Page 75 of House of Deceit

“Are you okay?” I ask.

Eyes filling with tears, she simply nods.

“Did I ever tell you about the time I made Lorelei mad and she put laxatives in my water?” I blurt out, needing to stop the tears and hear her laugh.

She gives me a watery laugh. “No, but now you have to.”

With my arm around her shoulders, I lead her over to her chair before taking mine. She tucks her legs under her and settles in.

“When I was sixteen, my dad had to get a colonoscopy and he had some leftover laxatives from the prep. At this point, I had my driver’s license and our parents let us have one of their older cars so I could drive us to and from school and our various activities.

“One thing you have to understand about Lorelei is she always loved messing with me. For fun, she decided to spread a rumor around the school I was afraid of the dark. She’d make an amazing deceiver,” I add as an aside.

“I’m sure that went over well,” she jokes, getting into the story.

“So well,” I say, rolling my eyes. “By the end of the day, it had morphed into me sleeping with a glow in the dark clock for toddlers.”

“Courtney has one of those for my nephew!” she says, laughing.

A chuckle comes out. I’ll sacrifice my dignity for her happiness.

“Anyway, by the end of the day, I was pretty tired of being mocked and was in a deep rage. When the last bell rang, I left the school without her. She thought I was just playing a prank on her and moved the car. Once she figured it out, the buses had already left and she walked home, my parents thinking I dropped her off at a friend’s.

“About a week later, she put some laxatives in my drink. It was a very humbling experience,” I say, finishing my story.

“I think I would like your sister,” she says, the sadness gone from her face.

“She’s already told me she wants to meet you. She really enjoys watching you on the show, thinks you seem cool.”

“Whenever I get kicked out of the mansion, maybe she should have a girl’s weekend with me and Courtney. Anyone who doses you with laxatives is a good person in my book.”

“Thanks for that,” I say, chuckling. “Do you want to talk about the change in the rules?”

“It hurts more to vote people out ourselves,” she admits.

“It’s not your fault Molly went home,” I reassure her.

“I know, but I still couldn’t save her either. Do I need to start making alliances with people now? It’s not really something we focused on before, but now things are changing and maybe we should switch up our plan.”

I think back to other seasons when a few times the contestants would vote someone out midweek. Those years were the ones with the most drama, as people would try to secure votes but be stabbed in the back.

“That’s definitely something we might want to address on a weekly basis based on who’s on the block. You do already have a partner in Parker and Keith, so that’s good.

“But we want to continue with the angle we’ve gone with as far as the audience is concerned. Brands will start reaching out to production about contacting their favorites soon, so we don’t want to suddenly turn you into another person.”

“We are really close to the end, aren’t we?” she asks.

Sadness starts to take over at the thought of only having a few more weeks with Charlie and I panic.

“Will you go on a date with me?” I ask, wanting more time with this beautiful woman and heeding Lorelei’s advice to show her I care.

She blinks at me for a moment, and I wonder if I fucked it up. It seemed like we were getting closer, considering she was sitting on my lap and orgasmed from my touch, but maybe I misread the situation.

“Like, when I leave the mansion?”

“No, tomorrow.”

“Where?” she asks, and rightfully so.

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