I smile at Caitlin, avoiding the camera. “Paulie’s great. I mean, he’s funny and loves to goof around. I’m really looking forward to getting to know him better.”
I get a nod for my answer. “And Hakulani?” Caitlin asks. “He’s cute, and I think he’s interested in you. Any chance you feel the same way?”
I try to keep my face neutral. Caitlin is obviously working with some outdated information. Yesterday, I might have blushed while trying to answer this question. But after what happened earlier today, I feel like I somehow have the upper hand, so I answer, in all honesty, “Oh, Hakulani? We’re just friends. He’s not really my type.”
Caitlin’s right eyebrow rises. “Really? I was sure I picked up on some flirtation while watching you two on set together.”
I shake my head. “Nope.”
Her smile tightens just the tiniest bit, but she nods and moves on. “What about Dani?” she asks. “You two are positively combustible.”
“Yeah, I would agree with that. Dani thinks she is the best in the kitchen, and it’s annoying. Just because you come from a culinary family doesn’t mean you’re entitled to special treatment or that you’re somehow better than the rest of us.”
Caitlin smiles her approval. “And how do you feel you’re doing in the competition?”
“I think I’m lucky to still be here,” I say honestly. “But I’m still here, which means I still have a chance to impress the judges, so I’m going to do everything I can to win.”
“So who do you think is going to win?” she asks.
I smile directly at the camera. “I am, of course.”
“Of course,” Caitlin says, before turning off the camera. “Well, I think that’s enough.”
“Really?” I say in surprise.
“Well, to be honest, Peyton, you’re answers are pretty boring. I give you a shot to talk about Dani, who has been awful to you, and you punt the answer. I don’t know how much extra footage we’ll need for you.”
“What are you saying?”
She gives me a serene look. “I’m saying there are more eliminations to come. If you want to make sure you stick around, it would be in your own best interest to give me something to work with.” She holds my gaze for a moment, a chill traveling down my spine, before she looks down and starts writing something in her notebook. When she is finished, she looks up and seems surprised that I’m still here. “You can go,” she says, waving me off with her perfectly manicured hand.
Stunned, I leave the room, barely aware of a PA calling my name and telling me that my food is here. Caitlin made it crystal clear where I stand in her book, and since I’m not playing the poor girl role or the drama that is being expertly crafted between me and my castmates, I’m no longer cut out for the show. So that means only one thing: I need to get my hands dirty or this week will be my last.
CHAPTER
TWENTY-FOUR
AVOIDING SOMEONE WHEN YOU’RE TRAPPED IN an apartment with them takes a great amount of skill and determination, and it takes all that I have to manage to avoid Hakulani for the rest of the day. So what if I did it by spending most of my time in my room reading, planning, and only coming out when I absolutely had to?
When I wake up on Sunday, I have no idea what time it is or how long I’ve been asleep, but I can smell grilled meat and garlic, and it’s too good to resist. I throw my hair into a sloppy ponytail, change my shirt, and clean off a bit of yesterday’s makeup before peeking my head out the door of my room. I don’t hear anything or see anyone, so I figure that I’m probably safe. I know that I’m not going to be able to avoid him forever, especially with Caitlin’s not-so-subtle warning on repeat in my head, but I can try. I slip down the hall and turn the corner toward the kitchen, but I stop when I hear the dishwasher snap shut and someone moving around.
Panicking, I turn and twist the doorknob to the confessional room and almost gasp in relief when the knob turns. I slip through the door, closing it behind me with the slightest click. Leaning against it, I close my eyes. What am I even going to say when I see him? It’s not like anything really happened between us, but still. I stand at the door waiting for whoever is in the kitchen to leave again, but judging on what I can make out, it might be a while.
In the end, my stomach wins out again, and I venture out in search of food. I slowly make my way into the kitchen, and I can hear the buzz of people talking on the roof and the occasional burst of laughter drifting in through the window along with the sounds of the city. I debate heading up to the roof—and the grill—and just letting the cards fall where they will, but after a few seconds, and the thought of Dani getting even an ounce more of dirt on me, I decide to retreat.
When I turn around to grab something out of the pantry, I find myself face-to-face with Hakulani. Crap. Seeing him for the first time since I overheard his conversation triggers a wave of emotions. I am so angry at myself for even getting caught up in all of this in the first place. How could I have been so stupid to believe Hakulani actually liked me like that? I spend a couple days with a guy who’s my competition in this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I wind up like your average rom-com character: smitten at first sight. What was I thinking?
“Hey, Peyton,” Hakulani says quietly, fighting to hold my gaze. “Can we talk?”
I watch him with so much confusion, embarrassment, and anger gathering on my tongue. I want to snap at him and tell him that here is fine, but I also want to break this tension between us—to go back to how things were. In the end, all I can manage is, “Come to the confessional. I don’t think there are hidden cameras in there.”
He follows me back into the room, and I close the door. We sit down across from each other, neither willing to speak first. I cross my arms over my chest and sit back against the chair.
Finally, Hakulani lifts his head, and I’m surprised to see that he looks ashamed. “So, how much did you hear?”
“Enough to know you’re a first-class jerk and to feel stupid enough to fall for the whole thing.”
“Look, it’s complicated.”
I give him a sharp look. “Did Caitlin put you up to it?”
“Put me up to what?” He looks confused, but there is something else, too.
“To start something with me?”
He hesitates for a moment before nodding and dropping his head into his hands. “I’m sorry, Peyton,” he says, looking up. “It wasn’t supposed to be you—at least it wasn’t at first, when we were starting to become friends.”
“Then who was your victim supposed to be?”
“Caitlin told me that if I got something going with a cast member, I would have a better chance of staying on the show longer. She said Dani was pretty desperate to get some screen time, and I should try with her.”
“So you decided you would just ignore the fact that you had a girlfriend, and start something with Dani to win a competition?”
“Oh, like you would have played it straight if you didn’t have an angle?” he says. “But wait, you do. You’re playing the poor girl from the unsophisticated country, like you’re the only one here who has had problems or a rough life.” His words are like blows, and there is a dark look that I’ve never seen on his face before.
None of that matters, though, as my temper flares and I skip past being embarrassed and head straight for being royally ticked off. “First of all,” I snap, “it’s not an act; and second, no, I would never try to sleep with someone just to score a chance at an extra challenge.”
“Whoa,” he says. “No one ever said anything about sex. I would never sink that low.”
“Right,” I say, letting the sarcasm coat every letter.
“Are you always this suspicious?”
“Well, I’m sitting in front of a guy who has been trying to hook up with me for the last week, and all the while he has a girlfriend back home. I wonder why I would have any reason to be suspicious.”
“That’s not what I… Look, Caitlin said I’m running out of time. I
f I don’t create some sort of drama, they’re going to cut me this week.”
My brain immediately jumps to Caitlin’s warning yesterday and why she might start threatening me and Hakulani, but another wave of emotion drowns it all out.
“So, I’m your insurance policy?” The anger has drained from my voice and I can hear the hurt in it now. “Why didn’t you just ask me if I could help out? I thought we were friends.”
“We are friends.”
“Then we have very different ideas about what friendship is.”
I watch the hurt look flicker on his face before he looks away. We both remain silent as the minutes tick by. I realize that, deep down, I want to trust him, and I want to believe that he was just doing what he had to in order to stay.
“Where’d you get the phone?” I ask, finally breaking the silence.
I expect him to avoid the question, but instead he sighs and looks me in the eye. “One of the camera guys. I traded him some of my clothes so he could give them to his kid. He smuggled in a prepaid phone for me.”
“So, you are a professional hustler,” I say.
“Peyton,” he says.
I hold up my hands. “No, seriously. I mean, I’m the daughter of a guy who’s done time for financial fraud, and I’m impressed.”
“Come on. You don’t know what it’s like to tell Caitlin no.”
“Oh, no, I do know.” I sigh and rub my hands over my face before continuing. No turning back now. “I’m supposed to be this poor little trailer park, white trash girl with a prison dad and a mom so busy pining over everything she’s lost that she can barely take care of her kid.”
“So you know, then.”
“Yeah. I know what she is capable of. But I haven’t lied to people, and I haven’t tried to make someone like me just so I can stay on the show.
“And I don’t get to go home to a tropical paradise if I lose. I’m going back to a small nowhere town that doesn’t have a working stoplight. If I lose this competition, I’m probably going to end up knocked up by some guy just passing through and then become a single mom trying to raise a kid on a waitress’s salary and spend my twilight years with thirty cats.”
“Is that a part of the act?” he asks with a small smile. “The kids and cats?”
I shake my head. “No, that’s what happens to girls who stay in my town. I mean, some get married to decent guys, but every year it seems like there are fewer and fewer of them.”
He stops smiling. “It won’t be like that for you.”
“How do you know?”
He hesitates, then continues. “Because you seem like the kind of person who isn’t going to let the mistakes of her parents drag her down. You’re a fighter. You have to be or you wouldn’t be here.”
Another round of silence. Maybe I am a fighter, but fighting can only get you so far. I need this opportunity. And I need to catch a lucky break.
“Have you ever heard of mutually assured destruction?” Hakulani asks, breaking the silence.
I shake my head.
“It’s this military strategy where two or more groups or countries each have the ability to assure the complete annihilation of the other.”
“Like how Russia and the United States have enough nukes that should one fire, the other would return fire, resulting in both being destroyed.”
“Yeah, that’s where I think we are now. You have something on me and I have something on you but, ultimately, neither of us wants to be sent packing.” He pauses. “The only alternative is a truce.”
“To have a truce, you need trust.”
“You can trust me,” Hakulani says, looking me in the eye and endearing me to believe him. “From now on, no secrets.”
I study him, trying to see if this is some kind of trick, then decide: What do I have to lose? “Okay, I’m listening.”
“I need a fake relationship to get Caitlin off my back, and you need to get out of the storyline that you hate so much.”
“Yeah,” I say, not really seeing how this truce is supposed to work.
“What if we pretend, until the final four Landmark Challenge, that we’re into each other.”
“‘Into each other’?”
He nods. “We do the flirting stuff, spend time together, get caught trying to sneak off for some alone time. Stuff production would love.”
“That helps you. What about me?”
“It helps us both,” he says. “If you’re in a showmance with me, then Caitlin isn’t going to try to get you to dish about your life back home.”
“Intriguing,” I say.
But I must not convince him because then Hakulani asks, “Do you have a better idea?”
I’m quiet for a minute, but then I shake my head.
He nods. “All right, then.”
“We need rules,” I insist.
“Such as?”
“This relationship can’t be a cliffhanger,” I say. “When the time is right, we need a very clean, visible breakup. No questions asked. I don’t want to end the show with people thinking we’re still together.”
He nods. “Can I make a public proclamation about Alaina?”
“Do you want the whole world to think you cheated on her?”
“You’re right. Maybe I just say: ‘As much as I like you, there’s a girl back home I can’t stop thinking about.’”
I nod thoughtfully. “You could get some sympathy from that.”
“Okay, also no kissing,” Hakulani says quickly. “Because kissing you would be like crossing the line of pretending and cheating—and I don’t want to humiliate Alaina any more than I am already.”
“Do you think she’s going to see it that way?”
“I don’t know.”
“I don’t kow if Caitlin will buy it, but okay. Anything else?”
“There’s someone else who’s going to get hurt in this,” he says, looking at me like I should know what he’s talking about.
“Who?” I ask. “Me?”
“Paulie.”
I can’t stop the small laugh from bursting from my lips. “Paulie? Yeah, right. Why would Paulie care that we were pretending to be into each other?”
Hakulani stares at me. “Are you serious?”
I look at him, waiting for him to crack and tell me he was joking, but Hakulani just sighs and leans back in his chair and stares at the ceiling.
“I have a feeling he is not going to like any of this.” He looks back at me. “You know he is my roommate, right?”
“Oh, please, we’re just friends.”
“You might think you’re all in the friend zone, but don’t be surprised when something happens, because all I’m gonna say is I told you so.”
“Okay, let’s stick to the rules,” I say. “I can’t handle another distraction right now.”
“We should start tonight,” Hakulani says.
“Sounds good. The sooner we get this show on the road, the sooner we can break up.”
“Good thing I’m the romantic in this relationship.”
“I can be romantic.”
“But can you?” he asks, skepticism dripping from his voice.
I stop for a moment and think about it. “I mean, I would be really bad at it.”
“Yeah, you would.”
“Shut up,” I say, and Hakulani laughs.
We spend the next half hour planning how we’re going to pull this off before finally emerging from the confessional room. Now that we’ve ironed out every detail, we head up to the roof, where everyone is hanging out and relaxing. Paulie presents me with a plate of steak, baked potato, and corn on the cob. Hakulani grabs his plate before leading me to a quiet corner and starts to point out the different constellations that have broken through the light haze of the city as we eat. As we spend the next hour or two together, I can feel the cameras—and the rest of the cast—following our every move. For once, I don’t mind because it finally feels like I’m the one controlling the cameras and not the other way around.
Later, when we head downstairs and to our rooms, Hakulani stops at my door and says, “Goodnight, Pey.”
I guess he is going to start using my nickname now that we are officially co-conspirators.
“Goodnight,” I say, giving him a shy smile.
He leans down and gives me a quick kiss on the cheek. “See you tomorrow,” he says with a wink, then whispers, “Let’s give them a show.”
CHAPTER
TWENTY-FIVE
“I KNEW IT,” LOLA SAYS AFTER SHE SEES ME WHISPERING to Hakulani on the bus the next morning.
I can feel him laugh silently next to me, and I try not to laugh as well. We couldn’t ask for anyone more perfect to “find out about us” than Lola.
“Inaaya is going to be so ticked when she learns that the two of you got together after she left.”
“What are you talking about?” I ask innocently.
Paulie is the last to arrive and he doesn’t even look at me when he slides in behind the driver’s seat.
“Brrr,” Hakulani says quietly to me. “How does that cold shoulder feel?”
“Maybe he’s just grumpy because he didn’t sleep.”
“Yeah, right. That is exactly what it is, Peyton.”
“Well, I can’t do anything about it now,” I whisper back.
He smiles like I’ve said something witty.
“Good grief,” Dani says from the row behind us. “Get a room.”
“So where are we going today?” Hakulani calls out to the driver, nudging me to ignore Dani’s baiting.
“The Empire State Building,” he says like a showman introducing the main event while closing the bus door with a flourish.
“Ooh,” Lola says. “That is so romantic. Did you ever see that old movie where the guy was supposed to meet the girl at the top of the Empire State Building on Valentine’s Day?”
“No,” I say, shaking my head.
She looks aghast. “Seriously? When this show is over, I am going to have to send you a list of movies that you must watch.”
The conversation on the bus continues to center on movies while Hakulani and I scrunch down in the seat, occasionally shouting out contributions and teasing the others about their picks. By the time we make it to the front of the Empire State Building, we have debated the best movies in several genres. Stepping off the bus, we find Jessica waiting patiently for us. Taking our spots, we wait, mentally preparing for the next Landmark Challenge. After the cameras are in place, Jessica launches into her introduction and begins a rapid-fire round of facts about the Empire State Building.
Where There's a Whisk Page 18