“The entire gauze pad is bloodied,” I say, hands on hips.
“I’ll be fine,” Maria claims, yet again.
“Last time you said that, you’d been walking around on a fractured foot for a month and ended up in the surgery room,” Bill says.
“Okay, so it hurts a little,” Maria finally admits.
Bill rolls his eyes. “That’s what I thought.”
“Men—they always think they are right.” Maria shakes her head teasingly at me.
I smile. Even in an argument, they are one of the sweetest couples I know.
“Let’s go get you some medicine, or at least fresh gauze,” Bill says, stabilizing Maria with an arm under hers.
“Bossy. Bossy.” Maria winks in my direction.
I point toward the back of the hangar. “I believe I saw the medical team near the tech table.”
“Missy,” Shannon’s firm voice calls from behind me, and I turn to face her. “We are on in two minutes. I need you in your seat.”
Turning back to Bill and Maria, I scrunch my face in concern for my friend.
“I’ve got her. You go,” Bill says.
Still worried, I watch as Bill walks his limping sweetheart to one of the members of the medical team who helped bandage my foot after my nighttime tumble in the jungle. Knowing Maria is in good hands, I walk to the interview set.
A few minutes later, I sit in an unblemished teal seat next to Colton, who, just like in the opening interviews, taps his thumb and forefinger together nervously, a movement I haven’t seen him do since the early days on the island. I wonder what’s changed to cause his sudden burst of nerves, but with the cameras on us, I know that I’ll have to save that question for another time. A time when we’re not being broadcast to millions of viewers, and when Niall, in his now-perfectly-pressed pilot’s shirt, isn’t addressing the cameras right in front of us, welcoming everyone to the final episode—the winners’ interview.
The live episode starts with a video recap of the final challenge, but unlike the previous recaps at the Black Box Meetings on Sabotage Island, the footage is set to epic instrumental music, making Colton and me look like gladiators in the heat of battle. I nearly laugh at how they manage to take a shot of me with mud on my face and frizzing hair and make it look like I’m an Amazon warrior princess.
Once the recap ends, Niall asks us a slew of questions, ranging anywhere from our feelings on winning to the snake under the bunk bed last night to the way we’d managed to steal back our pocketknife and Team Fuchsia’s rope while we were in the nets. But all this time, I sense Niall is building up to a very specific question.
“Colton, now, it was evident in your earlier challenges and in the votes that you and Missy got off to a rocky start on yourSunsets and Sabotagejourney.”
Colton straightens and adjusts a glittering cuff link that matches the crystals on my dress. He flashes the camera a signature Downing smile: pleasant, charming, controlled. “You’d be right. There are always a few growing pains when working with a new teammate, but in the end, we figured things out.”
“Teammate?” Niall lifts a single brow. “Is that all you were?”
There it is—the question about our relationship I know Niall’s been leading up to.
“I have more than a few minutes of footage that would suggest that you two have developed something beyond ‘teammates,’” Niall says.
I cross my ankles and do my best to look moderately interested, while on the inside, I’m bursting to know just what Colton will say. How much of his feelings will he confess? I lean closer to the armrests separating our seats, eager to hear the words I know will come from his lips. After all, we haven’t exactly been subtle about our feelings lately. I have the sudden urge to shift my hand ever so slightly and link my fingers with his in a show of support, to let him know that I feel what he’s feeling.
Throwing caution to the wind, I slide my hand toward him, but like repelling magnets, he slides his hand away from mine before I get a chance to make contact. He folds his hands neatly in his lap.
A bright fire heats my cheeks.
Colton chuckles at Niall before briefly glancing in my direction. “Do you think we should tell them?”
“Tell them?” I say, my voice rising an octave.
Colton must take this as a yes because he waits no longer. “There are many forms of sabotage, some of which take place as physical gameplay—stealing, cheating…”
Niall laughs as if recalling all the moments players stole or cut corners during the game.
“But Missy and I chose to go a different route,” Colton says. “One that could endear us to the American people and help us get further in the game.”
