“Well, just let me know if you need any more sisterly advice.” I patted him on the back. “Now let’s get to cooking. I’m starving.”
Blaine smiled. “If you need some brotherly advice, let me know.”
“That’s it; cut,” Miles called out.
Cut? We weren’t on a movie set.
“I think we’ve seen enough here,” he added, exasperated.
I couldn’t help but smile. Maybe if I was nice enough, they would kick me off the show entirely.
A girl could dream.
Chapter XXV
Roman
Oh,Pluto.Atthispoint, I didn’t care if I ended up on the god of the underworld’s bad side.
I pinched the bridge of my nose, surrounded by empty coffee cups, protein-bar wrappers, and the slow death of my patience. I was in the control room, watching footage of yet another one of Demi’s disastrous dates.
She wasn’t even trying. She was acting as if she were hosting a dating podcast. Who did she think she was? Jay Shetty? None of these yahoos were the guy for her. That much was obvious. But could she at least pretend?
Instead, she was playing everyone’s best friend. Worse—she was turning them into saints of the let’s-be-honest-with-each-other sentimental sap variety. This season wasn’t reality TV. It was Mayberry with microphones.
If that wasn’t bad enough, her cheerleader-best friend energy was contagious. It was seeping into everyone. Now every couple’s date was heartwarming. Touching. Practically sponsored by Hallmark. (But not even they would want to pick up this season, which was going to be rated B for Boring.) No one wanted to step on toes. No one wantedto be a drama queen or a douchebag. At this rate, it wouldn’t surprise me if someone broke into “Kumbaya” mid-sunset walk.
Did I realize what a hypocrite I was being? Absolutely. Demi’s words kept echoing in my head—about me cheapening love, turning it into a spectacle. She wasn’t wrong. It’s not that I didn’t want genuine matches. I did. It mattered to me. Deeply. But I also needed people to watch the show. My crew depended on it. Their paychecks. Their futures.
And no one was going to tune into this snoozefest.
I watched as Blaine reached for Demi’s hand. My eye twitched. I should’ve been grateful for the romantic gesture. But I didn’t want him to touch her. Just like I hadn’t wanted any of the others to. And they all had tried, save Todd. Each time, it had felt like a sucker punch. Maybe because I knew what it felt like to hold her hand. Maybe because I couldn’t stop thinking about the moment I could’ve kissed her—and didn’t.
Part of me, and my entire Cupid side, regretted that choice.
But it was against the rules. And Demi was on a deadline. She was supposed to find true love. A soulmate.
And I wasn’t sure I was anyone’s soulmate.
Least of all hers.
Almost instantly, his hand popped off hers. He backed away, blinking like he’d just come out of a trance. Almost as if he’d been . . . No, it couldn’t be. Could it?
It was like she’d given him the opposite of a love pulse. Could she do that? I paused, rewinding the footage in my mind. It made me realize she’d done something similar to every guy. Each time they touched her, they backed off.And then they started talking. Spilling their guts. Confessing things they hadn’t told anyone. Like she was their best friend.
I’d seen enough. I pushed back my chair and stood. Demi needed to be confronted about this. I didn’t care that it was late at night. We had a deal. One I, admittedly, wasn’t currently living up to. But every time I thought about how to find more men for Demi to be around, something in me seized up. It wasn’t like me. Finding love for others was my thing, my gift. Something I had felt confident in until now.
But true love was different.
Demi was different.
And I wanted to know her better, as selfish as that was. Even if she was sabotaging my show.
“I’m gonna take fifteen,” I said to Felix, a junior editor.
He gave me a thumbs-up.
I slipped out of the control room and guiltily looked around, making sure no one saw me. The last thing I needed was to be caught sneaking over to Demi’s cabin. Although I didn’t think anyone on the crew would blame me for going over there to talk her into at least pretending she was trying to find love on our show. And to quit turning everyone into the best versions of themselves. That didn’t sound right, but there was a method to the process, and she was obliterating it.
