Page 38 of Alice Chen's Reality Check

He pushes his hair back and then snaps his fingers. “It was a seduction test, wasn’t it? I thought she was a little too handsy with the oil.”

“Bingo.” I cross my arms over my chest and attempt to lean back oh-so-casually, but the damned Louboutins are an inch higher than my highest heels, and I falter. I feel myself starting to pitch backward, but Daniel catches me, pulling me in close as he steadies me.

I’m so close to him that I can feel the heat coming off of his bare chest and even catch the scent of the coconut oil his stylist used on his abs. “Seriously, are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” I say, and he lets go. “New shoes.” I search for something else to say, something to cover for the fact that I nearly face-planted in front of him. My gaze falls on the tattoo on his bicep. “That’s new.”

“Oh, yeah. Got that in college.”

“What does it mean?” I ask. The dashes are too specific to be purely for aesthetic reasons.

Daniel’s mouth quirks up at the corners. “You can’t figure it out?”

I frown at him. “If you’re saying it’s a puzzle, then I’m certain I can.”

“I look forward to hearing your answer,” he says. Oh, it’s on.

I lift his arm, getting a proper look at it. He watches me with amusement as I manhandle him.

“Do you need a piece of paper? Shouldn’t you be taking notes?”

“I have a very good memory,” I snap. His tattoo is made up of four symbols, equally spaced out. Each symbol consists of a unique set of three black horizontal dashes, some with breaks in them and some without.

“Daniel, can you explain what your tattoos mean?” a familiar voice cuts in.

I whip around to see Leah, Lex, and a cameraperson. How did I not notice them standing just ten feet away, capturing this entire conversation?

Oh, right, shirtless Daniel. That’s why.

From the look on Daniel’s face, he’s caught off guard, too. I drop his arm and put some distance between us.

“What? No, keep going!” Leah looks around, her gaze calculating. “Actually, let’s get the two of you into a confession room to really hash this out.” Leah grabs the two of us, dragging us away from the “wardrobe department” and down the stairs.

Confession spots have been set up strategically around the beach, in the gardens, and in the house, so one is never far away if a producer wants to grab you and push you into baring your soul.

The closest one to us happens to be a nook set off of a hallway, in a floral alcove with an oversized, rattan egg chair planted among jacarandas bursting with purple flowers. The chair’s meant for one and a half people, but that doesn’t stop Leah from maneuvering both ofus into the cozy space. It reminds me of that night so many years ago during regionals, when the two of us were lying close but not too close.

Leah claps her hands together. “I feel like I’ve hit the jackpot. It’s not every day that two cast members have history. You know, Alice, you really come alive when you’re talking to Daniel.”

“Should I take that as a good thing?” Daniel asks, grinning.

“Absolutely not,” I shoot back.

“Love this, keep up this energy.” Leah flips to a new page in her notebook. “From what I understand, the two of you are high school friends—”

“Rivals,” I correct. “We werenotfriends.”

“—and you’ve been reunited on this show after nearly a decade apart. What do you have to say to each other?”

“I don’t have anything to say to him,” I tell her. I know I have to stay in Leah’s good graces if I want to do well on this show, but something about this line of questioning feels slimy. There’s a narrative she’s trying to craft, and I’m not sure what it is yet.

“I’ve got all day, darling.” Leah jots something down. “Okay, let’s start with this. How do you two know each other? I want to hear the whole story. And I’m going to be honest with you. If you don’t give me something, we’ll make something up.”

“Well,” Daniel says, glancing at me. “We knew each other in high school, but we went to different schools.”

“Daniel, of course, went to a very fancy, very expensive private school known as Charles Exeter Preparatory,” I add.

“And Alice went to Eastridge High, a local public school. They came in last place every year during Quiz Bowl—”

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