Page 53 of Insta Bride

“Damn it, Bree. Sometimes I want to do the right thing because it’s the right thing to do.”

“Then put it on camera.”

“Why?”

“Because one day, you might look back on this as the turning point in your relationship?”

“You’ll use it against me.”

“You wanted to do the show to get exposure and create a brand. Do this interview and it might be the making of you.”

“Fine.”

I’d started doing my diary entries at the crack of dawn when I knew there would be no one around. All the other couples would still either be hung over, or fucking like rabbits. I got up early, fulfilled my diary entry obligation, picked up breakfast from the dining room, and made it back to the villa. Despite all the crap between us, we’d moved up to Villa #4. Middle of the road. Not likely to succeed but not likely to kill each other while trying to leave.

“So, Kye, tell us about your day.” Bree had one voice for behind the camera and one voice when she was being a production manager. I personally preferred no voice at all. But I knew the routine.

“I really wanted to do something that would show Elena that I’d gotten to know her.”

“You mean, living together hasn’t given you the opportunity to know each other?”

“Yes, we’ve lived together. Yes, I know the basics, but it’s coming up to the finish line. At some point she’s gonna have to decide whether we take this into the outside world or not.”

“What did you decide between?”

I knew the questions would be edited out.

“At first there was a lot of pressure to take Elena up in a helicopter and hover around the island and there’d be a whole conversation about how the things that make us work as a couple are bigger than how they seem on the ground.”

“A helicopter ride would give you perspective?” Bree probed.

“Yes. Having some more perspective about our relationship might work. But, if I did that, Elena would only go along with it because it was expected of her—not because it’s something that she wanted to do.”

“Would that be a problem? She’d be putting your needs first. Isn’t that what a relationship is all about?”

“Forcing Elena to go up in a helicopter, knowing her fear of heights, would make her think I hadn’t listened. She’d think I hadn’t gotten to know her or cared to know her. I know my girlfriend and there’s no way she’d look back and be happy in a helicopter.”

“You called her, your girlfriend.”

It had been a slip of the tongue, but in my head, yes. Elena had been my girlfriend from the moment I’d planked over her at dinner. I’d never done the whole public display of affection for other women before—there’d never been a need or opportunity. But, somewhere during the night, I’d looked forward to helping her lay down on the white tablecloth. I didn’t care that my arms screamed at the thought of another twenty, incredibly slow, push ups.

I’d wanted to taste my girlfriend’s lips. Again, and again.

I smiled at Bree, nodding like the fool they’d edit me to be.

“Elena is my girlfriend. I haven’t had any practice at being a boyfriend before, but even I know that if Elena is terrified of heights, that I’m not going to make her face that fear.”

I took a breath, needing to give them a tagline to use. “Why would I intentionally put someone I care about in a position where they could be physically sick from fear. I would never treat Elena like that.”

“So, you chose the boat?” For a minute, Bree stopped acting like a jealous ex and tried to be a friend. Yes, she’d made the boat happen.

“Hopefully, it’ll give me the confidence to be able to be honest with her.” I said, “She finds water calming. There’s sometimes when we fight, and damn it we fight a lot, that she just comes down to the beach and sits and watches the waves. She’ll do that in the middle of the day. Hell, she’ll do that in the middle of the night. Elena finds water calming and taking her out on the water for a day, could be the only way to fix things.”

“Fix things? You look like the perfect couple. What do you need to fix?”

“There’s been a misunderstanding, going back to when we got together. It could be the one thing that stops us from being together in two months or two years. I want to talk to her about it on the water.”

“Where she can’t run away.”

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