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“Bit of both.”

I squeeze his hands back. “I’m not jealous of Skye,” I say. “But Skye and I did get off to a bad start because of you.”

Jordy prickles and pulls his hands free. “Maya, you can’t still be blaming your outburst on me.”

“I’m not blaming anything on you, I promise. But I do have a serious question. Please, just one? It’s been driving me crazy for weeks. I think I need to know the answer before… anything else.”

Jordy nods warily. “Uh, sure, go on, then.”

“How come you told me Skye knew about us?” I ask.

He glances at the cameras, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it quick. “I didn’t.”

“Jordy! Youdefinitelydid.”

He looks at the cameras again, wary. Then, the tension melts off his face. I wonder if he’s remembering the contract clause. It doesn’t matter what I make him say on camera. None of it’s going to end up on television.

“No. You asked if Skye knew aboutyou,and I said yes.”He gives me a wicked smile. “She did know about you. Your existence, anyway. You were in my old profile pictures.”

“That is not what I meant, and you know it.”

“Then maybe you”—he gently pokes me in the center of my chest—“need to pick your words more carefully in the future.”

“I accused her of dating you when she knew we were still together,” I say testily. I’m choosing my words carefullythistime. “It took us two days to figure it out.Shethought you two were broken up, andIthought she knew we weren’t. It wasveryconfusing.” I break into a smile to put him at ease, and he returns it.

“Itsoundsconfusing,” he agrees. “Sorry about that.”

“But we’re friends now,” I say.

“I’m glad to hear you figured things out. I thought you two might hit it off, actually. It was my idea to have you bunk together.”

I almost choke on my glass of table water. “Wasit? Thank you. That’s really thoughtful.”

The fucking prick.

At that moment, the waiters bring our food over, and it’s time to get some classy shots of us eating our classy meal and pretending to be in love.

Saved by the bell.

After we finish acting smitten with each other over pork chops and steamed broccoli, it’s time for another outfit change, this time into our swimsuits so we can be plonked in one of the hot tubs. It’s warm, thank Christ, but since we can’t keep our mic-packs on in the water, they have to keep the bubbles off so the boom mics can eavesdrop on our conversation.

The producers are all standing in a row in front of the spa, staring and waiting for us to do something interesting.

“Well, this is awkward,” I say to Jordy under my breath.

Gwendolyn is gesturing at Jordy. It’s nonsense to me, but obviously they have some kind of sign language figured out, because he leans in to whisper in my ear. “If we make out,” he says, “they’ll leave us alone soon. They just want some good footage.”

A tingle of horror goes down my spine. “You sound pretty confident about that. Not your first rodeo?”

“Not your business.” His eyes glint.

Fine.Fine.I knew this moment would come sooner or later, and here we are.

Here he is.

Leaning in.

Leaning in to kiss me.