Page 76 of Heart to Heart
No. I wasn’t going to do this again.
Guy had broken me; Tristan wasn’t going to also get that satisfaction. I’d dared to dream that I could have it all, but here I was. Alone, tears threatening to fall down my cheeks. With Tristan still not in sight several more minutes later, I stood up, brushed the sand from the back of my dress, and walked back to the villa, saving my tears for when I was alone in bed, wondering why I had been so stupid.
Frantic knocking rousedme from my sleep the next morning. Groggy, I stumbled to the door, my brain slowly remembering who and where I was.
“Kamila needs everyone down in the lounge in forty minutes,” a young production assistant who looked way more awake than I’d ever had, announced.
Confused, I nodded, which must have been sufficient enough, as he moved on to the next door.
That was weird. Tristan was going on a date with the others today. Those of us on the date yesterday shouldn’t have to be getting up, especially not at whatever ungodly hour this was, which meant there would be some sort of special announcement. After last night, I wasn’t up for much of anything aside from lying in bed, wishing I could call Kiki.
I pulled a white tank top over my head, coupling it with a pair of blue linen shorts. Unlike last night, I spent all of about five minutes on my makeup, removed my hair from the ponytail I’d worn to bed, running my fingers through it to smooth out the tangles, and proceeded to the door.Heart to Heartwas going to get an Avery who had zero fucks left to give.
When I opened the door, I was stopped short. Instead of walking out into the hall, I walked right into what felt like a brick wall. A brick wall that firmly clamped a hand over my mouth when I let out a surprised shriek, and, with one arm draped around my waist, walked me back inside the room, closing the door behind us.
“Tristan,” I whisper-yelled. “What the hell?”
“I’m sorry,” he whispered back. Something had changed in him that I couldn’t quite put my finger on.
“I just wanted to tell you that I’m sorry about last night. I?—”
I held my hand up to stop him from talking, not wanting to hear any excuse he was going to give me. “It’s okay. I don’t care.”
With the way he looked taken aback, as if I’d just slapped him across the face, I almost wanted to take back what I’d said. But then I remembered all the times I’d done that with Guy, forgiving him after he’d hurt me, apologizing to him when he gaslighted me into believing I’d done something to cause him to hurt me.
Not again.
“You don’t care about what, Avery?” he asked, his eyes pleading with me, but I was unmoved.
“You don’t owe me any explanation for last night. It’s not like we’re a real couple. We’re just two people who formed an alliance. That’s it. We aren’t beholden to each other. This is just a silly competition.”
He stared at me for the longest time, a sadness washing over him. I was caught against the wall, his hands pressed against it on both sides of me, boxing me in. Another kink he’d unlocked that I’d have to explore later. “Is that how you truly feel?”
No. No, it was absolutely fucking not how I felt.
I nodded. “Yes.”
You’re a dirty liar, Avery.
He nodded. “Okay.” His eyes searched mine as though waiting for something in my resolve to crack. “I’ll see you in the lounge, then?”
“I’ll be there.”
He turned to leave, pausing with his hand on the doorknob. “Only a couple more weeks left, and we’ll both be able to return back to our lives and leave this silly competition.”
I wasn’t sure whether he was saying that to me or to himself as he didn’t look back at me when he spoke. Without another word, he opened the door, sneaking a glance into the hall to make sure the coast was clear, and stepped out. When the door closed behind him, the tears I’d kept at bay trickled down my face almost as fast as my body slid down the wall to the floor.
“Gather around, ladies,”Kamila announced, ushering us into the lounge. “There’s been a development that affects you all and is, quite frankly, a situation that’s unique to even the show itself.”
I looked around the lounge, noticing there were far more people on set than usual. Whatever this was, it had to be huge.
“I don’t like the look of this,” Bianca muttered next to me.
“What do you think it is?”
“Whatever it is, it isn’t good.” She paused before asking me a question I wasn’t expecting. “Have you been crying?”
“No,” I lied.
