She stretched her arms over her head. I could see the shadow of a bruise on her collarbone, where I’d sunk my teeth into her skin.
‘So this was all for Instagram?’ Cece asked her. She was sitting behind Lily, pulling leaves and bobby pins out of her hair.
‘Of course it was.’
If only she hadn’t elaborated.
‘Not just Instagram, obviously. I’ve got a whole five-year plan worked out. It all starts here with becoming an iconic TV villain. That’s going to let me grow my brand as a hard-as-nails bitch. Then I’ll go onJuliet on the Beach,have a redemption romance, get tragically dumped, gain more followers and sponsors, doWherefore Art Thou Romeo?, find my true love, stay with him until the revenue starts to falland then have another tragic break-up so the whole cycle starts again.’
What did you want her to say?I demanded of myself.‘Oh, my plan is to be a producer again’? Did you really think one night with you would change everything for her?
God, I wished the sex had made me stupid. Hell, I wished it had made me an amnesiac, so I could forget all the things that were making this pit in my belly grow; so I could pretend it was just all the coffee I was drinking on an empty stomach now that Lily wasn’t in the Villa to force-feed me.
But if Lily Fireball had been some other contestant – just Fucking Greg’s spicy meatball, not the love of my life – and she’d come to me for advice on how she could leverage her newfound fame, this was exactly the five-year plan I would lay out for her. I’d bring her into the war room, scribble out a flowchart on the whiteboard, laying out the narrative steps between points A and B and C.
That doesn’t mean this actuallyisher plan,I told myself.
She didn’t lie, though.
On the screen, Cece was crying. ‘I’m so glad I’m not a feelings person,’ Lily told her. ‘Love looks like an absolute fucking nightmare.’
That was bravado. I knew she loved me. After all, why would the thoughtThank god it wasn’t Murray, thank god I didn’t lose Murray, I couldn’t survive losing Murrayhave crossed her mind otherwise?
The thought that had made her cut me out for a full year. That had made her give up the career and the life that she loved.
I could ignore it as much as I wanted. I could listen to her when she told me that she was an adult and she was incontrol and she knew exactly what she was doing. I didn’t doubt that she was, that she did. I trusted her.
But the woman I loved knew how to destroy someone – and no matter how much I didn’t want it to be true, she was doing it to herself.
23LilyThree years ago
‘What did you just say?!’
‘I said this is a terrible idea,’ I replied. ‘Casting women in pairs – making them compete with their friends and their cousins and their sisters for the same man – it’s an awful idea.’
‘Lily’s right,’ Murray said. ‘This is taking the worst, most misogynistic elements of the show, and turning them up to eleven.’
‘Think of our most iconic moments, the ones that have really captured the cultural imagination,’ I said. ‘Like the episode Denton got booted in Season Five, that image of all the women arm-in-arm. This is the opposite of that. This is aggressively and deliberately turning our contestants against the women who are closest to them.’
The vein in Tony’s forehead bulged. ‘I swear to god, woman, if I ever hear you mention Denton again, you’re fired. Am I clear?’
‘I’m not trying to put one over on you here, Tony. I’m thinking about what’s best for the show. And—’
‘Am I clear?!’
I held my hands up and said nothing.
I fell into step beside Murray as we left the meeting. He was brooding, the muscle above his eyebrow jumping.
I opened my mouth to speak, but he got in first. ‘Come around to my place tonight. We’ll order in. We’ve got work to do, and it’s not the kind of shit we can do at the bar.’
‘It’s a date,’ I replied. ‘It’s going to take a hell of a lot of work to save Season Eight.’
‘We’re not going to save it.’
Murray looked around, checking there was no one listening, before bending his head towards mine. ‘We’re going to tank it.’
It took me a few moments to put together what he meant. ‘You want to gun for Tony?’
