Page 87 of Unscripted

I felt a bit sick as anxiety coursed through me. I was barely listening to what Callum was telling Gemma. Something about him not wanting to talk to the new girls over the last few days.

Was that true? Did he mean it? Or was he just better at pretending than I was?

My spiraling thoughts were interrupted by Callum squeezing my side, bringing me back down to Earth. I hadn’t even said anything, but it seemed our time in the spotlight was over.

I smiled at Gemma, holding everything in the best I could, and turned toward the fire pit and the rest of the guys sitting around it.

If I hadn’t been so distracted by Callum, I would have noticed it earlier. But I didn’t. Not until we were walking to take our seats, while Gemma was getting a makeup touch-up before the next girl walked out and the guys were lightly chatting to each other, did I look up to the middle of the fire pit bench.

To Hugh.

Sitting there, smiling wide.

With a new girl.

***

As we settled in on the left side of the fire pit bench, I immediately turned to Callum, eyes wide and mouth opened to ask him what the hell was going on.

He must have seen where my gaze went, noticed the absolute shock on my face, because he cut me off before I could launch into any kind of questioning.

“I know. I know,” he said, glancing over at Hugh, who was stroking the arm of the new girl.

I wanted to vomit. Chiara was going to be devastated.

Callum pulled me in closer to him, his arm still around my waist, and whispered in my ear. “I don’t know what happened. He said he was loyal to Chi one minute and then the next he was choosing Grace.”

“That’s her name?” The anxiety I felt over Callum melted away. All that mattered was that my friend was about to get her heart broken, and I had to sit back and watch.

“Hey,” Callum said, sensing my distress. “It’s going to be okay.”

I turned to him, eyes wide in panic over the impending bomb about to be dropped. That’s why Chiara had been placed last in line; the producers knew her matching would be the most brutal and end the most dramatically.

Callum took my hands in his own and held them firmly. I tried to let the gesture ground me, help bring me back to the moment and not launch across the fire pit to have words with Hugh.

“I’m not going to lie,” Callum continued. “It’s going to be really hard for Chiara, and it won’t be an easy watch. But there will be time, after the matching is over, for you to be there for her. We just have to get through this next bit.”

Tears formed in my eyes and threatened to spill over.

“Just look at me if it gets to be too much,” he said as he moved his body even closer to mine.

Whatever we were, whatever this was, figuring it out could wait. It had to. I needed to get through the rest of the night and be there for Chiara. If leaning on Callum, both physically and emotionally, was what that required, then so be it. I could think about what it all meant later.

“Okay,” I said, nodding my head at him.

We continued looking at each other, and a swell of feelings for him rose up in my chest.

So, I leaned in and kissed him.

It was just a light peck on the lips. A fraction of a second, really.

But when I pulled back and looked up at him, he was staring at me so intently I had to look away.

“Sorry,” I whispered.

I wasn’t sure what had come over me other than raw emotion.

Avoiding his eyes as he continued to stare at me, I looked anywhere but him. Only when I felt him squeeze my hand did I finally face him again.