Standing here half-naked feels so weird – like being in your underwear at work.
I can feel Lockie’s eyes on me. Not in a gross way, just… noticing. And I don’t know whether that makes me feel flattered or panicked. Probably both – something to worry about later, though.
‘Are you going to offer me a tan?’ Lockie asks the stylist. ‘Can you spray me on an eight-pack?’
He must have overheard that when he walked out.
‘No, you’ll have to settle for the six you have,’ she tells him flirtatiously.
‘Oi, not in front of my show girlfriend,’ he pretty much flirts back.
‘Ugh, don’t flatter yourself,’ I blurt.
‘I have to flatter myself,’ Lockie jokily replies. ‘You won’t do it for me.’
‘As hot as I think this angsty banter you seem to have is, it’s not going to play, not the way we want it to,’ Dan chimes in. ‘If you’re going to sell yourselves as a couple, get paired off, but then voted out, it needs to be real but boring. They need to see you fancy each other. They want a bit of heat! Stand up…’
Dan steps between us. We both get on our feet – one of us less enthusiastic than the other.
‘I need flirty. I need sparks. Touch each other like you’re obsessed,’ he instructs us. ‘You need to seem genuine and compatible. We don’t want this to seem sus.’
‘But it is sus,’ I remind him.
‘So try extra hard,’ he patronises.
‘I’ll recite poetry, Cleo can gaze at me in slow motion…’ Lockie jokes – at least I think he’s joking.
‘That’s not going to make anyone horny, is it?’ Dan reminds us.
‘I don’t want to make anyone horny,’ I quickly insist.
‘Yes, you do,’ Dan says. ‘Him. Lockie. Make him horny.’
My face scrunches up at the thought.
‘Grab him,’ Dan suggests.
‘Where?’ I blurt.
‘His arm, you dirty cow,’ he says with a laugh.
I do as I’m told and I feel beyond awkward. Lockie tries to smoulder at me playfully, but he looks more like he’s got trapped wind. I roll my eyes and let go.
‘Eye contact,’ Dan urges, ‘look at him like you want to kiss him.’
‘Look, Dan, with all respect, I don’t think we need this,’ Lockie tells him. ‘It’ll be all right on the night.’
‘Are you sure?’ Dan replies. ‘Because this is giving me the ick. Cleo, I think it might be you, you’re too wooden, you’re not… I don’t know… I might have to tell Simon, I can’t see this working.’
‘Just… watch,’ Lockie tells him.
Lockie approaches me slowly, looking down at me, with just a hint of a smirk creeping across his lips. He places a hand on the back of my neck.
‘You’re going to be a good girl, aren’t you, Cleo?’ he says, his voice gruff and oh-so sexy. ‘You’re going to do what it takes, right? We’re going to do what it takes.’
He pulls me closer with the hand that’s on my neck, bringing my body to meet his. The skimpy swimwear means it almost entirely skin-on-skin contact. I just gaze up at him, my mouth partly open with a combination of shock and, to be honest, reflex.
‘Right?’ he checks, his face close to mine.
