Page 54 of Unscripted

Love was a game I couldn’t afford to play.

I looked out across the pool to where Callum sat with Hugh, chatting and laughing. Of course it had been the right move to pick him. It would have been reckless not to.

“Have you tried pulling Callum for a chat?” Jess asked, seeing where my gaze had drifted. “Maybe he doesn’t want to bother you with his feelings,” she suggested.

Maybe she was right. Maybe he was waiting for me to talk to him. I was the one who had been kissed, after all.

“Should I try to pull him now?” I asked.

It was funny, the lingo of the villa which had slowly seeped into my way of speaking. A month ago I would have never asked if I should “pull a guy.” It really didn’t even make sense grammatically, but I had quickly learned that things in the villa rarely made sense on paper.

“Yeah, go on. I’ll walk over with you. He’s talking to Hugh, and I can pretend I’m pulling him, so then you can take his place.”

“That’s brilliant,” I said as we got up off the daybed.

Walking over to where Callum and Hugh sat across from each other on the pool loungers, I tried to tamp down my nerves. Jess was probably right; maybe he didn’t want to bother me with what he was feeling. Maybe he wasn’t feeling anything at all. Maybe he simply thought this was the more dramatic approach to drawing out a story line for us.

“Hiya, boys,” Jess called out as we approached them. “Hugh, fancy a chat over at the fire pit?” she asked, nodding her head across the lawn.

“Yeah, of course,” Hugh replied, getting up and following her.

Taking the opportunity to snag Hugh’s seat from him, I plopped down on the lounger directly across from Callum.

He looked less than pleased at the change of company.

“Hi,” I said. I wasn’t sure what he was thinking, so I wasn’t sure where to start.

“Hi,” he said back, looking anywhere but me.

“Are you mad at me?” I blurted out, getting right to it.

He finally looked at me, but I was still confused. He didn’t look mad, but his eyes were guarded, and that cold, indifferent gaze I had the misfortune of coming to know so well had returned.

I found myself slightly crushed to see it come back.

Shaking off the feeling of disappointment, I continued. “Well? You’ve been ignoring me ever since James kissed me.”

Callum was quiet for a beat before letting out a small sigh.

“Do you want to be matched with him?” he asked, gazing across at me so intently that I had to look away.

“What?” I sputtered, thrown off by the turn our conversation had suddenly taken.

“James. Do you want to be with him instead of me?”

“I chose you,” I said.

“That’s not what I’m asking.”

I knew what he meant. Knew that he was really talking about our deal and if I wanted to stick with it or call the whole thing off.

I looked across at him, the man who it felt like I’d already been on a very long journey with. We had found the early stages of a truce only a day ago, but it felt like we had once again veered off course. I wasn’t sure how to get us back on track.

“I—”

“All Bellas please gather around the fire pit,” a producer’s voice said, ringing out across the garden and cutting me off. I swallowed down a groan and stood. Our conversation would have to wait.

Joining the others around the fire pit, I squeezed in next to Callum. We were instructed by producers to sit with our partner at any kind of formal gathering. I didn’t think our tense situation was cause for changing the rule. It actually probably encouraged production to put us in close proximity for as long as possible to draw out the drama.