Love Elimination Read online

  After a moment’s hesitation, Christina did as she was instructed.

  ‘Again, please, Christina,’ Kate said.

  Christina tried a second time. Her words were more fluent, but still it wasn’t good enough. Kate made her repeat it a third time and Anna suddenly realised what she was doing. Christina sounded frustrated at having to keep trying. Without the context, it would probably sound like Christina was angry at Yvette—ten times more so than her first attempt.

  ‘How did Yvette monopolise Luke? Rachel?’

  ‘She faked an injury,’ Rachel said. Whether she was being frank as Anna had come to expect from the fiery redhead or she was playing to what Kate wanted, Anna wasn’t sure.

  ‘What do you have to say to that, Yvette?’

  ‘I’m doing whatever it takes to get to know Luke,’ Yvette said sweetly. ‘I’m not here to make friends. I want to fall in love.’

  ‘Is there anything else you want to add, Anna? About Yvette’s behaviour today?’

  Anna frowned at her sister. ‘No.’

  No—she most certainly did not want to be filmed telling the rest of the cast about the first kiss of the season, to then be broadcast to the entire nation. Was her sister insane? Anna wouldn’t be manipulated into becoming one of their pawns.

  ‘Okay, thank you, ladies.’ Kate dismissed them with a wave of her hand. ‘That’s all for today.’

  They were silent as the crew stripped them of their microphones and directed them to the bus. Hadie and a few others were already chatting in the backseat, unaware of the tension between the contestants who had been interviewed.

  ‘What’s going on?’ Liu Kun asked. Anna slumped into the empty seat next to her and Rachel took the one opposite her.

  ‘Yvette here faked her injury to get more time with Luke,’ Rachel said.

  ‘You weren’t going to make it past the next eviction anyway,’ Yvette said as the bus door closed—with the crew and their cameras on the other side. She stood at the top of the aisle, using the space like a stage. The woman wasn’t nervous or bashful in the slightest. In a way, Anna admired that. Even if she didn’t like Yvette, the woman was unapologetic in who she was and what she wanted.

  ‘Luke didn’t even notice you, Rachel. You all need to step it up,’ she continued. ‘I’m not going to stop trying just because you aren’t willing to do what it takes to win the billionaire. You can cast me as the villain on the show, you can hate me all you want, but I’m going to be the last woman standing in the finale.’

  CHAPTER

  6

  ‘There’ll be a single date today,’ one of the women told the room. Anna didn’t bother looking up from her crossword to check who it was. ‘For sure.’

  ‘Did you consult your crystal ball?’ Yvette, who Anna now thought of as Queen Bitch, asked with a nasal tone. Two cameras zoomed in on her face. Another scanned the reactions of the other women. Anna had found herself the perfect position: right next to the camera. She was so close to the tripod, there was no way it could get a good shot of her.

  ‘Not a crystal ball. The stars have aligned.’ Rachel winked at the camera, while Yvette rolled her eyes at another.

  ‘Someone needs to come in and tell us what’s going on.’

  ‘So this is what reality television is like. A whole bunch of waiting.’

  ‘They’re never going to tell us. It’ll be all suspense.’

  ‘Maybe we should take charge … revolt,’ Anna muttered to Hadie, who hid a grin. ‘Organise our own dates and we can just tell Luke and the crew what’s going to happen.’

  ‘Hold on one moment,’ Joe called and everyone in the room stopped. ‘Anna, can I get you to say that again? But this time I need you to look up at Camera 3 and speak a bit louder, and more clearly.’ He nodded, as if he needed to affirm his own instruction. ‘Action!’

  ‘Wait, what did I say?’ Anna struggled to stifle her panic. A crew member repeated her own words back to her a couple of times until she learned them by heart. The whole thing was utterly ridiculous. Even their positioning was fake. The couches had been pushed into a shape where they would fit the eleven remaining women while giving the cameras access to every angle. Four of the women had been swapped around until there was a pleasant balance of clothing colours. Two other contestants had been rearranged so that their poses suited the tableau. Each time Joe spoke or the camera stopped rolling, Liu Kun subtly shifted herself closer to a normal sitting position—as opposed to the ridiculous position the crew had twisted her into so that it looked like she’d been doing yoga while the other women sat around and chatted.

  ‘We should lead a revolt!’ Anna said to the ceiling, trying desperately to exude the enthusiasm they needed to move past this scene. ‘Let’s take charge and run the dates ourselves. Someone just needs to let Luke Westwood know.’

  The director and crew sighed audibly, probably ruining the shot once again. Not that it mattered. At least half of the group were laughing at Anna’s forced delivery.

  ‘Thank you, Anna. Please go back to general chatter about what will happen today,’ he instructed.

  If someone had joined the show to write a tell-all, behind-the-scenes exposé, Anna sincerely hoped they had a back-up plan. She’d had more interesting shifts cleaning raw meat from the slicer for three hours straight. She couldn’t even tell how long this unique form of torture stretched on—they’d taken away her watch. The walls bore stunning pieces of art, but not a single clock. The production crew had gone out of their way to keep the contestants in the Love Elimination bubble.

  Finally Mason Lockier made his entrance, his greetings and flirting prolonged as usual. He made time to comment on every single contestant, teasing and drawing out anything interesting about them. He had to try a lot harder with some than others. While there were eleven contestants in the room, there were only about seven or eight personalities.

  By the time she’d listened to the ten other witty, funny, cute, sexy or whatever characters the women had assumed for the show, Anna was done. Her patience was at an end. And then Kate slid into the room and stood behind the camera, twisting her rings around her fingers.

  ‘Now, it’s high time I have a chat to everyone’s favourite contestant!’ Mason announced. ‘Anna.’

  ‘I’m your favourite, Mason? Are you even allowed to pick favourites?’ she teased, hoping to defuse the sudden hatred she could feel emanating from some of her fellow contestants. It did nothing to prevent the death stares that Yvette, Tallulah and Brooke shot across the room.

  ‘Not me. Australia loves you, my dear.’

  ‘Me?’

  This time the glares didn’t just come from Yvette and her friends, who Anna had mentally labelled the ‘mean girls’, knowing full well she was buying into a stupid cliché; they were the contestants who were nice to everyone’s faces and bitched behind their backs. But now only Hadie looked at her without hatred.

  There were no dropped jaws or wide-eyed stares from the crew. Either the moment was scripted, or Mason had permission to reveal the information. But that didn’t mean Anna believed it to be true for a single second.

  ‘Yes. You! Thanks to your brilliant modesty and even better campaign manager.’

  ‘What?’

  It was like being filmed in the middle of a pop quiz for a topic she wasn’t studying. Her eyes met Kate’s, but her sister just shook her head and jerked her head in the direction of Mason until Anna looked away. Any of the women could have caught their exchange, but they seemed to be alternating between trying to read Anna’s expression for details and visibly willing her dead.

  ‘Don’t play daft with me now, Anna.’

  ‘What do you mean, my campaign manager?’

  The cameras were all on her. Kate was looking at her with her arms pressed to her sides, her hands flattened and tense against her pencil skirt. Yvette and Tallulah were not so quietly whispering to each other, scheming how they’d stab her with their stilettos later that day.

  ‘Now
, we can’t go revealing outside information to the other contestants. This will just have to remain our little secret. Off you go, Anna. You need to get ready for your date!’

  You’ve got to be kidding! Anna could barely keep the words locked away inside herself.

  * * *

  Anna didn’t like dates. She rarely felt her heart flutter at the anticipation of a romantic dinner or movie night. What she hated most was the hour of preparation, washing her hair, doing her make-up, and consulting with Kate about clothes. Then there was the inevitable disappointment that had tainted her love life up until now.

  Yet here she was on a beach, dressed in jodhpurs that hid nothing and a thin white shirt that was a size too small, being filmed by a camera crew. To top it off, she was within full view of the beach house’s second-floor veranda, so the other contestants were all out, watching. If this was supposed to be the waiting-in-suspense scene, Anna was not impressed. She knew she looked nothing but annoyed and squinty from the blazing sun. She was not allowed to wear sunglasses.

  Suspense was the last thing on the menu. Luke stood just twenty-five metres away, next to two tethered horses. She could smell the horse hair from where she was standing. Joe shouted directions for her to peer down the beach looking nervous and curious. Not that watching Luke climb onto a chestnut horse was a hardship. The man’s shirt was only half buttoned and the rolled-up sleeves left his arms bare. A crew member untethered the horses and Luke rode towards her, leading the riderless horse.

  Filming paused as two crew members rushed forwards to place a box next to the horse, allowing Luke to dismount with a drop of less than a metre. At this, Anna couldn’t help but smile.

  ‘Anna.’ When he was finally on the ground, he enveloped her in a hug. For the first time, his scent made her sneeze, not swoon. He smelt like a barn.

  ‘You look great,’ he said. ‘Have you ever been horse riding before?’

  ‘Only when I was really young, when they put you on a pony and lead you around a family fun fair.’

  ‘Then you’re better prepared for today’s date than I am,’ he replied, leading her towards the white horse. It was smaller than the chestnut one, but still too high for Anna to mount without help. Anna rubbed her palm along the horse’s rump and avoided Luke’s eyes as he placed his hands on her waist. With one swift movement, he hoisted her into the air. It seemed effortless. Her skin tingled beneath his touch and any protests she might have voiced died in the back of her throat.

  ‘If you’ve never ridden before, why would you organise a horse-riding date?’ she asked, mostly to distract herself from the cameras trained on their awkward interaction.

  ‘I don’t actually control anything. I’m a puppet in this show—same as you.’ He shot her a cheeky grin.

  ‘Luke!’ Joe barked.

  ‘I’ve always wanted to try,’ Luke explained with the exact inflections as his previous attempt. The accuracy made Anna giggle. He made her giggle. He was funny.

  With crew on either side to ensure the horses walked straight, they set off down the beach. The whole thing was surreal and the silence was agonising. Anna wasn’t usually one to fill every moment with talk, but without it she couldn’t help obsessing over the feel of the smooth saddle through the thin fabric of her jodhpurs and hard leather beneath her bum. She squirmed. Sun glinted from the cameras so they stood out like ugly growths on the otherwise stunning beach. There were five cameras and more than double that in crew, all focused on Anna and Luke as the horses ambled along the beach.

  ‘Ask him why he chose you for the single date!’ Joe yelled. But she didn’t need to ask. Clearly Luke was torturing her. Still, she did as she was told.

  ‘Why me?’ she said. ‘Why did you choose me for the single date?’

  ‘Because you’re nervous about this: the whole reality television thing. I wanted to get to know you away from the other girls.’

  ‘Why do you think I’m nervous?’

  ‘You avoided me on the first night. You could barely look me in the eye.’

  ‘And you assume that’s because I’m nervous?’ Anna teased. ‘You have a pretty big ego there.’

  She couldn’t help it. She loved his reactions. They made her laugh and smile and shrug off the anxiety in her chest. Even with the cameras there, she couldn’t help but enjoy his company; except for the pounding heartbeat and goose bumps every time he neared.

  ‘What else could it be?’

  ‘Maybe I don’t find you attractive. Maybe it’s not meant to be.’

  ‘We all know that’s not it. You want to rip my clothes off.’

  Anna laughed. ‘Oh, is that right?’

  ‘It sure is. So, let’s talk.’ He looked her directly in the eye. ‘Do you play any sports?’

  ‘Nope, I told you. We have nothing in common.’

  ‘Didn’t you play anything as a kid?’

  ‘Not really.’

  ‘Wow. So what was your thing then?’

  ‘Cooking.’

  ‘That’s all?’

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘Poor kid.’

  ‘Well, not all of us can be world-class athletes by the time we’re sixteen.’

  ‘So you were listening. Or gossiping about me with the others.’ Luke winked. ‘Good to know.’

  ‘Did you do anything else, or was it all snowboarding?’ Anna asked, partly to make a point, and partly because she felt compelled. What kind of life would that be for a teenager, the intense pressure to succeed in such a dangerous field?

  ‘Touché. It was all training and competing.’

  ‘How old were you when you started?’

  ‘I’ve skied since I was about five and switched to snowboarding at nine.’

  ‘And when did you get serious about it?’

  ‘I was about nine and a half.’ He smiled.

  Anna nodded, trying to keep her admiration inside. His ego was big enough without her compliments.

  ‘Do you trust me?’ Luke asked.

  Anna glanced at him. ‘No.’ The answer slipped out without thinking.

  ‘That’s rough. And honest.’

  ‘Not yet,’ she amended, but Luke just chuckled.

  ‘Fine, let me rephrase. Do you want to do something exhilarating?’

  ‘Sure?’

  He released the reins of Anna’s horse and handed them to her. She took them and pulled away immediately, biting the inside of her cheek.

  ‘Ready?’ He grinned at her.

  ‘I think so,’ she said, her voice shrill.

  ‘Giddy up!’ he yelled, leaning forwards and pressing into his horse. His animal responded, kicking against the ground and speeding up to a full gallop in seconds.

  Anna’s horse charged beneath her, a second behind. Wind rushed past, grabbing and pulling at Anna’s shirt. Her legs clenched around the horse’s body and she broke out into a sweat as she tried to hold on. A panicked whimper escaped her mouth, turning into a full scream as the horse crashed into the water. She clung to the horse’s reins and tried not to throw up.

  They galloped down the beach, splashing through the shallow water. She caught up to Luke and their horses fought to win an imaginary race. Droplets spun into the air and sprayed them both. It was like an extreme version of running through sprinklers as a kid. Anna closed her eyes for a second, before realising she was more terrified without sight.

  Then her horse reared and sprinted out of the water. Blood pounded in Anna’s ears and her flight or fight instincts kicked in. She tugged at the horse’s reins, but it only sped up, charging along the sand. Forgetting her fear of hurting the animal, Anna dug her heels into its sides. It took no notice. Luke appeared in her peripheral vision then disappeared behind her. Another scream escaped Anna’s lips. The horse wasn’t stopping.

  ‘Anna!’

  She had long since outrun all the cameras dotted along the beach when the horse finally slowed down. Anna slid from the saddle, and then she was falling. It was only about a metre and a half from the sa
ddle to the ground, but the sand was like waves of concrete. It was the shock, she knew that, but her shoulder still jarred on impact.

  The horse stopped a few metres away, its hooves sinking into the sand. Now its rider was safely on the ground, it seemed to have no interest in death-defying speeds.

  Anna closed her eyes to avoid the spray of sand as Luke tumbled to the ground beside her, but otherwise, she didn’t move. His hands touched her cheeks.

  ‘Are you okay?’

  ‘Yeah, fine.’ Anna’s mind whirred, even if her body shook harder than before—like an earthquake compared to warning tremors—but the shock was wearing off.

  ‘Are you hurt?’ His hand scooped under her head, supporting it as she sat up. Anna felt the muscles and bones in her body adjust to the new position. Nothing screamed at her.

  ‘No. I’m fine,’ she said, but she wasn’t. She’d once read that adrenalin-inducing experiences bond people, especially when they were also life threatening. Kate had explained how reality television series used this to bond participants. They send contestants sky-diving, zooming around in speed boats, or dropping off bridges in bungee gear. Sending her and Luke galloping through the water was a cute enough idea, until you did it without training, without an experienced rider and without any safety. They didn’t even have helmets on—God forbid they get hat hair.

  Cynicism didn’t usually come naturally to her, but Anna wanted to rip Luke’s hands from her body and punch his perfect face. Then she wanted to run screaming until she found Kate. Then she wanted to pinch her sister until she screamed. Since when do trained horses freak out like that? Did the crew intentionally hire a panicky horse, or were they just negligent? Or was it well trained and had reacted to a signal—an act justified by the reasoning that Anna would never actually be in danger? The thought wrapped around her mind and refused to let go.

  ‘Here, let me help you up.’ Luke pulled Anna to her feet. His body pressed against hers as he embraced her and he laid a hand on her lower back and rubbed slow circles onto her skin.