conversation going and gave me the opportunity to explain my role at Hotel Dufour and show her the comments on my phone. Not only did she reassure me, but she called out some of my trolls by name on camera, which I thought was incredibly brave of her. There was an outpouring of love after the episode aired and, although there are still a few people making nasty comments, most of the remarks about me online are now fairly positive. Gus is also pleased, as the ratings and audience numbers soared almost overnight, and have stayed up during the weeks since. Apparently, the viewers loved the fact that we tackled such a corrosive issue head-on.

Jock sent another message asking if I was all right after the show aired, and we ended up having a bit of back and forth, which cheered me up immensely. He told me he’s working at a restaurant in Glasgow called Gregory’s and is really enjoying it. The menu is very much British, which he said is a huge relief after Madame’s French obsession. I did search online for therestaurant but came up blank. When I questioned him about it, he said the owners were old school and didn’t feel an online presence was necessary. After that brief flurry, the messages died down again, which is probably just as well, because talking to him just makes me realise how much I miss him.

The person who has turned out to be a total star is Flo. Dom wasn’t lying when he said she’d had her fair share of trolls; some of the stuff she showed me that they’d said about her was breathtakingly vile. However, her determination not to allow herself to be affected by it has really helped me, and she’s very sweetly accompanied me on every airport run so I’m not on my own. Her compassion has done her no harm, as she showed me a serious bump in the number of people following her online after our chat. She’s also the only one of the original contestants left. Jason was axed in the first replacement, which came as a surprise to nobody as he remained totally self-absorbed and pretty much ignored the other contestants for the entire time he was with us. I think he was just as relieved to leave as we were to see the back of him. I’m not really sure why he applied for the show in the first place. It wasn’t long before the only three left out of the original ten were Flo, Marcus and Deborah.

Marcus and Deborah have been the golden couple since day one, but Marcus managed to depth charge that a couple of nights ago when he had a few too many glasses of wine and foolishly admitted to one of the other men that he and Deborah didn’t fancy each other at all and were faking it to get the prize money. The microphone picked it up, naturally, and that was the end of them. Their place in the limelight has been taken by Flo and Rob. Rob’s a self-employed plumber who arrived in week three, and they’ve been absolutely smitten with each other from the moment they met.

‘Do you think we should go all the way?’ she asks me. We’re sitting at a table in one of the cafés in the arrivals hall, havingdumped Marcus and Deborah in the check-in queue. Our final two contestants are on the inbound flight, which the board informs me should be landing in just under an hour.

‘Do you want to?’

‘I don’t not want to, but it feels a bit weird knowing that millions of people will be watching.’

‘They’re not going to see you actually having sex, Flo. Not unless you decide to do it on camera, anyway.’

‘No, but they’ll know that we have. My mum watches the show.’

‘Mm. I get your point.’

‘It’s stupid, isn’t it. I’m a grown woman; I should be free to have sex with whoever I want.’

‘Do you think you’ll take your relationship into the outside world?’

‘I don’t know. Rob would really like to, but I wonder whether it would survive outside this bubble. It’s easy for us in here; he can’t exactly work, unless the sink gets blocked or something, and, apart from a few selfies to keep my followers onside, neither can I. So we’ve got all the time in the world to lie by the pool and chat. But it won’t be like that back home, and I’m not sure he understands how busy I am. I need to be creating high-quality content pretty much every day, otherwise my followers will lose interest and so will the brands. I’ve also got to keep on top of my social media. It sounds like a dream life, but I’m regularly working until midnight. I’m lucky, because being in here keeps my profile high, but I know I’m going to have to hit the ground running when I get home.’

‘Have you talked to him about how you feel?’

‘You’re sounding like Raquel.’ She giggles. ‘I have, but I don’t think he gets it. I’m not sure he sees what I do as work. To him, my life is easy. Couple of selfies with a Starbucks in the morning before taking the rest of the day off or going shopping, that’swhat he thinks. What are you going to do after this? Are the TV company whisking you off to another exotic location?’

‘I don’t know. They haven’t said anything. I’d like to think they’re pleased with my work, but I reckon the fact that I wasn’t totally up front about Hotel Dufour has left a slightly bitter taste in their mouths. Who knows?’

‘You seem pretty chilled about it.’

‘I am.’ This isn’t strictly true. Although the pay here is good and I haven’t had any living expenses, so it’s not strictly the end of the world if I don’t get work straight away, the idea of going back to Ludlow fills me with dread. I’ve also never had a fixed-term contract before and I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do when it ends. On the one hand, there’s nothing stopping me from getting in touch with the agency to see what they’ve got coming up, but I don’t want to miss out on another contract with Casterbridge Media if they’re planning to offer one. I’ve been trying to find a way to broach the subject with Gus, but the opportunity hasn’t presented itself so far.

‘Who are we picking up?’ Flo asks a few minutes later. ‘Give me the deets.’

‘We’ve got a woman called Abby, who is the director of a construction company based in Leeds, and a guy called James who has his own wine business called The Online Sommelier.’

‘So we’re looking for a woman in a hard hat and a wino.’

‘Let me know when you spot them,’ I reply with a smile.

I don’t know who fits Flo’s stereotypes less well. I knew Abby wouldn’t be wearing a hard hat, obviously, but I was expecting someone who looked like they worked in construction, so the petite woman with long chestnut hair and wide hazel eyes whoapproaches us catches me by surprise. James must be well over six foot as he towers over the rest of us. He’s obviously a man who takes pride in his appearance, as he’s immaculately turned out.

‘I wondered if you were the other contestant when I saw you at the boarding gate,’ Abby says to him as we head out of the airport complex onto the dual carriageway.

‘I had you clocked pretty much straight away,’ he replies. I catch Flo’s eye and we both smile. They’re like chalk and cheese to listen to. Where Abby’s accent is clearly northern, James has the kind of posh-boy drawl that makes you think of private jets, yachts and horse racing.

‘What gave me away?’ Abby asks.

‘Simple. Mallorca is a holiday destination, so a young woman travelling alone stuck out among the families and couples.’

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