Page 30 of Art of Love
I shook my head, unable to find the right words to say.
“I feel like shit.” That was the most honest I could be.
“But you look like a million dollars,” he offered. A lock of his shiny black hair fell over his eye and the slight incline of his head to the side shifted it back in place.
“Don’t forget your charms don’t work on me anymore.” I chuckled.
“Anymore? So, I lost my touch? Have you looked at me properly?”
And I thought Hunter was full of himself. “I’ve seen you.”
“You must be very strong to be able to resist me.”
I shook my head at him and laughed. This felt nice. It was the most at ease I’d felt since I got here. Two days in, and it felt like my world had turned upside down and twisted at an angle where I was hovering in mid-air.
We moved to the sitting room, where we sat side by side on the sofa.
“Carla told me what John’s making you guys do.” Stephan shuffled around so he could face me.
I sighed with frustration. “What gets me is he never said anything about a competition.”
“He never said anything to us either, and guess what?”
“What?”
“He must have decided on doing this months ago. I wondered why Trish, Daniel, and I were doing our shows in the latter part of the season. Now I know why.”
I wasn’t following what he meant. “Why?”
“Your elements theme/topic doesn’t apply to us. We got free reign of what we wanted to do, but Juliana, Geoff, and Sandy were told to design their shows with the questions in mind. Also, you aren’t close to Juliana, Geoff, or Sandy.”
My shoulders slumped. “I’m not, so if I asked too many specific questions, they wouldn’t give me the answers.”
He nodded and laughed. “John knew that I would give you the answers whether he swore me to secrecy or not.”
“Thank you.”
“I haven’t done anything yet.” He chuckled.
“It helps knowing. Shows me how serious this is.” I looked ahead to the balcony outside. It was drizzling when I came in earlier. Now it was raining.
I hated the rain. It reminded me of sad things, like Todd’s funeral.
“Hey, don’t look so down. At least you’re back. You just have to put up a good fight.”
Fight against Hunter. Sure, easy.
I didn’t like it. Not any of it, and us working together made it harder. It was against what made something a competition. Felt like being in the Hunger Games, in the parts where the characters had teamed up to survive all the traps the Capitol set up for them, but in the end, they knew there could only be one winner.
This felt like that, and as much as my situation with Hunter annoyed me, I had to admit that I liked the way he thought. I liked the idea he’d come up with and that he’d managed to come up with it because I’d been at a loss. It was worrying what that said about me and my ability to adapt to sudden changes, but I was rolling with his idea and playing the good team member.
“I didn’t think it was going to be so hard. Stephan, I actually thought I could pick up where I left off.”
“The problem was John liked you both. You seen Hunter’s work?”
I shook my head. “It’s best I don’t.” I didn’t need to feel more anxious.
“You need to, to analyze your competition, Jia. If it were me, the guy wouldn’t even be able to take a leak without me knowing. And, please, don’t be too trusting.”
