‘Awesome!’ a guy with a shaved head called out from one of the sun loungers closest to where Sammie was standing.
‘Excited!’ shouted a woman with long, wavy blonde hair.
‘Loving the enthusiasm!’ Sammie replied.‘I’m here to explain how everything’s gonna work, so you know what to expect.During the first week you’ll be doing a different activity every day with your match, but it’ll be in a group setting.For example, tomorrow we’ll be going on our first excursion outside of the hotel.Then during the second week you’ll be responsible for organising your own couples activities, where it’ll be just the two of you.Sound good?’
‘Yeah!’ multiple guests chorused whilst my mouth clamped shut.
I was tempted to jump up and say that it sounded like a nightmare, but I resisted.A whole week of doing things just with Jake?No, thanks.
Then I remembered it wasn’t an issue.I told Sammie that I’d try and make things work, but let’s be honest: it was unlikely that I’d survive more than a day with him.
‘Great!’
As Sammie started talking about various daily ‘Love Tasks’ we’d also need to complete, like taking photos together for a ‘Memory Book’ and choosing five songs a day that described how we felt about our match to help create a playlist, I nearly threw up.
The only songs that came to mind right now when I thought about Jake were ‘You’re So Vain’ by Carly Simon, ‘Love Yourself’ by Justin Bieber and ‘Me, Myself and I’ by G-Eazy and Bebe Rexha.
Actually, maybe the playlist wouldn’t be as hard as I thought.But the photos together was a hard pass.
‘Looks like you’ll get to take photos with me after all,’ Jake whispered in my ear and I tried to ignore the double assault on my senses as his sweet, warm breath tickled my ear and neck and the scent of him flooded my nostrils.
‘Nope,’ I said flatly, as I turned to shoot him another of my glares.
This was crazy.I swear I’d dished out more dirty looks in the past twenty-four hours than I had my whole life.
I hated the way my stomach flipped as I took in the sight of him.His face was less than a metre away and I could see the stubble on his skin.It looked…
I shook my head like I was trying to shake the stupidity out of my brain.It didn’t matter how good his stubble looked.Or that his hazel eyes were a lighter shade of greeny-brown today.Or how soft his lips seemed.
Totally irrelevant.
‘We’ll see,’ he smirked and I wanted to screamit’s never going to happen.God, I hated how cocky he was.
‘So we’re going to dive straight into your first activity.Because you’re still getting to know your match, I thought we’d do some icebreakers, starting with a little roleplay!’
‘Oooh, hello!’ someone called out suggestively and the group erupted into laughter.
‘No!Notthatkind of roleplay, you filthy lot!’ Sammie cackled.‘This roleplay won’t be anything X-rated.Seeing as we’re in California and Hollywood is the home of films, ormovies, and the Love Hotel is all about romance, we’re going to focus on romantic movies.’
‘Yeah, baby!’ a woman with porcelain skin and striking long red hair cheered.
‘So,’ Sammie continued, ‘I’d like you and your partner to write down the name of one romantic movie and an iconic scene from it.We’ll put your suggestions in a hat, you’ll pick one out that another couple has suggested, then you’ll act out at least sixty seconds from that scene.’
‘What?’ I gasped a little too loudly.
‘You’ll be acting out a romantic scene,’ Sammie repeated.‘Don’t worry, we’re not expecting anyone to start snogging, sorry,making out. I know you only met yesterday.Although I’m sure we’ve all done alotmore than kiss someone we’ve known for less time than that!’ Sammie cackled again.‘Right?Or is it just me?’
‘Not just you!’ a guy with shoulder-length black hair and white skin called out.
‘Phew!Thankfully, those days are over for all of us.Now you’re here, you’re sure to find deep, meaningfulluurve!’
Jake snort-laughed and I shot him a disapproving look.
See. That was exactly why I wasn’t enthusiastic about being paired up with him.I knew that he wasn’t taking this seriously.
He’d probably been paid shitloads of money just to come here to raise the hotel’s profile.The hotel probably wanted to sell the whole ‘come to this resort and you’ll get matched with someone famous’ bollocks.
Except this wasn’t a joke for me.I could’ve done a lot with the money I spent coming here.I genuinely wanted to find someone special.
