Paige waved that away as though she knew better, infuriating him further. ‘If you confess your love to him, do you think he’d be able to hide his feelings for you? His choices would be to lie, badly, and make himself look like an ass, or to acknowledge what the two of you have. And when we air the audio, it will be clear that those feelings are reciprocated, so there’s no chance of you looking the fool.’
Oliver thought back to the weeks in which he and Declan had been friends, before he had suspected there was anything else between them. Declan had years of practice at pretending to be straight, but Oliver had no idea how he would react to the scenario that Paige proposed. Maybe he would cave under the pressure and acknowledge that there was something between them. A part of him – a part he was immediately ashamed of – wanted confirmation from Declan that the whole thing hadn’t been in his head.
‘People would root for you,’ Paige continued imploringly. ‘The first openly gay couple onSummer of Love. That’smajor, Oliver. The audience is already obsessed with the two of you together. And think about after, all the sponsorship opportunities – you’re looking at hundreds of thousands of pounds here.’
‘And if I don’t want to do it, if I’m not interested in the money?’ He was surprised to find it was the truth, that there was no amount of money that would make her offer appealing.
Paige frowned. ‘Like I said, I want you to be able to control this narrative, and to get everything you were hoping for. But I still have to give the audio to Darcy. It’s my job on the line.’
Oliver tried to conjure the tiniest amount of sympathy for Paige’s situation, but found he couldn’t. She had put him in an impossible situation – he was going to be outed on television, alongside Declan. He could try to mitigate the damage, denying that anything else had happened between them. Or he could profess his love to someone who wanted nothing to do with him.
‘Did you talk to Declan about this?’ he asked finally, his voice coming out hoarse.
Paige looked slightly encouraged. ‘No, he doesn’t know anything about it. I had the feeling if one of you would act, it would be you.’
His laugh was short and sardonic. ‘Right.’
She leaned forwards again, sympathetic. ‘I understand this feels like a difficult decision for you right now, since it’s so sudden. You have time to think about how you want to go about this. The audio clip airs on Sunday, either way. So you have some time to get ahead of it, to show your side of the story.’
He found himself nodding. Paige was still looking at him in that concerned way that made him want to scream, so he stood and let himself out of the room without another word.
He had three days to make a decision, but, if he was honest with himself, he already knew he would do nothing. If Oliver could be relied upon for anything, it was letting things happen to him.
Chapter 22
Oliver
One and Half Weeks until Finale
Over the next two days, he continued to avoid Declan, though he had the feeling his constant staring at the other man hadn’t gone unnoticed. Sometimes, when he looked away, he thought he could feel Declan’s eyes on him too. There was no other explanation: the show was driving him mad.
Two new contestants entered the villa, neither of them making any impression on Oliver. Shortly after their arrival, Eavie interrupted him as he lay flat on the pool deck, contemplating his life choices.
‘Hey,’ she said, as he reluctantly sat up. ‘You seem… distracted.’
‘Do I?’ he asked, watching Paige approach from across the patio.
Eavie pointedly followed his stare. ‘Yes,’ she said bluntly.
He shrugged. ‘Sure, okay.’ A cameraman was trained on them now, and he could hear the buzz of Paige muttering into her headset. He was sure that she was planning on using this footage as some sort of leverage in the final reveal.
A moment of painful silence passed before Eavie spoke again. ‘Elliot asked me on a date.’
‘Who?’
Eavie looked as close to rolling her eyes as Oliver had ever seen her. ‘Elliot? He came in earlier today? You two had a wholeconversation about whether you can find decent fish and chips in London?’
‘Oh,’ Oliver said vacantly. From his fuzzy memory of the afternoon, Elliot had seemed nice enough. ‘Great.’
‘Great?’ she repeated, frowning. ‘That’s all you have to say?’
Oliver blinked at her and she came slightly more into focus. ‘Er… what?’
‘You’ve been ignoring me fordays, Oliver. I liked you, I thought we had genuine potential, and you’ve disappeared on me. Do you understand how frustrating that is?’ Her cheeks were red, but Oliver couldn’t tell if it was from anger or the heat.
‘No…?’ he tried.
‘I know you haven’t been toying with me for fun. I mean, you seem miserable and I think I understand why. But ithurtsthat you’ve been stringing me along with no intention to ever commit.’
