Page 77 of The Cuffing Game
“So when are Celine and Kyle coming to the beach house?” she asked her crew. “It’s getting kind of late.”
Alex’s mouth dropped open. Their eyes widened with panic as they looked from Mia to Damien and then to Mia again.
Mia’s heart thudded in her chest. “What?” she asked. “What is it?”
Damien put a hand on Alex’s shoulder, as if to reassure them. “I’d already left by then, but Alex told me that since Kyle was the last crusher to be interviewed, they pulled him into the production room before he and Celine left.”
“Kyle and Celine were the last contestants to leave the lodge,” Alex explained. “You were in your room, I think.”
Mia groaned. After the hot tub fiasco with Noah, she’d gone back upstairs to take a hot shower and change into new clothes. She’d had to unpack and repack her bag. It’d been super annoying, and she’d had no one to blame but herself.
“I haven’t edited it yet, since it’s supposed to air before the finale tomorrow,” Alex continued. “But Kyle told me he and Celine are dropping out of the show. And he saidyouapproved it and told them they could go to Vegas.”
“I definitely didn’t say that.” An uneasy feeling settled in Mia’s stomach. “And Celine already has plans to visit her family in China over the break. She said so during her interview on Day One.”
Granted, Mia had only met Celine four months ago, but her roommate didn’t seem like the kind of person to change plans so drastically.
“Sorry, Mia!” Alex moaned. “I should have asked you about it directly. You seemed to have a lot on your mind already, so I only told Damien.”
“And I thought it was strange,” Damien replied. “But Ifigured you had a conversation about it with Celine in private since she’s your roommate.”
“What can they even do in Vegas?” Shirin asked. She and the other contestants had drifted over at some point into the conversation. “They’re not even twenty-one yet, right? They can’t gamble, drink, or even get a hotel room by themselves in most places.”
“But they can elope,” whispered Matías.
Everyone gasped, turning to look at him.
“But it’s only been a couple of days!” Tiana said. “They’re notactuallygoing to get married... right?”
Alex scrunched up their face. “Yeah, I don’t know,” they said quietly. “I hope not. Kyle said a lot of weird stuff, like how they’re more compatible than he thought they’d be and how he wants to do what Noah couldn’t, whatever that means.”
Deciding enough was enough, Mia called Celine. The line went straight to voicemail.
Celine was probably fine, but thenotknowing was what killed Mia. She called her roommate again. Voicemail.
Everyone was watching Mia, waiting for her to decide what to do. For the first time since they’d started this show, even Damien seemed at a loss.
Tears of frustration sprung into her eyes as she stared down at her phone. She wanted to scream, but of course, she couldn’t. Not now, anyway.
“Crew,” she finally said. “Emergency production meeting, now.”
The In-Between
Chapter Thirty-Three
Noah
As luck would have it, the tow truck got to Noah in an hour. He’d had to rent another car for the week while his Jeep was in the shop, but he was able to return to the fraternity house by sunset.
In the end, because of bad cell service, he hadn’t been able to get through more than the first five minutes of episode one while waiting in his car. Now, he relished the power and speed of high-speed internet. The fraternity house was empty, like it always was during the holidays, so Noah ordered pizza and queued up all four available episodes ofThe Cuffing Gameonto the smart TV before throwing himself onto the living room couch.
Living out in the woods had been fun, up to a certain point. But it sure felt good to be back in civilization. He took a slow, deep breath and pressed play.
From the very first second, Noah was enthralled. Alex had done an amazing job, piecing together all the different moments from the past several days into extremelybinge-worthy episodes. This was Noah’s first time seeing himself—ashimself—in long-form content. It was painful howdoucheyhe came off as in some scenes, even when he hadn’t meant to be a jerk. God, no wonder Mia had rejected him.
At some point, the pizza arrived, but Noah was so engrossed by the show that he almost forgot to bring it inside. When he finally remembered, he devoured the food as he kept watching and laughed so much he almost choked on pepperoni when he saw himselftryto shovel.
When Matías cuffed with Jack, Noah got up on his feet, clapping and yelling, “Let’s go!” like he hadn’t witnessed the moment in person. And during the most recently released episode, he paused his fight with Celine to book a session with the earliest available therapist.
