Page 9 of Room 710 (The Scarlet Hotel #15)

Ziggy

The week had sped by in a blur of challenges, two group dates, good food, and laughter.

It felt like some kind of psychedelic fever dream.

Was I really doing this? Was I really dating Devon Blake?

Because that was what this was, right? It was a dating show, so that meant we were dating.

For this week, anyway. I would probably be eliminated later tonight, but until then, I was fully buying into the delusion.

And then for the rest of my life, I was going to brag about how Devon Blake was my ex.

Most nights, I crashed hard after socializing non-stop, but last night, I couldn’t get my brain to quiet down.

It was like there was a marching band doing laps inside my skull, every crash of cymbals counting down to my eviction.

I’d found myself baking batch after batch of chocolate chip cookies, until well after midnight.

When I woke up this morning, the air was still scented with vanilla.

“Rise and shine! Today’s the day,” Darnell said, bouncing out of bed, all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

I groaned and buried deeper into the blankets, shoving a pillow over my head. “Just five more minutes, Mom.”

The blanket was yanked off, and I squeaked, grasping at air trying to find some kind of salvation. “Noooo!” I groaned.

“Don’t be ridiculous. This is live-challenge day! Aren’t you excited?” I heard the others also getting up, racing to be the first in the shower like a gaggle of squawking geese. Lucky Devon got his own shower, while the rest of us duked it out for the other two showers, battle royale style.

Feeling groggy and wiped out, I pushed myself up to sitting, blinking my bleary eyes open. “Am I excited to get sent home on week one? No.”

Darnell gasped in terror, covering his face with his hands as though faced with some fresh horror. “What happened to your face?”

“Oh gods, what?” I scrambled out of bed to look in the mirror, but all I saw was me. “Har-har. Is that some kind of dig at how out of my league I am? Trust me, I already know.”

He frowned, not following. “What? No, I’m talking about how puffy your eyes are.

Did you not sleep last night? You should’ve borrowed one of my face masks.

Come with me. I have my work cut out for me this morning.

” He took me by the hand and dragged me into the bathroom.

“Make way, people. It’s all hands on deck. Ziggy needs our help.”

“Does he ever!” Prairie agreed, shoving me toward the shower stall where Alex was just getting out, wrapping a towel around his waist. There was no sense of privacy when we were all crammed in together like this, but I was getting used to it, only taking the barest of peeks.

I seriously didn’t deserve these guys. My roomies helped me primp and preen until my skin was as smooth as one of those creepy hairless cats, my face glistening with a surprising amount of makeup just to make it look like I wasn’t wearing makeup.

Even Ross and Cy, from one of the other rooms, offered assistance.

How had I become a group project? This wasn’t helping my self-esteem any.

“There. Pretty as a picture,” Darnell said, smiling at me in the mirror.

For being a competition, these men were being so nice to me. It was almost like they didn’t see me as a threat… Which, fair. I wasn’t. But still, I was really going to miss them.

All day, there was a certain electric tension in the house, enough to give me a chill.

We were all feeling the loss of connection to the outside world, patting our pockets every now and then out of habit, as if to search for our phones that were no longer there.

I missed my mom something fierce. It didn’t help that because it was eviction day, we all had to pack our bags ahead of time in case we were the one going home.

Talk about morbid. It was like planning your own funeral. Ugh.

I kept peeking at the cameras, thinking about who was watching.

How many people were about to witness my failure?

Would there be pity? Everyone on social media would be saying, “I knew it. He was so weird. Glad he’s gone.

” My stomach cramped painfully. I was suddenly regretting this entire idea.

How could I have possibly believed it was a sign from some imagined higher power when I was walking past The Scarlet Hotel that day?

! Sure, I liked being the center of attention, but only when it was in a good way!

The others didn’t let me wallow for long, though. “You’re looking mighty fine this morning, Ziggy,” Devon said, giving me a wink. “And did you bake these cookies? When did you find the time? They’re incredible!” He popped a third cookie into his mouth, whole.

I shrugged, cheeks warming as I ignored his comment about my appearance and moved straight to the cookies. “No reason we shouldn’t all benefit from my stress baking,” I said, laughing tightly.

“Aww, are you stressing out? Is it because the show is live tonight or that someone is going home?” he asked curiously, leaning his forearms on the counter beside me as I dumped cereal into a bowl. I was too queasy to eat much, but I knew it would be worse on an empty stomach.

I popped a honey oaty-O into my mouth, eyes downcast. “A little of both, I guess.” How could I tell him I wasn’t ready to go home yet without sounding desperate. He had to follow his heart, after all, and it was okay that his future didn’t include me.

Devon pushed off the counter and passed around behind me, setting his hands on my shoulders and giving them a squeeze. He leaned in close enough for his breath to tickle the side of my neck, his voice too low for the cameras to pick up. “Don’t worry about going home. Okay?”

And then his hands slid away as he picked up his coffee and headed out to join the others on the patio.

“O-okay,” I whispered after him, but I frowned down into my bowl, feeling thoroughly confused.

His reassurance should’ve made my stomach flutter, his touch should’ve burned.

But honestly… it was a bit like being touched by my bestie Levi. Or my mom.

Friendly. Nice. But not sexy.

Shock filled me, followed closely by disappointment.

Devon Blake was my Hollywood crush. Why wouldn’t I feel something deeper for him?

He was hot, nice, smart, charming, had a great sense of humor, everything I could possibly want in an alpha.

What was wrong with me? Or was something wrong with him ?

The push and pull of my thoughts was enough to drown out my nerves for the rest of the afternoon.

By the time the show was about to start, I was actually feeling pretty mellow, more myself than I had all week.

I’d made my peace with whatever would happen tonight.

I was here to have fun, and that’s what I was going to do.

We all congregated in the living room around the large TV.

I dropped down on the long leather couch, and Alex sat down beside me, bumping my shoulder with his.

Devon sat down on the other side of me and squeezed my thigh quickly.

When he let go, I held my breath, waiting for the thrill of excitement to trickle through me, but it was just like before. No thrill, no heat. Huh.

The TV screen lit up, and Clark and Marty’s faces filled the screen, a plain blue backdrop behind them.

It was our first real connection to the outside world all week, but it still felt entirely out of reach.

“Hey, how’s everybody doing?” Clark said brightly, and we all waved back, echoing various of good, great, awesome.

“We are currently live, with our studio audience. Isn’t that exciting? ”

We’d been instructed by the director to emote big, so we all cheered, even as a light layer of sweat began to slick my palms. How many people were watching right now? A hundred thousand? Two?

Marty took a turn, trying to play up to the crowd.

“We’ve had such a great time getting to know you all this week, and we can tell you’ve already been forging some life-long connections with your housemates.

Unfortunately, as we all know, you can’t all win top spot in your alpha’s heart.

Tonight, someone must go home.” He gave us an exaggerated sad face, but I reminded myself that they knew exactly what it felt like to be in our position.

They’d sat on this side of things just last year, and in the end, they’d made the ultimate life-long connection with each other.

Clark leveled us with a look. “Tonight’s task is designed to bring out your best…

and your worst. It will take dexterity and an incredible amount of patience, but don’t forget—there are eyes on you, everyone at home but also those of you inside the house.

You will have forty-five minutes, and at the end, Devon will select one of you to go home.

If you manage to complete the task in the allotted time, we have a special prize for the remaining housemates. Are you ready?”

“Yeah!” we all shouted, and I joined in on reflex.

“Great! Then your time starts… now.” Clark and Marty shared a quick look, before the screen cut away to show a timer, counting down from 45 minutes.

With a sense of urgency, Cy jumped up and ran to grab the challenge instructions from the vault.

As usual, there was a box with any props we might need, as well as an envelope with instructions.

When Cy opened the box, though, we frowned, speechless.

There were a bunch of dominos. What were we supposed to do with those?

I opened the envelope, which included a letter, but also a map of sorts. I scanned the instructions quickly. “Okay, guys, we have to set up the dominos on the dining room table, in this pattern.” I held it up for everyone to see the map of swirls.

“Well, what are we waiting for?” Alex cried excitedly. “Time’s a-wasting!” He grabbed the box and ran to the table, and we all followed.

Everyone had an opinion about technique. “We should work in groups, one working on each corner,” Abraham said.

Rune scoffed. “But then they won’t meet properly in the middle. We should start at one edge and work our way across.” Although, that would mean only a couple of us could work on it at a time, and there were 13 of us. Hardly a group effort.

Meanwhile, I just stood back, letting them duke it out. Devon, it seemed, had the same idea. He sidled up to me and nudged me with his elbow. “Cookie?” he asked, holding out the plate he held.

I chuckled. “Thanks,” I said, taking one and letting the sweet chocolatey goodness smooth out my worn nerves.

As much as I wanted to believe that I was in control of my life, this entire dating show felt very much out of my hands.

I had to admit, it felt kind of… nice to let go, to let the cards fall where they may.

To accept the possibility that my destiny was already written.

The counter was down to 37 minutes remaining before we even laid our first domino. As pushy as Rune was, it was Prairie who stepped up. He was a natural leader, patient and kind, probably from his experience at the non-profit shelter he worked at, and nobody minded following his direction.

Except Rune.

It wasn’t a complex pattern we needed to follow, but it wasn’t as easy as we might’ve first believed.

More than once, someone bumped the table or one of the tiles, and the result was a cascade of dominos across the table.

“Well, shit,” I mumbled, laughing under my breath as we started over yet again.

I kept taking peeks at the clock, watching the time go down.

Half an hour, then 20 minutes, 15… By the time we got to ten, we’d had to restart six times.

I knew the eviction didn’t rely on the outcome of the challenge, but I was naturally competitive.

I wanted to know what the prize was! Money? A call from home?

My hands were shaking as I forced myself to go slow, balancing the domino on its side, just the right distance from the one beside it.

We were getting so close! With just a handful of tiles left to set up, I was starting to think we might have it.

But then I caught movement from the corner of my eye.

I watched as Rune gave a tile at the end an intentional flick with his finger, sending the whole pattern tipping in a wave, knocking the last row off the table.

“Oops,” Rune said snidely, upper lip curled in disdain.

Devon sighed tightly, patience at an end. Maybe that meant he would kick Rune off the show first. It would certainly lighten the mood around here if he did.

I got down on my knees under the table and started grabbing the dominos off the floor.

We quickly collected the tiles back in the box and started again, and with a glance at the clock, we had just over five minutes.

We could still do it—as long as we didn’t have any catty omegas sabotaging our progress.

“You know, Rune, I figured you’d want to show off to Devon how good you can be with your hands,” I teased, wiggling my fingers at him.

I wanted to straight-up call him out on his shitty attitude, but if I insinuated he was lacking some important bedroom skills, maybe he would smarten up in these final minutes.

Rune smirked at me. “Who needs steady hands when my mouth will do the job in half the time.”

“Oh, really? Maybe you should try putting dominos down with your mouth then,” I said casually.

Rune’s face turned a deep scarlet as Devon burst out laughing. One point to me.