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That’s exactly what I’m a little afraid of.

TWENTY-EIGHTMaya

The morning of finale-eve, Skye wakes me up with “The Final Countdown,” and for once I don’t even mind it. Especially because the moment I open my eyes she crawls into bed with me and wraps me in a bear hug, kissing my head until I’m properly awake.

Even though it’s ungodly early, it’s already time to get ready. Casual clothes first, so we can film Grayson drawing the lottery to see which lucky girl gets to spend the last day with Jordy before he picks the winner. Obviously, it’s a lottery in about the same way that I’m a bookcase. They know damn well who’s spending the day with Jordy. But we pretend, anyway, because that’s just what we do around here.

“Hey, Maya?” Skye says, settling in next to me. “Can I talk about something awkward?”

“Some of my favorite conversations are awkward ones.”

“That’s a blatant lie. Anyway. I’m just going to dive in.”

“By all means.”

She takes a long time to say the next part. I guess she’s psyching herself up. When she finally speaks, it’s uncertain. “I don’t want you to kiss Jordy anymore.”

“Done,” I say without hesitating.

She smiles hesitantly. “Wow, that was easy.”

“Skye, I don’t care about Jordy. Not like that. Only you.”

“I’m still fine with whatever happens today,” she says quickly. “If you get chosen for today’s date, I really, honestly don’t mind if you do other stuff. Hold his hand, pretend to flirt with him, whatever you need to do to win this. It won’t affect us.”

“Deal. Although I’m pretty sure I’m not getting picked today. Ijustspent the night with Jordy last week.”

“Well, if it’s me, I won’t kiss him, either.”

I trace a finger over her lips. “Good,” I murmur, before I do what Jordy can’t.

In the end, to my complete unsurprise, the winner of the last day with Jordy is Perrie.

“Finally,” she says to us as she gets up to follow Grayson to the car. “I was worried the only extended episode time I’d get would be the first-date re-creations.”

As for me, my emotions are sort of all over the place about this. I’m happy for Perrie, but also nervous that she gets the last word in before Jordy makes his final choice tomorrow. I’m frustrated that it isn’t Skye out with him, because at least if she wins the show, I know Jordy will still get what he deserves, even if it doesn’t come from me. But at the same time, a secret part of me is relieved Skye isn’t going to spend the day flirting with Jordy. Instead, she’ll be here, with me, alone in the manor.

Totally alone.

So, naturally, the very first thing we do with our alone time is grab our swimsuits and head straight to the pool.

In the water, it’s almost impossible not to grab her and kiss her. Apparently, she feels the same.

“I absolutely can’t wait to tell everyone about us,” she says, breaking the kiss finally.

“You think we’ll able to be together once we finish filming?” I ask. “Even if one of us wins?”

“I thought we said we’d revisit that once we saw the fallout?”

“No.” I smile. “I meanphysicallytogether. Like, do you think they’ll let the winner stay in the hotel with the other two?”

“I suppose it’s hard to say. Itdoesseem like it would be a weird choice to force either of us to stay in a suite with Jordy if we said no to him, right?”

“Right,” I agree. “So, I guess, either way… we won’t have to hide us anymore, tomorrow.”

Skye claps, then, all at once, the smile falls from her face and she paddles in place, pensive. “Tomorrow it’s real, huh?” she asks. “No more scheming. Just you, and me, and a healthy… real… thing.”

“You almost sound bummed out,” I say, only half joking.