“You’re still doing that? I guess you didn’t win, huh?”

  “You know I can’t answer that. And even if I could, the winner doesn’t get the money right away. It goes through this whole process, apparently. It can take a couple of weeks.”

  “And a winner would know that?” Megan asked, sounding hopeful.

  “Bye, Megan,” Cali told her, drawing out both words.

  “Bye, Cal.”

  Cali climbed into the car, plugged her phone into the charger, and placed it in its holder on the dash, opening her app to see if anyone needed a ride nearby. She had already worked with the show about her prize money and the car. She had chosen to take cash for the car instead of the Prius, since she didn’t need two cars, and this one was just fine. They would be cutting the check soon. Then, she’d pay down her bills and go back to school. She would still have to find a job. The money was very helpful, but it wouldn’t support her living in Los Angeles with her debt.

  Before Cali could accept the ride request, her phone beeped, indicating a message from Dayton. She opened the messages app and read it, wanting to reply right away, but stopping herself and accepting that ride request instead. She’d sent Dayton that message without thinking the other night. She’d seen Dayton’s message immediately. Dayton was thinking about her, and Cali just couldn’t help herself. She’d had to reply that she was thinking about her, too. It was true. She hadn’t been able to get Dayton out of her mind. Dayton’s humor, her spontaneity, her selflessness in the challenge, her lips on Cali’s, and just about every single moment they had shared ran through Cali’s mind on an endless loop.

  She took three people back and forth across Los Angeles, earning a little extra cash. Then, she went home and made some instant noodles. She had promised herself she wouldn’t watch the first episode – or any episode, for that matter, but here she was, streaming the thing on her laptop. She had no idea what to expect. She didn’t think she would see herself all too much outside of her introduction since she had pretty much hidden herself away for weeks. The only thing she did expect was the pang of jealousy that would hit her when she saw Dayton and Bristol together, which it did, and it hurt like hell knowing that while she’d been hiding under that blanket, they had been whispering sweet nothings to one another and feeling each other up under their own shared blanket. She watched Shannon get sent home and closed the laptop. She knew Bristol got sent home next, and then, things would get very interesting.

  Her phone beeped. Cali assumed it would be Megan and Beckett giving her a report about how she’d looked like the weird hermit of the show, hiding in her bed for basically the entire episode and being a wimp in the first challenge, but she was surprised to see Dayton’s name. She squeezed her eyes shut when she realized she had now forgotten to respond to Dayton’s earlier message and she’d never replied to Dayton’s message back the other night. She could see both messages and the new one on her phone now.

  “When can we talk?” she read out loud to herself. “I don’t know, Dayton. Let’s talk when I figure out my life, and when you suddenly turn into someone who wants a commitment,” she added. “Are you watching tonight?” she read out loud as well. Then, she read, “Do you know what I thought when I first saw you in that van?”

  Cali didn’t know what to do. She could ghost Dayton entirely. She could just not respond to her at all, and Dayton would eventually get the hint, find some other woman to go out with, and they would both be able to move on.

  I mean, it was one freaking kiss. That was all, right? It was one passionate, long, deep, and sexy as hell kiss. But that was all it could be.

  Cali typed a response. Then, she watched with wide eyes as the three bubbles appeared, indicating Dayton was not only typing a message, but that she had been staring at her phone, waiting for Cali to reply.

  “Your eyes were gorgeous. I’ve always had a thing for green eyes,” Dayton’s follow-up message read.

  Cali typed her response as she said it out loud, “Is that why you spent the first night with Bristol and her brown eyes?”

  She hit send, regretting it instantly. Then, she watched as Dayton typed.

  “I got, like, one glimpse of those green eyes before you turned away from me and shut yourself into that fort, Cali. Who knows what would have happened had we actually really talked that day?”

  This was a mistake. Cali didn’t want to rehash what had happened on the show through text messages. She just wanted to sleep. She had been so tired since she’d gotten back. She’d driven people from place to place eight to ten hours a day. She had also applied for jobs and interviewed elsewhere. She’d cleaned up the mess her short-term tenant had left. She’d spent time with Megan and Beckett. She’d called and checked in with her parents, giving them the short version of her experience on the show and telling them she’d come to visit as soon as she could justify the flight expense. Add all of that to the fact that sleep wasn’t coming easy these days, with thoughts of Dayton plaguing her, and she was wiped. When her phone rang, she dropped it into her lap from the shock of the sound. Then, Cali realized a ring meant someone was calling, not texting. She looked at the screen and saw Megan’s name. She let out a sigh and took the call.

  “Hey,” she greeted.

  “You hid?”

  “You watched it?”

  “Of course, we watched it. Cali, you’re hardly in it.”

  “That was the idea.” She leaned back against the sofa. “I was there for the money.”

  “People are going to think you’re a weirdo, Cal.”

  “Maybe.”

  “I will say you were hilarious, hanging over that cliff, though. When you were like, ‘This is where I live now,’ Becks and I both lost it. I laughed so hard, I cried when you splashed into the water.”

  “I’m glad I could provide you and your girlfriend with an entertaining night.”

  “Truthfully, I’m glad you went on the show. I hated not seeing you for over a month, but it’s given Becks and I something to talk about and re-bond over, almost. She actually skipped the law library tonight to watch it live with me. We cuddled on the couch together and mostly laughed at you, but it was so nice, Cali.”

  “No longer worried about her cheating?”

  “No. I told her about my thoughts on that while you were gone. She just kept apologizing for even making me think she could do that to me. She’s made an effort every day since. I wake up a little earlier in the morning for her, and she hangs out with me more at night now. I think we just got into this… routine after being together for so long. We needed a kick in the ass to get it back.”

  “Well, if I helped kick you both in the ass, I’m glad.”

  “Hey, can I ask you something?” Megan asked.

  “Sure.”

  “Who’s the girl you mentioned? Now that I’ve seen the first episode, you can tell me, right?”

  “I guess so. I don’t think there are any rules about me telling you who I made out with.”

  “I love that you went on this show and met someone you liked enough to make out with her on camera.” Megan laughed.

  “It wasn’t exactly on camera,” Cali said.

  “It wasn’t?”

  “Well, I mean, it was, but you’ve seen my bed… You know how I hid myself.”

  “You made out there?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Cali, did you watch the episode tonight?”

  “Some of it. I closed my laptop a few times. I wasn’t going to watch it at all, but I couldn’t stop myself.”

  “Did you see the part with the two women above you?”

  “The beginning of it. I watched Dayton climb into bed with Bristol. Then, I went to the bathroom.”

  “Cal, there are hidden cameras all over the place in that house.”

  “Yeah, I noticed some of them.”

  “There was one attached to the post of the bunk bed. We got to see a little of Dayton and Bristol under that blanket. It was dark, so you couldn’t make out much, and then the blanket or a sheet got in the way of the camera, so they cut away, but… My guess is there’s a hidden camera on your bottom bunk, too. They probably didn’t use it this time since you weren’t doing anything interesting.”

  “I guess I should have thought about that, huh?” Cali said, her heart racing. “I should go, Megan. I suddenly feel like I’m going to vomit.”

  “Hey, it was just a make-out session, right? You didn’t have sex with her. Plus, it’s basically night-vision, and you can’t see anything. It’s mostly just sound.”

  “They didn’t do that in the other seasons. I watched them.”

  “I know. Hey, maybe they just did it for those two since their reunion was all played up in the promos while you guys were actually there.”

  “Maybe,” Cali said, doubting it.

  “So, who was it? Who’d you make out with?”

  “Oh, no one; just Dayton Maine.”

  “What?!”

  CHAPTER 26

  “No coffee date?” Margot asked.

  “No tea date,” Dayton corrected.

  “Maybe you need to do something.”

  “Like what? I did what you suggested. I messaged. We went back and forth. Then, she stopped responding. I’m not going to stalk the woman, and I don’t want to beg someone to go out with me. I want her to actually want to go out with me.”

  “Okay. Let’s think about this. You really like her, right?”

  “Yes,” Dayton stated.

  “And you know she likes you.”

  “Yes.”

  “Are you sure?” Margot asked, wincing a little. “I’m not trying to be an asshole, just asking the question.”

  “She said she had been thinking about me, too.”

  “But that was a couple of weeks ago, right?”

  “Yeah, after the first episode aired,” Dayton said. “I think she got freaked when she saw Bristol and I making out. Plus, I didn’t know they would have cameras on the damn beds. They must have been pen hole lenses in the posts or something because I never noticed them. I saw the ones in the corners of every room, but these were a new addition this season.”

  “But she knows you’re not into Bristol anymore, right?”

  “I haven’t talked to the woman since the airport. I said a quick goodbye to her before I went to get my bag, and she had to catch her connection. Cali knows I don’t want Bristol anymore.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “I texted it to her.”

  “You’re so brave,” Margot said sarcastically.

  “What do you want from me, Margot? I’ve never done any of this before.”

  Dayton took a drink of her coffee and looked at her older, wiser sister.

  “Hey, I get it. All I’m saying is that if she likes you… She just had to watch another girl put her tongue down your throat. It might be making her think about dropping this whole thing. A text message might not cut it, Day.”

  “I tried calling once. She didn’t answer.”

  “Did you leave a voicemail?”

  “No. Who leaves voicemails anymore?”

  “A desperate woman who might have just fallen in love with a seemingly complex woman that’s nothing like anyone else she’s ever been with; and she needs to make some kind of romantic gesture after that woman had to watch another woman–”

  “Okay. I get it,” Dayton interrupted and laughed at Margot. “I’ll call her again.”

  “She must really be worth it.”

  “I think she is. I spent so much time with her there. It’s weird, not being with her now. I didn’t really feel that way with Heather or Bristol. There wasn’t an immediate loss when I left them at the airport. With Cali, I felt this pull toward her. I didn’t want her to get in the car without me because I worried I’d never see her again.”

  “You’ve got it bad, baby sis,” Margot said, but she wasn’t teasing this time. Her message was sincere. “Call her. If she answers, make sure she knows Bristol is behind you, and you want to give it a try with her. If she doesn’t, leave a message and let her know the ball’s in her court. If you don’t hear from her, you’re bowing out gracefully because you just want her to be happy.”

  “I don’t want to let it go, though. I miss her, Margot.”

  “But if she wants to let it go, you have to respect that, Dayton.” She patted Dayton’s hand on the table. “I have to go. I have rounds. Thanks for visiting. Sorry, the hospital cafeteria coffee tastes like cigarette ashes.”

  “It’s fine,” Dayton replied, not even hearing what Margot said.

  Margot left her with a squeeze to her shoulder. It was after nine o’clock at night. The episode would have aired by now. Dayton could go home and try not to watch it on her DVR. She knew the episode tonight would be the boat and her challenge partnership with Cali. She figured after the episode that first week that there had to be cameras in the cabin, too. She should have thought about it back then, but she was so pissed that Bristol had gotten kicked off. Then, she had been kind of enamored by Cali that she hadn’t thought about much else. Dayton reached for her phone as she looked around the cafeteria. There was a table of four doctors in the corner, but no one else was around. She could call Cali now, leave a message, and say all those things Margot had suggested.

  When she looked at the phone, though, she saw a lot of notifications; like, a lot of notifications. She was popular on social media; that was part of the job. But she’d never had this many notifications in this short of a period, and she had checked her phone only thirty minutes ago while she had been waiting on Margot. What was going on?

  Dayton opened Twitter first. She’d been tagged in a lot of tweets. It wasn’t just that, though. She was trending. Baine was trending.

  “Baine?” she mumbled, investigating further. “Banks and Maine,” she said louder, realizing the meaning.

  They were shipping her with Cali. Dayton searched through the tweets and the images people had taken from the show. It looked like she had been right. There had been cameras in the boat cabin. From the images, she couldn’t tell what everyone had heard, but they had definitely seen them start to get to know one another.

  “Great. Now, I’ve got no chance. She finds out about this, and it’s over,” Dayton stated.

  She could just feel Cali’s resentment for the cameras in the cabin on both of those nights. She couldn’t call her now. Instead, she sat at that table by herself and looked as the reactions from the fans continued to include mentions of her with Cali, and she couldn’t blame them. She felt the chemistry between them even back then, too. Dayton had denied it, of course, but it had always been there.

  ◆◆◆

  “Dayton, hey,” Alec, her agent, said.

  “What’s up?” she asked.

  “Berserk wants you back again,” he said.

  “We literally just got home.”

  “They’re shooting the next season soon. They want it out quickly because they’re changing the format. All they’ve told me is that they’re asking a few people back as captains of four teams. The rest of the cast members will all be new players.”

  “Who else have they asked?” Dayton asked, leaning back in her desk chair.

  “You’re going to love this,” Alec began. “It’s you, Heather, Bristol, and Cali. It’s an all-women challenge. All sixteen contestants will be women. They’re also shooting an all-guys challenge with sixteen men at the same location. Then, they’re taking the top team from each challenge and pitting them against one another for the real, final challenge. Meaning, if your team wins the women’s group, you bring home one hundred thousand dollars plus a bunch of other prizes. They’re doing cash and other prizes for each round, so the total could be two hundred and fifty if you won out. But, if you make it to the round with the guys and win, you bring home two million dollars. You have to divide that up between the four of you, but that’s still five hundred K. Plus the money from the–”

  “Alec, hold on.” Dayton tried to stop his ramble.

  “What? This is huge. It’s more money, and you get to capitalize on the trending stuff that’s going on right now.”

  “You realize they made Heather and Bristol captains, right? I’ve slept with both of them.”

  “And Cali,” Alec added.

  “Who I made out with later in this season,” Dayton explained. “And I may or may not be in love with,” she added, rolling eyes at herself.

  “Wait… What?”

  “They did this on purpose. I’m not an idiot.”

  “Well, I can call around; find out if any of them have said yes.”

  “I’m not doing it, Alec. That’s a recipe for drama.”

  “You love drama. You asked me to find you the drama.”

  “Change in strategy,” Dayton said. “I want something with less drama, if that even exists in reality TV.”

  “It does, but not on this network, and not on this show.”

  “I’m not going back, Alec.” She sighed. “Especially under those conditions. I don’t know about the rest of them, but I’m not putting myself through that.”

  “Fine. Fine. I’ll find something else and give them a call. Do you want me to find out if any of them said no, though? Maybe that will change things for you. If one of them won’t be there, it might–”

  “Bristol will say yes because she got kicked off early this time; which you may or may not already know, but still, don’t tell anyone I told you that.”

  “Lips are sealed,” he promised.

  “Heather might say yes because she did just ask me to get back with her a few weeks ago, and because she’ll want another chance to kick Bristol’s ass, but I don’t know for sure. Cali will say no.”

  “There you go. It could just be you and Bristol. They’ll find two other captains.”

  “It’s not what I want anymore, Alec.”

  “Okay. Okay. I heard you.”

  They disconnected the call. Dayton stared down at her phone and decided it was now or never. She found Cali’s contact information, hit the phone button, put it to her ear, and waited. It went to voicemail.