Page 17 of Insta Bride

Kye

I didn’t know whether I was coming or going. Nothing could have prepared me for the isolation of living away from family, friends, and communication with the world. I’d thought living on an island with twelve other strangers, a camera crew and all the trappings of luxury would be stress free. Except the rest of my life was riding on these months.

The events, conversations and even feelings were amplified, with each day feeling like it had taken a month.

Knowing the cameras caught everything, I knew any conversation could end my time here. What if Seb convinced Elena that I hated children, or if I finally told Kenzie what I thought of her bitchy mouth? Depending on how I was edited, I might lose my job and any chance of making this month work for my future.

What if Elena couldn’t see a future with us. I mean, the producers had said there might be the opportunity for swapping partners, and I’d been hedging my bets. But while everyone else had hooked up and moved into their own luxury villas, Elena and I still lived separately. We were a couple on paper. We were a couple as far as eating together and going on dates went, but nothing more.

The diary interviews had thrown me for a loop. In my head, I’d game planned each interview building to a crescendo of realisation that they needed to sign me to my own show. But, then I turned up to the island and everything went to crap.

The pressure keg, the lack of sleep, the lack of privacy, knowing each conversation was being monitored and probably torn apart and analyzed in a thousand different ways, and if I fucked this up, I had no backup plan.

Shit.

Out in the real world, I headed a sales team chasing million-dollar deals. For CEOs and CIOs to take my call, I needed something that set me apart from the others.

Fame and infamy could make me interesting. Interesting could get me a meeting. My product and personality could then close the deal.

I needed this.

Matt and Campbell emerged from their couples’ cabin sporting a post-fuck morning glow. Strutting around like they were mum and dad and we were a bunch of school kids.

“Guess no one’s going to have a reason to send us home tonight,” she announced, sliding away the scarf to show off bruising tramp stamps.

“Really? You’d sleep with someone just so you can stay another couple of days on an island?” Elena scoffed, taking a bite of the apricot danish the other women would die before eating sober. “There’s a word for women like you.”

“Bring it on, bitch.” Campbell had more courage than common sense. The rest of us could almost hear the producers salivating. Catfight. Unfortunately, we weren’t close enough to the pool to turn the fight into a wet t-shirt contest.

“Babe,” I cautioned, needing Australia to see I had my girl’s back. “She’s not worth it.”

“Really, bro?” Matt joined the fray. “The way my girl tells it, you were trying to get into her pants yesterday.”

“Couldn’t have been Kye, here.” Harris decided to get in on the action. “He’s been sniffing around my Georgia since the auditions.”

“Don’t take it personally, I don’t think there’s a woman alive he hasn’t tried to get it on with,” Dawson laughed. “Luckily, Randi prefers my footballer body to his skinny sales exec.”

I didn’t rise to Dawson’s bait. He had my measure on the bench press, but I’d challenged him to a stomach crunch comp until he threw up.

Elena slowly backed away. Quite content with everyone trashing on me. I was alone, reading the future headlines before they’d been written: Australia’s most hated bachelor. I wondered if I’d get a crown to go with the title?

One by one the other couples decided to take me down a peg, pointing out my flaws. Everything from taking the last slice of cheese to washing up mine and Elena’s dishes before everyone else had finished eating. Yeah, I owned that one. We’d gone for a romantic walk along the beach. Our only alone time since we’d been paired up and I’d tried to repair things after sneaking a second kiss.

“Can you hear yourselves talking?” Elena’s soft voice couldn’t dent their enthusiasm for giving me shade. “Stop it.”

When they didn’t listen, and before I could react, she slammed a crockery plate against the wooden table, sending fragments flying. Wow. I admitted to being at least a little turned on even if the noise didn’t have the desired effect.

“Babe, it’s okay.” I didn’t care if they wanted to have a go at me. I could handle it and it meant they left Elena alone.

“Would. You. Stop. It.” Elena upturned a chair, the metal legs clanking against the tiles. When they didn’t silence quickly enough, she upturned another one, before dragging the legs along the tiles. The screeching instantly brought back memories of fingernails and chalk boards.

“Fuck, bitch. Calm your farm.” Campbell chested my girl before being pulled away by her guy.

“Kye did nothing wrong.” Elena defended me, her eyes blazing and giving Campbell more than she’d expected. “So what if he tried it on during the mixer or the interviews? We are all single—or at least we were back then.”

“And since we got paired up—what’s his excuse now?”

“Seriously?” Elena snorted her disgust with the group.

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