Page 151 of Say Yes to the Nemesis
“That’s it?” JacqLyn presses. “Come on, give us something. Did you guys connect? Was it romantic? Did you…”
“Where’s Wren?” Divya interrupts, looking around like she just noticed the obvious absence.
“Upstairs, I think,” I say with a shrug. “Probably unpacking.”
But that’s not why she’s avoiding this room. She’s avoiding me, just like she has been since our fight. Since I fucked everything up by hesitating when she asked what she meant to me.
The truth is, she means everything. But I couldn’t say that. Couldn’t hand her that kind of power over me when she was already looking for reasons to run.
“So things went well?” Heidi asks. There’s something calculating in her voice. Like she’s trying to figure out if she should be worried.
“We had a good time,” I say. It’s not technically a lie. We did have a good time. Right up until we didn’t.
“You don’t look like someone who just had a good time,” Nikki observes. She’s always been too perceptive for her own good.
I laugh, but it sounds hollow even to my own ears. “Sorry, I don’t know what you want me to say. We hung out, we talked, we enjoyed the villa. End of story.”
“Bullshit,” JacqLyn says bluntly. “You left as a maybe-couple and you both came back acting like strangers. That’s not nothing.”
“Both?”
“Wren came through here like a zombie twenty minutes ago. Didn’t say a word to anyone. You look like someone killed your dog.”
Great. So much for keeping our drama private. If the contestants can see it, the producers definitely can, too. Which means this is about to become everyone’s business whether we want it to be or not.
“Maybe she’s just tired,” I suggest.
“Right,” Divya says with a smirk. “Tired from all that romantic connecting you guys were doing.”
I don’t respond. Can’t respond without saying something I’ll regret. So I just sit there, enduring their speculation and pointed looks, wishing I could disappear.
A PA appears in the doorway, clipboard in hand. “Ryan? Elena wants to see you in the production office.”
Fuck. I knew this was coming.
“Now?” I ask, though I already know the answer.
“Now.”
I follow the PA down the hallway, my chest tight with dread. Elena’s office is exactly what you’d expect from a reality TV producer. Awards on the walls, photos with various celebrities,and a desk covered in papers that probably detail every embarrassing moment of every contestant’s life.
Elena looks up when I walk in, her dark eyes sharp and assessing. She’s wearing another one of those power suits that make her look like she could eat you alive and not even feel guilty about it.
“Sit,” she says, gesturing to the chair across from her desk.
I sit, keeping my expression neutral. Whatever game she’s playing, I’m not going to make it easy for her.
“So,” she begins, leaning back in her chair. “How was your romantic getaway?”
“Fine.”
“Fine?” She arches one perfectly sculpted eyebrow. “Ryan, darling, I’ve been doing this for fifteen years. I can spot relationship drama from a mile away. You and Wren are practically radiating it.”
I shrug. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t you?” She leans forward, resting her elbows on the desk. “Because from where I’m sitting, it looks like you two had some kind of falling out. Big enough to kill whatever spark you had going.”
“Maybe there wasn’t as much of a spark as you thought.”
