For those glorious few weeks on set, I’d fooled myself into thinking we could fit our hard, jagged edges together. That we could click into place like puzzle pieces, find our old dynamic again somehow, even if it didn’t look quite the same, but… well. Here we were.
Or rather, here I was, on this side of the camera; and there she was, on that one.
She was only a few steps away. Steps I could not make.
I still loved her so fucking much.
‘Ten seconds until we’re back,’ came through my earpiece.
‘Copy that.’
It wasn’t something I really needed to acknowledge, but this was my last ever segment as the working showrunner. It shouldn’t pass without recognition.
‘It was the surprise announcement that took the nation by storm,’ Z said, looking down the barrel of the camera.‘When we first met her, we thought she was a villain, but she soon revealed she was so much more than that. She’s the diva that stole all our hearts, and very soon, she’ll be walking into the Villa as the Juliet on her very own season ofWherefore Art Thou Romeo?– please give your firiest warm welcome to Lily Fireball!’
The cheer from the audience was so loud I almost laughed. They might love her almost as much as I did.
‘Hello, Z,’ Lily said, arranging her long skirts elegantly around her on the chair opposite his. ‘It’s been a while.’
‘And yet it only feels like five minutes.’
‘Really? It’s felt like ages to me.’
Classic Lily, getting someone off balance right at the beginning of a conversation.
But Z was a pro, and he recovered quickly. ‘I’m sure it’s been a massive change for you, this new level of fame and recognition. Tell us what’s that been like.’
‘Well, I was prepared,’ Lily said. ‘After so many years working behind the scenes on the Romeo and Juliet shows, I knew what I was getting myself into.’
My heart flipped over in my chest.
So, apparently, had Z’s. The initial jolt had done nothing, but now he was staring at Lily in shock.
‘I know you usually ask the questions, but how about I ask one?’ Lily said pleasantly. ‘You and I have known each other for – what, nearly a decade, Z? How didyoufeel, when I walked onto the set pretending to be twenty-five and calling myself Lily Fireball?’
There was a burst of chatter in my earpiece. I ripped it out.
‘I – I, uh, was definitely surprised,’ Z said.
‘How about I introduce myself?’ Lily said, tone completely even and calm.
Z just nodded. His finger crept up to his earpiece.
I put mine back in. ‘Don’t anyone dare interrupt this,’ I growled, then ripped it out again.
‘My name is Lily Ong,’ Lily said. ‘I turn thirty-six next week, and I’ve been working in reality TV for almost fourteen years.’
Shocked murmurs and gasps came from the audience.
‘This has been a season of twists and turns,’ Z said. ‘I suppose we should have expected one last twist.’
He touched his earpiece again – a rookie mistake from him, I noted in the one part of my brain still functioning, he was normally much too professional to alert the audience to its presence. ‘We all know the scandals that have arisen this season around rigging,’ he said. ‘It’s not surprising that the show had an inside woman. But you got away with it, Lily! Why are you coming clean now?’
‘I wasn’t an inside woman.’
‘So a producer ended up on a rigged season ofMarry Me, Julietby accident?’
‘Oh, no. It definitely wasn’t an accident. And the networkthoughtthey had an inside woman. But if we’re being honest, I was more of a saboteur.’
