‘They’d be cute together.’
‘Don’t make me think about that, Mandie,’ Dylan said. ‘If I start thinking about how I’m tearing him away from his one true love, it’s going to make this harder than it already is.’
She leaned in and pressed her lips to the spot behind my ear. ‘We’ve only got a few days left,’ she said. ‘I don’t want to think. I just want to be in the moment, here, with you.’
Like I said, I don’t have a whole lot of experience with being angry. It wasn’t until the next morning, when I was in the shower, going over things in my head, that I realised that mixed in with the mess of wanting and longing and yearning and multiple orgasms, was still a solid dose of that exploding-heater anger. Not at Romeo-Dylan, or the situation, or even myself, but at Dylan, for not picking me.
… which was ridiculous. There were very good reasons why she couldn’t pick me. She would get sued, for instance. No sensible person would ever pick a massive lawsuit over the most perfect fake boyfriend in the universe, a public platform from which she could change the world, and piles of cash so large you could swim around in them.
Especially not when there was a way we could make this work. ‘I think we should stage a reconciliation scene,’ Dylan said, as we did our skincare routines together in the bathroom.
‘What do you mean?’ I asked, adjusting the headband I was wearing to keep product out of my hair.
‘They’re telling a story about us feuding,’ she said, dabbing moisturiser onto her face and then handing the bottle to me. I’d run out three days ago and now we were sharing. ‘One of those classic “oh, they were such good friends, but then they got all competitive over the same boy and it ruined it” things. Let’s take control of the narrative and do something different. Let’s stage a scene where we’re all “I’ve realised that your friendship is super important to me, so let’s put our differences aside, and no matter who wins, we’ll be friendsforever!”’
‘Won’t that undermine your big love story with man-Dylan?’ I gently rubbed the moisturiser into my skin.
‘How would it undermine it?’
I shrugged, sliding the moisturiser back into her make-up bag. ‘You know how it works. I know “not here to make friends” is a villain thing, but won’t it look like you don’t have your priorities in order if your focus isn’t one hundredper cent on him? Isn’t that why they normally separate the Juliets when it gets to final four?’
‘No, this’ll totally work, Mandie,’ Dylan said, meeting my eyes in the mirror. ‘For one, it’ll fit with all the stuff man-Dylan was doing with Cece. He told me about it that day I went down to his boat. They set up this big storyline about how friendship is important too, and people can be friends without it being all sexy.’
I raised my eyebrows.
‘Yes, I see the irony in that, babe,’ she said, grinning at my reflection and then pressing a kiss against my headband. ‘But it’ll work. Plus, you know how people are always talking online about how it’s so toxic that the women on the show are constantly tearing each other down, wouldn’t it be great if there could be some sisterhood, blah blah blah.’
This show actively hates women,Jac whispered.
‘So that would be a good news story for the show,’ Dylan said. ‘And good news for us, because it would set us up perfectly.’
She grabbed my hip and turned me to face her, leaning down to rest her forehead against mine. ‘No one would question why we were seen together after the show,’ she whispered. ‘They’d just go, “Oh look, gals being pals.” They’d have no idea. They’d never suspect.’
‘So,’ I said shakily, ‘so you want to…’
‘Be with you?’ she said. ‘Of course I do, Mandie.’
I should have been thrilled. I should have been ecstatic. I should have grinned hugely and kissed her and pounced on her and dragged her to bed and not let her out of it forhours.
‘What about man-Dylan?’ I asked.
‘He won’t mind,’ Dylan said, rubbing her nose against mine, both slippery with the moisturiser we were sharing. ‘I don’t think, anyway. We’re clear on the deal. We’ve got to stay together for three months after the finale airs. Which really just means being photographed together, honestly. And if you and I tell this “best friends” story right, no one will question it if you’re in some of those photos.’
‘You’ve got it all figured out, huh,’ I said, stroking her hair behind her ear.
‘You know I like to be in control,’ she said.
‘I don’t know,’ I said. ‘I’ve noticed that you enjoy it quite a lot when I take the wheel.’
She grinned and kissed me. ‘Then once my time with him is up,’ she said, ‘you and I can figure out our next move. Whether we want to keep being public friends, private girlfriends, come out all the way… we can make it work.’
I nodded, a lump in my throat.
‘I know it’s not ideal, Mandie,’ Dylan said, ‘but this is going to be fine. You and I are going to be fine. All we have to do is wait it out.’
It was easiest to go along with what she wanted, to follow the process she’d laid out for me, so we filmed the scene. ‘You’ve become so important to me over the course of this journey, Mandie,’ Dylan said to me as we sat on the Villa couches, camera crew all around, a boom mic dipping low above us. ‘I don’t want to lose that.’
‘I don’t want to lose you either,’ I said.
