Page 24 of Going Overboard

‘I’m so glad you find me so amusing,’ I say sarcastically.

‘I’m not laughing at you,’ Brody insists. ‘I’m in awe of you, if anything, because this is a stroke of genius.’

I smile – just enough not to give him the satisfaction.

I’m enjoying myself though, as twisted as it sounds, this is just so therapeutic.

We get wronged by people all the time – probably every day – but how often do we get the sick satisfaction of actually getting revenge?

I don’t want to get Todd back, Nikki can have him, but I do want to get him back in the other way. I want to make him pay.

How? Well, tonight it’s by putting my work skills to good use – or using them for bad, I suppose, depending on how you look at it.

We’ve rushed back to the cabin, ahead of Todd and Nikki, so that we can set the scene.

It feels a bit like staging a house – staging the cabin – although this is sort of like doing the opposite of what I usually do at work.

Instead of setting it up to look appealing and inviting, I’m staging it to look like Brody and I have destroyed the place, by getting it on, all over the suite.

Making the place feel uninhabitable. Uncomfortable.

A place you’d take one look at and immediately wish you could bleach everything – including your eyeballs.

A UV light would have this place glowing purple from wall to wall.

Well, that’s the story I’m telling anyway.

That Brody and I can’t keep our hands off one another, that things in the bedroom – in every room – are so hot, driven by animalistic, unrelenting lust.

And say what you want about Brody – I know I do – but he’s down for it. He’s peeling off his shirt, tossing it nowhere in particular, like it came off in the throes of passion.

‘Come on, Jessa,’ he says, smiling like a madman. ‘Commit to the bit.’

He’s right. We were just with them – they know what we were wearing. This needs to look real.

I shrug off my dress and fling it. It lands on the coffee table, so messy and yet so perfectly staged. Then I run to the bedroom and grab underwear – mine and Brody’s – and bring it back in, scattering it around like horny confetti.

He pulls a face at me.

‘Well, obviously we’re not going to take our actual underwear off, are we, perv?’ I say.

He just laughs at me.

‘Hey, I think you’re doing a great job,’ he says, knocking over a lamp, chill as you like, sort of like a cat would.

‘Nice touch,’ I tell him.

‘Thanks,’ he replies. ‘Hey, by the way, are you sure you’re okay?’

His question catches me off guard.

‘What?’

‘Are you sure you’re okay, with all of this, with Todd, and?— ’

‘Absolutely fine,’ I insist, pausing for a second. ‘I’m over him, it’s all good.’

He stares at me for a beat longer than feels normal.

‘I mean, all of this is fun, I’m down for it, so long as it’s coming from a fun place, not a hurt one,’ he replies.

I push over an artificial plant.

‘Does this look like someone who isn’t having fun?’ I reply.

‘You still seem pretty hung up on whether or not he and Nikki cheated on us,’ he points out, swiping cushions from the sofa.

‘Well, yeah,’ I reply, throwing the faux lemons around. ‘I don’t want to look silly.’

He smirks at me. Okay, that’s an arguably hilarious thing to say when you’re lobbing plastic lemons around. I throw one at him.

‘I don’t like being made a fool of,’ I say instead. ‘It’s not about wanting him back – I just want to make him feel as shit as I did.’

‘All I’m saying is, energy spent on the right things is never wasted,’ he tells me. ‘But some people are just dicks. They don’t deserve your energy or your effort, good or bad.’

I cock my head curiously.

‘That’s awfully profound, for a?—’

I don’t quite get to finish my compliment-insult because we can hear Todd and Nikki, behind the door, about to come in.

‘Shit,’ I whisper.

What do we do? I could throw myself at him, push him back onto the sofa, make them think they’ve walked in on the main event – but the two sets of underwear don’t make sense. Why would it be on the floor and on us? It’s perfect staging if we’re not here. It’s a plot hole if we are.

Brody’s eyes widen. We’re on the wrong side of the room – way too far from our bedroom door to make it before they walk in. They’ll see us .

‘Quick, this way,’ Brody says, taking me by the hand.

He drags me out onto the balcony, sliding the door shut just in time. Well, almost shut, he leaves it open just enough for us to hear.

The balcony isn’t that big and there isn’t really anywhere to hide thanks to the patio doors. With just a small wall space on each side, Brody pushes me up against the wall, before pressing his body against mine.

Oof, now that’s good staging.

I try to ignore the fact that my heart is beating faster – it’s probably the fear of being caught. Nothing else.

Inside, we hear Todd and Nikki storm in.

They’re chatting until they see the scene we’ve set for them. Then they fall silent for a moment.

‘Oh my God – ew, ew, ew,’ Nikki says. ‘They’re like animals.’

‘What have they been doing in here?’ Todd asks.

‘Oh my God, that’s a thong – ew, Todd, we know exactly what they’ve been doing in here,’ she replies.

Mission: Accomplished.

‘But Jessa was never?—’

‘Todd! Can we not,’ Nikki snaps at him.

I blush a little. Was Todd about to say that I was never adventurous in the bedroom? I mean, we weren’t exactly setting the bed on fire, but his match was one of those little ones you get in books, not those big bad boys that take longer to burn through. If y’know what I mean.

Not me blushing because I care that Brody heard him say that. I’m not boring. Would a boring girl be pinned to a wall, in her underwear, by a professional sportsman – the bad boy of cricket, no less? I don’t think so.

Brody’s face is so close to mine I can see all the little flecks of colour in his eyes, even in this dim light.

I can feel his breath tickling my lips, almost like a preview of what his lips might feel like.

I don’t know, it’s like there’s this tension between us, this electricity – bloody hell, even I’m falling for it now.

This is an act. I’m faking it, he’s faking it, and we’re doing such a good job that it feels real, even here on the inside.

Eventually, we hear Todd muttering something about ‘sleeping in the bloody casino if they hear a peep from us’ before their bedroom door slams shut.

Brody pulls back slightly, still grinning.

‘Okay, Jessa, you’re good,’ he tells me.

I puff air from my cheeks, relieved to have pulled it off.

‘Yeah, well, ever the professional,’ I joke.

We stand with our arms on the railings for a moment, looking out to sea, admiring the view. There’s something so captivating about all the stars.

I blow out a breath, feeling slightly dazed.

‘Yeah. Total professionals, us.’

‘It’s gorgeous out here,’ I say softly. ‘I bet it would be lovely, to sleep out here, under the stars.’

‘Well, maybe you should,’ he says in a soft, breathy voice. ‘Seeing as it’s your turn in the bath tonight.’

Ugh, he’s such a wind-up. Honestly, I deserve an Oscar, for successfully convincing even one person that I could ever feel anything real for him. Brody Ryan. Professional cricketer and semi-professional tosser.

He’s good at this though, there’s no denying that. I’ll just have to put up with him a bit longer, I suppose…