‘You don’t blame her for walking out on your relationship?’ Paige asked, confused.
He’d never been in the situation of explaining his break-up to someone who didn’t know him and Sophie already. It was like trying to summarise a novel in a few words.
He finally met Paige’s eye and softened at her sympathetic expression. ‘How can I blame her? I didn’t realise how bad things were by the end, for her to feel like she had to do something like that. It was my fault.’ He said it without thinking, the instinct to defend Sophie automatic.
Paige looked sceptical. ‘She could have talked to you about it.’
‘Could she have?’ He fiddled with his glasses, pushing them higher on his nose. ‘We never disagreed about anything, we didn’t argue. I don’t think she knew how to break up with me without moving across the world, without making our relationship unfixable.’
‘So you think it’s your fault, because you would have fought for your relationship?’ Paige asked slowly.
The question frustrated him, but he didn’t know if he was angry at Paige for trying to understand, or with Sophie for doing something so difficult to explain.
‘No, it’s my fault because I didn’t see it coming.’ With the distance between them now, Oliver could recognise that people in perfect relationships didn’t break up suddenly and without explanation.
Paige raised her eyebrows. ‘But she moved continents with no warning – that’s on her. To go from an eight-year relationship to nothing, I can’t even imagine.’
‘Except it’s not nothing. We talk every day,’ Oliver said, feeling his irritation return, this time in the form of self-loathing. ‘Or we did, until I came here. She broke up with me, and it’s like we pretended it never happened. But it did happen, she did leave.’
It was like something had finally clicked, something that had evaded him for months. Sophie had left him. All the phone conversations in the world couldn’t change the fact that she hadwalked out. Even if he moved to New York, even if they got back together, his life would always be altered by her decision. It wasn’t something he could simply undo.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said after a moment. ‘It’s not something I’ve talked about. It’s hard to put into words.’
‘What about your mates?’ Paige asked. ‘Haven’t you talked to them about it?’
‘They were her mates first,’ he explained. It had irrationally bothered him when their friends had immediately sided with him in the break-up, leaving him as the one defending Sophie. ‘It feels wrong to talk about it with them. I can deal with it on my own.’
‘Well, it gives you a good story,’ Paige said gently. ‘The scene with Declan already aired. There are thousands of people watching this show who have been dumped, and they want to see you find the love of your life.’
‘Yeah,’ Oliver said. He straightened, conscious of how much he had revealed to Paige, but the camera to her left stood idly. At the moment, she didn’t look like his producer, she looked like a friend. He continued, jokingly: ‘So, I’ve already done my piece, then. Why don’t you pick on someone else for a change? I’m sure if you put your mind to it, you could make Declan talk abouthisshit.’
Her face shifted back, almost imperceptibly, to the more calculating one he was used to. ‘You know, that’s not a bad idea. When he talked about the fight on the beach, that was a good moment we didn’t catch on camera.’
He was alarmed by how quickly she had turned his joke into something serious. ‘That’s not exactly entertaining drama,’ he said carefully.
Paige was unfazed. ‘It’s good for him, too, to be more vulnerable. People will get tired of his tough jock persona. Heneeds another angle if he wants to keep his ratings up, and you could help him.’
Oliver knew Declan had shared that story off camera for a reason, but it would be impossible to avoid playing into Paige’s hand without giving up the game entirely. He needed the money, needed to win, more than he needed to protect Declan’s feelings.
‘What are you asking me to do?’
She shrugged. ‘Try to find a good moment to ask him about the fight.’
‘Sure, fine.’
Her face instantly looked softer. ‘Thanks, Oliver, that’d be brill.’
‘The fact remains that I could be leaving the villa any day now, and you’ll lose your puppet,’ he said lightly.
‘Well, there will be another elimination tomorrow,’ she said, and Oliver felt a pang of anxiety. She leaned in conspiratorially. ‘But who knows, there may be someone in the villa who surprises you.’
He smiled tightly. ‘Stranger things have certainly happened.’
Sure enough, Oliver and Declan were interrupted in the kitchen later that day by Imogen. Paige had all but told him to go for her, but his stomach dropped at the thought of having to share his afternoon with anyone other than Declan.
‘Hello, you two,’ she called, waving. ‘And how’s the villa’s best-looking duo?’
‘Just enjoying paradise,’ Declan said drolly.
