Love Elimination Read online

  ‘She’s the best person I know. Totally sweet and totally a sweet tooth. And I know she’s going to be nervous, maybe even too terrified to show you and the suitor on Love Elimination who she is and why she deserves love. So here’s a video compilation to do that for her. I only hope our wonderful Mr Right sees it. And by Mr Right, I mean Luke Westwood, because that man is perfection.’

  The footage showed the most embarrassing moments of Anna’s life, accompanied by Ben’s voiceovers and handy little captions. There were snippets from the time Ben caught Anna watching P.S. I Love You—basically filming her entire emotional breakdown over fifty minutes. There were also drunk photos from a friend’s engagement party, bits of her twenty-first speech and several pictures from her childhood that Kate must have provided. Anna moaned. No one could hear her over the loud laughter from the audience and panel anyway. A hot flush spread over her cheeks and neck.

  Then the screen showed a slideshow of tweets from

  @AnnaAndLukeInLove. Ben had finally made good on his threat to get her on Twitter. Except it wasn’t really her—it was Ben posting on her behalf, making the nation fall in love with her when really the one they adored was him. By the time it was over, Yvette looked like she’d been revived from a stroke, though without the wonder, relief or happiness of a person who’d just escaped death.

  ‘Anna completely stole the limelight this first episode. What do the rest of the girls think?’ Mason tempted. ‘Rachel?’

  Anna held her breath as the outspoken redhead opened her mouth.

  ‘I think Luke will feel differently. Sure, he picked Anna for the single date. But he had to pick someone and next week it will be someone else.’

  ‘Are you sure about that? Have the producers told you how the show will play out over the next few weeks?’ Mason teased.

  ‘No. But I’m sure it will give the rest of us—those of us without a media department back at home—a chance to get to know Luke.’

  ‘Jessica, what do you think?’

  ‘I think Anna has played her part well. But now it’s our turn to make a move.’

  ‘Yvette?’

  It couldn’t have been a coincidence that Mason picked the women who had done the most bitching about Anna behind her back to speak now.

  ‘Anna is fake. She pretends to be shy and avoids big groups to force Luke to go to her, giving her one-on-one time—like that first single date. I wouldn’t be surprised if Luke sent her home this week, tonight even, after seeing that display.’

  ‘Well, you’re right that someone will be going home tonight!’ Mason declared, causing Yvette to drop back on her stool. Anna couldn’t help but smile as Yvette realised there was no back to the seat and fumbled to sit upright again.

  ‘And Luke Westwood will be here to deliver the final words of farewell to that unlucky lady. But it will not be a choice he’ll have to make alone.’ He paused dramatically, waiting several long seconds before continuing, ‘Australia has voted and the two contestants with the lowest votes will be up for eviction today. Our experts—Glenda Liebert, Jason Myers and Kimberley Ruro—will also be selecting someone to face Luke.

  ‘First, to the public votes!’

  Again, the screen lit up and this time it showed ten silhouettes in a column and a percentage bar in another. The bars moved across the screen until the top bottom reached twenty per cent and fourteen per cent. A few of the contestants inhaled sharply. Anna felt a heaviness in her stomach drop. Neither name would be hers. Not after what she’d seen tonight. Her wonderful, beautiful, insane best friend had ruined all chances that she’d be sent home by an ambivalent public. They couldn’t dislike her with a tribute like that. Unless they thought it was unfair? That she’d somehow broken the rules by putting Ben up to it? That was her only hope.

  Just as the thought occurred to her, the faces of the two women with the lowest votes were released: Tamsen and Brooke. Mason directed the two girls to exit one side of the stage. Then he turned and nodded to the panel. ‘Now, we’ve thought very carefully about who we wanted to elect,’ Kimberley Ruro said. ‘The person we’ve chosen didn’t give their all this week. They held back and they erected walls not only to keep the cameras out, but also against Luke’s best efforts to get to know her. She’s had every advantage, but she hasn’t used them. For these reasons, we nominate Anna.’

  The crowd gasped and Anna had to fight back a smile. Big sister to the rescue. Kate could almost be forgiven for providing Ben with damning evidence of her childhood awkwardness.

  ‘We hope you aren’t sent home, Anna. But we also want you to take this as a learning experience and let yourself trust. Open yourself up to others and new experiences.’

  Anna followed the path taken by Tamsen and Brooke. Love Elimination staff led her backstage through a series of rooms and then outside. A beautiful secret garden had been constructed in a small courtyard. It was ringed with roses interwoven with fairy lights. At one end was an old-fashioned bird bath and next to that stood Luke Westwood. The sight of him in a suit made Anna want to faint like a heroine in a historical romance. She joined Tamsen and Brooke in a row in front of him. Once there she let her eyes drink in every part of him. His unshaven jaw and tousled hair made Anna want to reach out and touch him.

  Now that she was there, at the end, her heart tugged at her reasoning. He was actually the best guy she’d ever dated: he was kind and charismatic and he made her laugh. But she wasn’t disillusioned by his good looks and she knew he wasn’t the Mr Right for her. After all, they came from different worlds. He was rich. She worked her arse off for every dollar—not literally, unfortunately for the size of her butt. He had success handed to him by his parents. She couldn’t get far enough from her mother. He travelled for work. She had put down roots, leased a brick-and-mortar shop.

  She wouldn’t watch the show after she left it. She didn’t want to see him date other women and fall in love. Much better to imagine sweet what ifs at night.

  ‘Ladies, I’m sorry to have to do this,’ Luke said in a low, gracious tone. Anna wondered briefly if he’d been coached to deliver his lines like that. Someone had certainly written them for him. Anna sent one final, hopeful, wish out into the universe, begging for Kate to have been successful. Of course she would be; she was a producer in one of the industry’s biggest puppet shows. But Anna couldn’t help the tingling doubt that crept back in. She was so close to her dream. If the universe had any consistency, it would tear it all away right about now.

  ‘Once again, I won’t drag this out. Today I am saying goodbye to Tamsen. I’m sorry.’

  Tamsen immediately burst into tears and Anna was a hair’s breadth away from joining her.

  ‘Thank you, Brooke and Anna.’ Luke looked at Anna in a way that made her internal explosion all the more catastrophic. ‘You may head back to the main stage.’

  Anna followed Brooke as she turned and left. On the way back to the stage she realised two things. One, that her plan had one hundred per cent backfired. Two, Kate was there and refusing to meet Anna’s murderous gaze.

  CHAPTER

  8

  None of the contestants spoke to her in the minibus. Anna wondered briefly whether they’d made a pact while she was in the eviction garden, then she remembered that she didn’t care. If they chose to act like jealous school girls, that was their prerogative. She hadn’t joined the show to befriend a bunch of shallow wannabe reality stars. Even as she thought it, pangs of guilt shot through her. She pushed them deep down. What she needed was her sister. There was no way she could languish in ignorance, not knowing how long she’d have to put up with this charade.

  As soon as everyone was inside the house, Anna slipped away. She had to talk to Kate. She took a side door out through the gym and ducked into the darkness, creeping along the beach and weaving through the palm trees, until she came across another villa only metres from where she’d bumped into Luke. Just as she’d suspected, there were two buildings, one small pool house and one mansion large eno
ugh to house the entire production crew. A pool and spa sat between the two.

  Anna snuck past the pool house and made her way around the main house. Only then did she really think through the flaws in her plan. There was no way to tell which room Kate was in. Her sister hadn’t thought to tell her and there was no way she could waltz into the mansion and ask to see her. She was supposed to be on lockdown, no contact with anyone except for Luke Westwood and the other contestants—and contact with Luke had to be only during filming hours.

  A light switched on above her and Anna shrank back into the dark shadows around the building. A figure appeared in the window, opening it to the night air. Anna immediately recognised her sister. In a panic, she resorted to stereotype, sweeping a few pebbles from the ground and chucking them in the general direction of the window. Only there weren’t any pebbles, just sand. She ended up chucking a handful into the air. The grains fell back through the air and into her eyes.

  ‘Crap,’ Anna cursed, a little louder than she intended. She pawed at her eyes and the stinging only worsened. Tears poured down her face.

  Kate ducked her head through the window. ‘Anna?’ she whispered into the air. ‘Is that you?’

  ‘Kate. I need to talk to you!’ Anna tried to keep her voice as soft as possible. None of the other blinds moved or windows opened. She saw no movement whatsoever, except for the extinguishing of her sister’s light. A minute later, they were face to face.

  ‘Follow me,’ Kate said when she spotted Anna. ‘Let’s get away from the house.’

  They tiptoed back past the pool and the pool house until they were out on the beach, listened to only by the ocean. Anna wished she’d thought to change before seeking Kate out: the cocktail dress she’d worn to the screening exposed most of her skin to mosquitoes. There was no telling what damage she’d discover the next day. She wrapped her arms around herself, as though it would help.

  ‘I thought I was getting sent home.’ Anna tried to keep the annoyance and hurt out of her voice. Her sister was always focused on her work; it wouldn’t be the first time Kate forgot to ask about Anna’s life. But this time the two were mixed and it was in the show’s best interest if the person who didn’t want to compete for Luke Westwood’s affections was evicted early. ‘Isn’t it your job to be convincing?’

  ‘He’s not the type of man who listens to what the producers say …’ Kate mumbled, clearly put out by her inability to manipulate the man. She’d rarely had to fight to win over attractive straight men in the past. Anna had always been just a touch envious of her sister’s luck with the opposite sex, and life in general. Things came easily to Kate.

  ‘But—’

  ‘I tried, Anna!’ The words rushed out of Kate like she had no control over them. ‘The experts were instructed to put you in the bottom three and Luke Westwood was encouraged to send you home. But we can’t tell him what to do. His father is CEO of the network, for Christ’s sake.’

  ‘Isn’t there anything you can do? I can’t stay here, Kate. I have a life to get back to.’ Anna pulled her arms tight around herself.

  ‘I know, I know. But Ben’s taking care of everything. I talked to him.’

  ‘I saw. Where’d you get those photos anyway? And why on earth did you think it was a good idea to put them on national television?’ Anna’s head hurt just thinking about it. Seeing them up there only reminded her of her childhood, which made her want to cry. It reminded her how wrong it had all gone a few short years later.

  ‘Please, Anna. It’s not that dire. The café can wait. This is my career and you trying to leave is jeopardising it.’

  Anna closed her eyes, as if it would block the truth of her sister’s words. Her whole body itched to go home. She felt trapped. It might not have been so bad if it was just spending time in the villa, the occasional filmed group date and chatting with the other women as she cooked. But the villa was a cesspit of female jealousy and cattiness, and filming was a bigger invasion of privacy than she could’ve imagined.

  ‘So what do you expect me to do? Pretend to fall in love with Luke Westwood?’ Anna exclaimed. ‘You know I can’t act! I couldn’t even get myself cast as a tree in Year 4. They had to create a backstage position. Do you remember that?’

  ‘So don’t act,’ Kate said. ‘But you have to relax and let yourself have fun. These dates are exciting! They’re great! We had teams of people thinking up the absolute coolest things you could do in Queensland. Teams, Anna! How often does this kind of all-expenses-paid-for experience come along?’

  ‘None of this is new, Kate. They’re all the same arguments I’ve heard from you before.’

  ‘Then maybe you should listen to them! You’re infuriating!’

  Rustling from behind the palm trees gave Anna an excuse to look away. Even with the lateness of the hour, it wasn’t truly dark. The moon and stars shone bright and their light danced across the ocean’s surface. A soft swell lapped against the shore. There were worse places to be trapped. But that didn’t change the feeling in the bottom of her stomach.

  ‘Please, Anna. Please do this for me. Just stay.’

  Anna looked at her sister. Her shoulders were hunched and her head was tilted, as if her neck was too tired to hold it up any longer.

  ‘This is the biggest thing I’ve ever done,’ Kate continued gently. She’d seen the cracks in Anna’s resolve. ‘I let you move in with me—and you know I love living together, but you owe me and I’m calling it in. Love Elimination needs to be a success. As much as you hate it, you are popular. Your Instagram account has grown by thousands of followers this week. Ben’s Twitter account for you is even bigger. So I need you. The show needs you. Everyone wants you to win. Please, I will never ask anything of you again.’

  Everyone wanted her to win? It was one date. The first date. They hadn’t been given anyone else to root for yet. That was Kate’s job: to cast someone as the favourite. Anna felt tears pooling behind her eyelids all over again. It was too much. The intensity of the whole experience weighed down on her.

  ‘Kate, I can’t do this.’ She felt defeated already and they’d barely begun filming. The cameras were always there—even when they weren’t on a date they were shooting a ‘who got the date’ or ‘when do you think the date will be’ scene, or doing interviews about whatever they’d just shot or what was about to happen. In between filming was almost as bad with the boredom and the politics of the villa. The only source of entertainment was drinking, since they had constant access to a bar and were plied with drinks whenever the cameras were around.

  ‘You can do this. I just need this one thing from you. It’s my career. My dream.’ Kate grabbed Anna’s hand. ‘Please.’

  The lines in Anna’s forehead deepened. Her whole body hurt at the thought of staying on the show any longer. But Kate was her sister and the only family she had left. The only family she acknowledged. That had to mean something. It didn’t mean she had to stop trying to get evicted. The audience was fickle. They’d change alliances the more screen time the other contestants received. She could lower her vote and increase her chances of being sent home. And Kate and the other producers would change their mind in a week’s time, maybe two, once they saw how unpopular she was. Or Luke would.

  ‘Okay. But no more borrowing my clothes all the time. It’s high time you invested in your own wardrobe.’ Anna tried to ease the tightness in her stomach with teasing; Kate wouldn’t be seen wearing her sister’s op shop clothes if she was running a fever and hallucinating.

  ‘Urgh. If I must.’ Kate smiled.

  ‘Okay,’ Anna said. ‘I’ll do it.’

  ‘You’ll stop all attempts to leave or get kicked off the show?’

  Anna crossed her fingers behind her back. ‘Yes.’

  ‘Okay then.’

  They stared at each other for a minute before Kate stepped forwards and wrapped her arms around her sister. She smelled like flowers. Daisies.

  ‘Thank you,’ Kate breathed the words into Anna’s ear an
d squeezed her tight. Then she pulled back. ‘I better get back before they come looking for me.’

  Kate released her grip on Anna’s shoulders and hurried away. Anna pressed a hand to her heart and looked out to the horizon. It really was a beautiful night. She reached down and slipped off her shoes, leaving them in the sand as she waded into the water. She tipped her head back and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath and letting the sweet air fill her lungs.

  * * *

  Luke ducked behind a particularly wide palm tree. The producer stomped past him, leaving Anna alone on the beach. She was standing in the water. Luke felt himself moving towards her before his brain made the decision. The sound of the waves and the sight of her standing there, like a statue in an island shrine, compelled him.

  ‘Hi.’ He kept his voice quiet and smooth. She still jumped and the tension returned to her body. She spun around and drops of water splashed onto his bare feet. It was surprisingly cool, despite the hot day and warm night. Luke wished she would just let herself relax like she did when she thought she was alone. ‘Calm down. It’s just me.’

  ‘Luke! Shit, what are you doing out here?’

  ‘I was just going for a walk before bed. Stretch out the legs,’ he lied—he had seen the women walk past his pool house.

  ‘Oh. How much did you overhear?’

  ‘Everything.’

  Of all the women, Anna was the most interesting. The most entertaining. And she was the only one who wasn’t interested in him. As much as he knew that was a good thing—he didn’t want a relationship—his ego took a ruthless battering.

  ‘I still want to go home.’ She turned back to the ocean and he could see the glint of the moonlight reflected in the corners of her eyes.

  ‘You lied to your sister? You’re going to keep trying to get evicted?’ he asked, watching the way her body swayed gently as the water lapped in small waves over her toes.

  ‘Yes.’