“Yes,” Gillian insisted. “Not like herself. Anyway, the date starts. The chef, Iris Marziale, starts explaining why they use different pasta flour in the south compared to the north, and the next minute Jamie is telling the cameras to stop rolling, which of course they didn’t, and then she’s taking Megan’s hand and telling her that she’s in love with her.”
Elise’s eye twitched violently. “What did Megan do?”
Gillian hesitated. She even took a step back like she was moving out of Elise’s firing range. Smart woman. Elise had once thrown a clipboard so hard that it had embedded itself in a corkboard. “She kissed Jamie and said she was in love with her too.” Gillian ran a shaky hand down her face. “When the kiss ended, she looked straight at camera B and said she didn’t need the rest of the season. She’d found her final rose. I told her that’s not how things work.”
“Where is she now?”
“I think she’s in her bedroom,” Gillian said.
Elise raised a single eyebrow. She had a feeling there was more to it than Megan simply hiding out in her bedroom. Gillian, with her puppy dog-like brown eyes, had always been a bad liar. “Just her?” she asked.
“Ah, I think so.” She looked down at her white Chuck Taylors. A dead giveaway.
Elise shot her a look as sharp as a hunting knife, and Gillian flinched.
“Fine, Jamie is with her,” she relented. “The car dropped them off earlier. Last I saw, they were slipping through the villa doors, holding hands. I assume they are still together.”
Elise saw red. A scarlet cape type of red. She could feel her pulse thundering like a bull’s hooves across the sand. Without even considering what her game plan was, she spun on her heel and marched out of the production tent.
Gillian scrambled after her. “Where are you going? What are you going to do?”
“What I always do,” Elise replied as the sun hit her. The air had that muggy feel to it that clung unpleasantly to her skin. “I’m going to fix this. I’m not going to let this season die on these cliffs. This isThe Sapphic Match. Not the fuckingNever Rose Show!”
Elise stopped dead.
Harper was standing on the top step of the villa. Her hair was pulled back, sunglasses pushed up onto her head. Her camera was nowhere in sight, which gave Elise the strange feeling that she was staring at Harper naked. Which was weird. She’d seen Harper without her camera plenty of times. She’d seen her naked too. But this felt different.
“Hey,” Harper said, stepping down. “I heard about Megan and Jamie—”
“Now is not a good time,” Elise said, cutting her off. She didn’t stop her march toward the villa, but she did have toredirect. Now that Harper was in her way, she’d have to bypass the deck and go in through the front door. “I have a fire to put out. A fire that I think you started.”
“Me?” Harper said, stepping toward her.
Elise found herself moving in a wide arc just to avoid her. She couldn’t have Harper any nearer. She didn’t know what she would do if she looked directly into Harper’s warm honey brown eyes, if she got close enough to touch her soft sun-kissed arm, see all those freckles she was sure she could count one by one if she gave it the time.
“What did I do?” Harper asked.
“Weren’t you the one who found Jamie right before the date?” Elise shot back, her voice way too strained. But then again, the show was in the middle of falling apart. Surely her voice was allowed to be strained.
“I did.”
“Well, did you say something to her?” Elise asked, very aware that Gillian was standing behind her, just a breath away. But if Gillian hadn’t figured out by now that something was going on between Elise and Harper, she wasn’t as smart as Elise gave her credit for. Hell, everyone probably knew.
“I told her to take her shot,” Harper admitted. “That if she didn’t, she’d regret it her entire life. I didn’t want her to go through what I went through.”
Elise groaned. For starters, she wanted to bite Harper’s head off for encouraging Jamie to confess her undying love for Megan on camera. And then another infuriating part of her wanted to ask Harper what she had meant. What had she gone through? Which was a ridiculous question, because Elise already knew. Harper made it clear as a crystal vase that her feelings for Elise extended back ten years and had never left. That was why she was here, why she envisioned a life with Elise after the showcame to an end. A life Elise had knocked down like a tower of Jenga blocks.
There were just too many questions swirling in her head. Too many thoughts.
So, instead of doing any of those things, she walked away. Thank goodness Harper didn’t follow. A minute later she was heading up the stairs to the second floor, taking two at a time, which her short legs were actually not made for. Megan’s bedroom sat at the end of the long stretch of hallway. Elise reached it quickly. She knocked on the door with her fist, despite the overwhelming urge to throw it open.
“Megan,” she called through the wood. “Are you in there? Open the door. We need to talk.” She was aware her voice came off biting and if anyone ever spoke to her like that through a closed door, she probably wouldn’t open it either.
At least Megan had more common sense. Elise heard soft, padded footsteps, and then the door swung open. Megan was smiling. She was actually glowing. Positively radiant. Elise couldn’t remember her cheeks ever being that pink, or her eyes ever that bright. In fact, Elise wondered if she’d ever really looked at Megan, because this woman was sparkling. Literally sparkling.
Behind her, sitting cross-legged on the bed, was Jamie, who was also smiling.
“I know you’re here to tell me that I can’t do this,” Megan said. “But I have to. I’m in love with Jamie. I’ve been enamored with her since the introductions.” She glanced back over her shoulder and smiled at Jamie with gooey love in her eyes. “Since she gave me that stuffed teddy bear with a plaster cast on its leg.”