‘No,’ they both said.
‘What the fuck do you mean, no?’ I exclaimed.
‘No,’ Romeo-Dylan said. ‘No, I can’t do this. I’m sorry, Dyl – I’m sorry, Murray – but I can’t.’
‘It’s okay,’ Juliet-Dylan said. ‘Fuck, Dylan, it’s okay; I can’t do it either.’
They threw their arms around each other. Both of them were shaking, pressed hard together as they held each other up.
‘What the fuck?’ I exclaimed again. ‘What the fuck do you mean, no?!’
It was chaos.
‘You signed a contract!’ I bellowed. ‘We agreed on a story! This fucking story!’
‘I know!’ Romeo-Dylan said. ‘I know, but – I can’t! Ican’t!’
‘And you waited until now? The last possible second?!’
‘I’m sorry! But I didn’t know at the start – I didn’t feel – I didn’t—’
He clawed at his chest, fingernails scraping over his lapel mike. One of the soundies winced, tripped, knocked over several candles, and set a rosebush on fire.
Somewhere in the tumult, as people scrambled to put out the fire, Juliet-Dylan disappeared. The part of my brain thatwasn’t just endless screaming filed that away to deal with later. ‘I’ve got to go to her,’ Romeo-Dylan was saying, eyes wide, desperate. ‘Cece. I need her. I love her.’
Through the screaming, I did the calculations.
All Suzette and Carrie’s contestants had already left. The limos had taken them away. But my contestants were still on set.
So Cece was still in the Convent.
And so was Lily.
It’d be an evenbetterstory if at the last minute both the Dylans announced they were in love with other people, she’d said.
Lily would know how to play this.
‘Wait. You’re not going alone.’
‘I have to go now!’
‘If you’re going to do this,’ I snarled, ‘you’re doing it on fucking camera, Dylan.’
So it was a convoy of golf carts heading down the hill, loaded up with crew, all going as fast as they possibly could.
My mind was racing even faster. My grand plan was shot to pieces. How the fuck was I going to make this make sense on television?
I got the most romantic declaration of love scene I could have ever hoped for, so melodramatic it was like something out of a soap opera. Romeo-Dylan burst through the Convent doors and confessed his love to Cece. ‘I love you,’ he told her, ‘I love you, I love you, I love you, Cece.’
Cece was so overwhelmed she fainted. Romeo-Dylan caught her in his arms like a princess, perfectly mirroring the first episode.
In the background, Amanda was sobbing. Lily caught my eye. Her whole face was alight.
‘Nnngh,’ Cece groaned. She was stirring.
‘Let me take her somewhere quiet,’ Romeo-Dylan said. ‘She needs a minute.’
‘Fine, fine, whatever.’ I needed a minute too.
