‘Amanda says you and Banjo have been pretty hot and heavy and that he’s not taking an interest in the other girls.’
Eliza fought to keep her expression cool, her cheeks cool too. ‘You wanted us to play a part and that’s what we’re doing.’
‘Is that what you were doing last night? I take it you were with Banjo when you weren’t in your own bedroom?’
Did her heart only skip a beat or did it stop altogether? ‘What are you talking about?’
‘I had Amanda come to get you last night so we could talk and you weren’t in the house. You didn’t seem to be on the grounds at all.’
‘I went out for a run.’
‘At eleven pm?’
‘I couldn’t sleep.’
‘You can’t lie either. You were with him weren’t you?’
Crossing her arms over her chest to stop her hands from shaking, Eliza gave a glare her best shot. ‘Just what are you accusing me of, Malcolm?’
He shook his head but didn’t directly answer. ‘Word is that Banjo is going to throw the show in early.’
Oh my God. This was not happening. He’d promised. ‘You’re wrong. Your information is bad.’
Malcolm shrugged. ‘My info is credible. Banjo’s manager rang me yesterday to ask how he could leave the show early to compete next month. He said it was Banjo’s last shot for championship qualifying, someone broke their ankle at training and he was up. You can imagine how Banjo might be swayed into trading boardies for a board can’t you? Seeing as how he wasn’t going to go through with any of this in the first place.’
‘He wouldn’t do it. He’s committed. He signed the contract.’
‘He isn’t committed at all. He’d sell you out in a second to add another gold to his collection.’
Eliza forced a laugh. ‘Sell me out? Why would you assume I’d care? I’ve got nothing riding on Banjo Grahams other than my documentary. Other than helping those kids gain some attention and equipment. I’m only here for them. And for you. Tell me again how the station got into so much financial trouble again? Without anyone noticing?’
Did his eyes narrow just a fraction or did she imagine it? He started walking again and Eliza followed. Like a good girl. Like an obedient dog. She was pretty sure that’s how her father saw her.
‘It’s easy to fudge the books and make people believe what you want them to believe. Do you think I made it this far in the industry by being honest and moral?’
‘So Banjo was right? You lied to me?’
‘Is that what he said? Of course you’d believe him. He’s blinded you, honey. I knew he was a smooth one that day in my office. I never lied to you, the station is in trouble. Our jobs are in trouble. Banjo planted the seed of doubt so he could quit the show. I just hope you didn’t do anything with him that he can blackmail us with.’
This time her cheeks did heat but her lips pressed together so she could form a reply. ‘He wouldn’t do that. Banjo isn’t as bad as the world thinks he is.’
‘Oh Eliza, he’s got you wrapped around his little finger.’
‘No one has me wrapped around anything. Trust me when I say Banjo will finish the show. He promised to play it out until the end, choose me, we play it up for six months and then it’s all over. That’s what we agreed to, that’s what you’ll get.’
‘Okay, okay, I’ll trust you in this but don’t let the network down, Eliza. Don’t let me down.’
She knew there was a way they could all get what they wanted out of the situation. Malcolm would get his season, Banjo would show the board he was good and Eliza would get the guy. Never in her wildest dreams had she thought it would all work out but her gut said differently now. She trusted her gut and it told her that she had nothing to worry about. Banjo had promised her and he wouldn’t reneg on that. Tomorrow night at the rose ceremony Banjo would send another two girls home and they’d go on for another week and then another after that. She trusted him to keep his word in the same way her father could trust her to keep it all straight.
***
‘Jesus, Tony, why did you have to call me about this now?’ Banjo said into the phone late Saturday afternoon. ‘I’m locked in here for another few weeks. I can’t fly out and compete. I’ve not trained in months either, I’d be a laughing stock.’
His manager sighed and Banjo heard it all the way down the phone line from Switzerland. ‘We don’t have anyone else we can send in. If you don’t come out, we’ll be going into the world championships a man down. It would be dumb not to have all the spots filled.’
Never in his life had Banjo put any women before his sport. He’d always jumped at the chance to compete and show off and win. As he listened to argument after argument from Tony, he decided it was good that he had absolutely no interest in leaving Eliza. It was bloody scary but somehow his priorities had shifted when he’d come on She’s The One. When he’d told his uncle he’d had enough of the game, he’d thought he was lying but he smiled now, knowing he’d been telling the truth.
‘Tony,’ he interrupted, ‘Tony, I’m not coming out. Consider me injured or retired or something but there’s no way I’ll be competition ready in four weeks. No way, no how. I’m locked in here and there’s nothing I can do about it. My hands are tied.’
‘So you’d rather hang out with chicks and cameras than showcase your skills for your country and your sport?’
He hesitated but then began to laugh. ‘You’re a bigger drama queen than all these girls here, Tony. Geez, you make it sound like treason or something. The legalities are that I signed a contract for She’s The One and there’s three weeks to go until I’m sort of clear but even then, I’m not as young as I used to be. I can’t be at the top of my game just like that. My left knee is fucked and my right is only a few jumps away from crushing completely.’
‘I’ve never heard you like this, man.’
Banjo leapt to his own defence. ‘Like what? Morally and legally bound? Sticking something out because it’s the right thing to do?’
‘There’s a girl involved, isn’t there? That’s the only reason I can come up with that you’d be thinking with your dick instead of your brain. Have you fallen in love with someone on the show? The missus said you were getting all crazy over a little redhead.’
‘The one who makes me crazy doesn’t have red hair and why can’t it be about a girl? You missed last year’s meet to be at the birth of your baby.’
‘That’s different. My wife was in a bad way and there was no way I was leaving her.’
‘Well,’ Banjo said, not even thinking of the repercussions once again, ‘Eliza needs me here too. She’s counting on me and I won’t leave her. I promised to stay and do what I’d agreed to. I won’t back out now.’
There was another sigh followed by a few blistering fucks but then Tony said, ‘All right, all right. Stay and play house with the girls. But you probably won’t ever get another chance like this, Banjo. You said it yourself, you’re just about done.’
He had said it. He’d been thinking a lot about it too. How many years did he have left? How many more jumps did he have? How many more somersaults thirty feet off the half pipe did he have left before he broke his neck or blew out another knee? Ten years ago he’d have been happy to die for his sport, for the applause and the adoration. Ten years ago he’d been fit and cocky and fearless, nothing tying him down or holding him back. God, he had been an idiot. One bad relationship had shown him he’d needed to forget about serious and go for gold but what about now? He was thirty and his body was far older than it should have been. All in the space of a few weeks he’d gone from sought-after bachelor to head over heels.
Jesus. Head over heels? There was no way he was in love with Eliza. No way, no how.
His stomach flipped over and he hung up the phone. He didn’t do love. Shit.
A knock at the open sliding door grabbed his attention before he could get any girlier and pass out on the floor. ‘Banjo, you got a minute?’
What in th
e hell was Malcolm doing at his door? ‘Sure, I got a few. Come in. Beer?’
The other man nodded and then sat at the dining table. ‘How’s things?’
Banjo stuck half his body in the fridge to get the beers and avoided making eye contact while he used the top end of a can opener to flip the lids off into the sink. ‘Things are okay.’
‘I’ve been hearing great news about the ratings for the show. I came to thank you for holding up your end of the bargain.’
Banjo didn’t sit. He leaned against the kitchen counter and eyed the man like a goldfish would a shark. ‘You came all the way to say thanks?’
Malcolm chuckled. ‘Can’t pull one over on you, can I? Eliza said you were a smart one.’
He was slow to respond. ‘Spoken to your daughter, have you?’
Malcolm wasn’t. ‘I’ve already seen Eliza. We went for a nice walk and she assured me you were still committed to the show.’
‘Nothing’s changed for me there. I signed the contract, I’ll do the season.’
‘Good lad, I knew you would.’
‘Listen, why don’t we cut the bullshit and you tell me why you’re really here? Bigshot execs don’t just hop a flight and knock on the door unless there’s something up.’
This time he was surprised and it showed as Malcolm placed his half-drunk beer back on the table and steepled his fingers. ‘I saw the footage of you and Eliza kissing on the beach.’
Banjo shrugged. ‘We had to start making it look convincing eventually.’
‘Convincing? You two set TV sets around the country on fire. We’re currently the most watched reality show on any network in Australia. Even the US stuff isn’t getting the eyes we are.’
‘So what’s the problem then? And don’t bullshit me the way you do your daughter. I’m not kissing up your ass for anything.’
He could see the other man choose his words carefully before going on. ‘You and Eliza seem to be getting along a lot better than contract buddies.’
‘So what?’
‘The public already think you’re going to choose her. By this time next week we’ll lose a portion of viewers who think it’s a done deal.’
He shrugged again but the hair at his nape prickled. He knew there was a huge but coming. ‘They’ll come back for the finale.’
This time it was Malcolm who shrugged as he picked his beer back up and drained the bottle. ‘Maybe, maybe not. I’ll give it to you straight. You can’t pick Eliza.’
Choking a little on his mouthful of hops, Banjo thought he must have misheard. It was all riding on his choosing Eliza. Everything. Everything from the very beginning had been all about him and Eliza hooking up for the nation to see. ‘I’m sorry, what? I can’t have heard right.’
‘We’ve decided it would be better for ratings if you don’t choose Eliza. Keep buttering her up the way you have been but now we want you to pick Sofia. She’s been brought in on the plan and is happy to go along with it for a price and a season of her own.’
‘You fucking what? She’s your daughter for fuck’s sake. You’re going to break her heart on national TV.’
Malcolm stood and dusted off the sleeves of his button-down shirt. ‘No, Banjo. You’re going to break her heart on national TV. You’re going to choose Sofia and Eliza will come back to work and be relieved to be off the hit list. Unless you can think of a reason she wouldn’t be relieved?’
He shook his head, refusing to be baited by the shark. Malcolm was a piece of work. How could he want this for his daughter? But then he could see how it would go down. Banjo would break her heart and she’d go crying back to her father who would still promise to air her documentary and shift her status somehow in the network. Banjo was nowhere near as dumb as Malcolm thought he was and neither was Eliza.
Chapter 18
The wait nearly killed him but Banjo stood by until the date was over. Not an official date but a dinner with all the women the night before the next rose ceremony. Now that their group was dwindling, the producers thought it a good idea to get them all together more. Malcolm was obviously pushing behind the scenes now since he was still there, still circling.
Every time Banjo had been close to being alone with Eliza, someone had come along or she’d been given a different direction away from him. Finally once another set of one-on-one interviews were done and then brighter lights switched off, he was free to find her and tell her Malcolm’s plans. She had to know her father’s plans before she was humiliated completely.
The problem was, she didn’t seem to mind not getting close, not getting time with him. He hoped she was aloof for the camera and for the sake of not giving away their wild night together. From the corner of his eye, he saw her head upstairs where he couldn’t follow but before he could get her attention, Sofia linked her arm through his and dragged him out onto the terrace.
‘You were magnificent tonight, Banjo. Hot as usual.’
‘Um, thank you?’
‘Malcolm says we’re going to be spending a whole lot more time getting up close and personal now so I wanted to get the ball rolling.’
‘Is this really how you want it to go down?’ he asked.
A weird light filled her eyes and she smiled sweetly. ‘Why wouldn’t I? Do you know what I could do with twenty grand and a season on another show? Poor little Sofia, rejected by the big bad bachelor. That’s how he’s promised the next show will start. Screwed over by the Ice Bullet, she’s looking for love in a different kind of place now.’ Sofia clapped her hands together.
‘Jesus, really? I wouldn’t have taken you for that shallow.’
‘You’ve barely looked at anyone else long enough to judge another person’s character except for Eliza’s.’
‘Careful there, you almost sound jealous.’
‘Jealous? Why would I want a guy whose eye wanders to the closest pair of boobs? A guy known the world over for his one-night stands? No thank you very much. I think I’ll find me a nice country boy with money and not another woman around for miles who isn’t related. I don’t do cheaters well.’
‘I’ve never cheated at anything or on anyone.’ Why did the world’s women have to view him in this kind of light but then help him along on his way to debauchery? If they wanted a strong guy whose morals and likes lined up, then why even sleep with him to start? For the exposure? He’d never dwelled on it long enough to ask the question. ‘I won’t choose you at the end. Even Malcolm can’t make me do something I don’t want to do. No one’s going to believe you’re the wife for me.’
‘He said you’d say something along those lines once you woke up a bit. He also said to tell you Eliza’s job relies on you playing your part to the end. He’ll fire her if you don’t and she’ll never work again in Australia.’
‘She’s his daughter. He’d never do it.’
Sofia laughed and Banjo got chills. ‘Of course he would. He’d do anything for the ratings.’
It hit him then that Sofia knew Malcolm outside of the show. Why would he trust some random more than his own daughter? Eliza could blow the lid on the whole thing but by then, her credibility would be down the toilet along with any hope he had of seeing her again. Shit, Banjo was well and truly bent over a barrel and he didn’t like it.
He had to find Eliza and talk it out with her.
‘I have to go now,’ he told Sofia as he stepped away from the crazy and headed back inside.
Amanda, the pissy producer, was waiting for him. ‘You can’t go after her, lover boy.’
Was everyone in on it now? His own personal nightmare? ‘You going to try to stop me?’
‘She’s gone anyway, out for dinner with her father. Won’t be back until much, much later tonight.’
From the front of the house, headlights flashed and then disappeared down the drive. He stormed from the room, some of the remaining women watching on with surprise and curiosity. He didn’t care, they could all go to hell. If he couldn’t discuss it with Eliza, he’d have to take matters into his ow
n hands. He was a big boy. What could Malcolm bloody Peterson do to him now? Sue him? Let the bastard, he thought, fury driving his actions for the next twenty-four hours, right up to his final rose ceremony and the beginning of the rest of his life.
Chapter 19
At the first rose ceremony Eliza had been as nervous as hell but three weeks later, she didn’t really flutter an eyelash. She knew how it was all going to go. Malcolm had told her last night over a dinner that had quite frankly shocked her, that Banjo was sending Sofia and Becky home this week. That hadn’t been the truly shocking part at all though: the fact that Malcolm had asked her out to tea had rendered her speechless. They’d had business dinners and awards to attend in the past but never just the two of them. Maybe it meant he was beginning to see her less like the work experience kid and more like his actual flesh and blood.
Except that he’d lied and lied to her all night long. She had eyes and ears and she could tell when she was being placated. He’d told her enthusiastically that he’d slotted her documentary into a prime time and that one of his friends had been hinting at building a youth centre complete with a skate park and a half pipe for BMX riding.
Eliza knew her father didn’t understand her need to highlight the plight of a generation of misunderstood Sydneysiders. Malcolm hadn’t hung out on the far side of Bondi and recorded interviews with foster kids and sons and daughters of workaholics constantly left to their own devices. At first Eliza had seen the project as good for her career but then she’d realised these kids needed help, healthy outlets and attention.
She’d spent half the day wondering if Banjo might help her out since he had the equipment and the skills the kids needed to be kept occupied. They needed someone to look up to, to admire. Banjo could be that guy, she knew it.
Malcolm had been buttering her up for something, she only wished she knew what. She made a few phone calls the next morning and discovered if the network was in trouble, there was no way her father could hide it. Not to the extent he’d made out to her. Her mind had been forming a decision well before her conscious knew about it. Her dad really was full of shit. Did she need that in her life? Probably not.
She's The One Page 13