Page 8

Sienna was triumphant. Point one to her. Vindication! But she couldn’t rest easy. There were plenty more lovelorn girls to win points from. Help, she corrected herself. You’re helping.

The next question from the aisle mic came from a girl, Gerry, who had bright purple snakebites and a trembling hand. She asked whether she should confess her romantic feelings to her best friend of five years.

That was a no-brainer for Sienna. She advised a careful, honest, low-pressure conversation to preserve the foundational relationship. ‘But be warned, once the genie is out of the bottle, it will change things. And not necessarily in the way you hope. Tread carefully.’

‘Or,’ Robin interjected, leaning into her mic with a grin, ‘you grab her by the collar and kiss her before the sun goes down today. Life is too short to be someone’s best friend when you want to be their world.’

The room erupted. It was no surprise when Robin took the vote in an absolute landslide moments later. Sienna realised this might not be the walk she’d imagined.

The panel quickly devolved into a rapid-fire sparring match. Moving in together, merging bank accounts, navigating exes who were still inexplicably in the picture—the crowd had plenty of juicy problems to keep the fight going. For every logical boundary Sienna laid out, Robin countered with an act of radical faith, leaving Lauren’s running tally deadlocked as they hit the final question of the afternoon.

A young woman with a curly mullet stepped up to the mic, her voice echoing through the house speakers. ‘Hi, my name is Polly. My ex and I broke up six months ago because she kept texting other girls. She texted me recently saying she’s changed and she wants me back. My heart wants to give her a second chance. But my head says I’m just going back to what’s familiar. What should I do?’

Sienna leaned toward her mic first, her tone soft but firm. ‘You don’t go back to a burning house just because you miss the warmth. People rarely change their habits in six months. If someone broke your trust, going back isn’t forgiveness. It’s nostalgia.’

‘That is so bleak, Sienna,’ Robin said, turning in her chair to face her directly. ‘People make mistakes. They grow, they learn, they realise what they lost. If you lock the door the second someone stumbles, you never give them the chance to show you they’ve changed.’

That was it. That piece of terrible advice from Robin was where it all went wrong.

Maybe Sienna was tired. Maybe Robin had simply pissed her off one too many times. Maybe it was something else Sienna didn’t want to think about. But Sienna’s cool head stopped prevailing.

‘Robin, what the hell are you talking about?!’ Sienna shot back, her voice rising above its usual calm cadence. ‘You tell people to throw themselves into the fire over and over again because you think pain is proof of passion! But burns hurt. And sometimes, they don’t ever really heal.’

‘And some people treat a simple spark like a four-alarm fire just so they have an excuse to keep everyone at arm’s length!’ Robin said loudly. She wasn’t grinning anymore.

‘If I’m overly cautious, Croft, it’s because I’m protecting this poor girl from people like you!’ Sienna countered, her dark eyes flashing as she abandoned politeness entirely. ‘People who think breaking someone’s heart is just an acceptable cost of “living life to the full”!’

Wait, where the fuck did that come from?

‘I’m dangerous?’ Robin barked back. ‘Because I think it’s becoming clear that you sit behind your rules and your logic because you, as a person, are terrified of getting hurt! And you want everyone to be as safe a-a-and miserable as you are!’

The hall went completely silent. The audience wasn’t cheering anymore; they were holding their breath. Not that Sienna noticed. As far as she was concerned, the only person who existed was Robin Croft.

‘And you chase chaos because you’re terrified of the quiet,’ Sienna raged back. ‘I know your type. You don’t want love. You want an audience for your bullshit!’

Robin stared at her, lips slightly parted, her blue eyes wide as if Sienna had just slapped her across the face.

Before either of them could say another word, Lauren Gable cleared her throat loudly into her mic. ‘And that is all the time we have for today, so we’ll just skip the vote on that one. Give it up for Robin Croft and Sienna Vance! Oh, and best of luck with that, Polly.’

Polly looked confused. ‘Yeah, um, thanks, I guess.’

The crowd broke into a delayed, slightly uncertain round of applause. But neither Robin nor Sienna looked at the audience. They stayed locked in each other’s gaze until the stage lights finally dimmed.

The dark broke Sienna’s madness. She stood quickly, keeping her eyes on the floor, her heart hammering so loud that the stagehand who unclipped her headset mic could have heard it.

She walked back through the curtain quickly, trying to outrun Robin, dazed and horrified. What the hell had she just done?

Eight

A few hours after the panel, the adrenaline of the public ‘debate’ had completely burned off, leaving Robin Croft feeling utterly sick to her stomach as she waited in Gemma’s office.

Sienna entered and sat down on the other end of the couch, looking equally tense, her posture as rigid as a steel beam. Her knuckles were white as she gripped the edge of the couch, her dark eyes fixed intently on her polished shoes.

Robin was spiralling. She’d completely lost her temper in public, dropping her usual light-hearted charm to hurl low, deeply personal insults at Sienna Vance in front of a lot of people. Calling Sienna scared and miserable wasn’t witty banter; it was plain mean.

They hadn’t exchanged a word since. But she had to say something to her now. They had both been summoned by the boss. They needed to get their stories straight.

Robin leaned over, dropping her voice to a low whisper. ‘Look, Vance... if she’s brought us here together, do you think... Are we getting fired?’