They passed into the backyard, and a cool breeze coming in off the distant ocean ruffled Olivia’s skirt. Palm trees rustled a scratchy hiss. Ivy crawled the stone wall surrounding the yard and the outside of the pool house in the corner, which looked like it had sprouted from the green oasis itself. The pool sparkled like a giant sapphire gemstone in the center of it all. Two cushioned lounge chairs and a table with an umbrella and chairs were scattered on the deck. The camera crew pivoted around in front of them to capture their reactions.
“Let me guess,” Chuck said in a dry tone, “the pool is rigged with alarms, and we can’t actually get in it.”
TJ burst a laugh. “No, but that would have been a good idea. The backyard is fair game. Except for the pool house, obviously. The film crew will be using it on occasion.”
Of coursethey couldn’t go into the pool house. An escape on the property would have been too easy. At least they couldspend time outside if they needed to. Like a prison yard. Olivia silently hoped TJ wasn’t about to tell them they were only allotted one hour of sunlight per day.
They reached the other side of the house and entered a sliding glass door into the bedroom. The bed was a queen size at most, and Olivia was glad she’d have it to herself, though she didn’t know what Chuck was going to do without a couch that night until their furniture arrived the next day. She’d leave it to him to figure out.
“Bathroom through there,” TJ said, and pointed to what was obvious given the en suite nature of it.
Olivia saw a glimpse of a sunken whirlpool tub and a glass-stall shower. She sincerely hoped there was more than one sink.
“And this way,” TJ said, waving them through the door into a hallway, “leads to your office and gym.”
The generic, utilitarian office had a desk, chair, and bookshelf. The gym, on the other hand, was impressively large—larger than the bedroom. Someone must have knocked out a wall at some point to expand. The floor was a bouncy type of rubbery wood and one whole wall had been replaced with a mirror. It held a treadmill, rower, stationary bike, and all sorts of weight equipment.
Chuck waltzed right in, brazenly confident and feeling at home, and reached for the top bar on a squat rack that resembled a cage. He did an effortless pull-up that Olivia had to avert her gaze from. “All this fair game too?” he said when he landed back on the floor.
“All yours,” TJ said. “Use it as you see fit.”
Chuck was smiling, and Olivia was suddenly aware of something.
It was another form of sabotage, this one more stealth thanlocking doors and forcing communal meals. They’d given them free access to parts of the house that involved partial nudity (the pool) and physical exertion (the gym) because both of those things would make for good TV and render the other person precariously horny if either of them engaged within view.
It was like they’d studied the Manual of Olivia and Chuck and knew all the buttons to push.
“This is a nightmare,” Olivia whispered, and noted a camera zooming in on her face again.
TJ must have heard her because he smiled as he waved them onward. They passed back through the entryway, where their luggage had been brought inside. When they returned to the empty living room and kitchen area, they found Tyler shoving groceries into the fridge.
“Oh! Sorry,” he said in a dramatic whisper and ducked out of sight of the cameras. He kicked the freezer drawer closed on his way around the corner.
Olivia wondered if the frozen items he’d mentioned were perhaps desserts, maybe chocolate ice cream, because she could certainly go for a stress treat.
TJ called for their attention with a clap of his hands. His booming game show host voice was in full effect. “All right. So now you’ve got the lay of the land. And remember, you can’t leave the house other than to go into the backyard until your time is up. Otherwise, game over.” He looked at each of them for signs of confirmation.
“Yep,” Chuck said.
“Got it,” Olivia echoed while she silently saida million dollars a million dollars a million dollarsover and over in her head.
“Excellent. Now, one more thing before I leave you tounpack.” He held out his hand like he expected someone to place something in it. When nothing happened, he closed his eyes and sighed. “Tyler!”
Tyler poked his head back around the corner. “Yes, Mr. Price?”
TJ shot him an impatient glare. “The first challenge. I need the first challenge!” He snapped his fingers and held his palm out again.
“Oh! Sorry,” Tyler blurted again. He scurried over to the dining table, where he grabbed a large, flat envelope and brought it over to TJ’s waiting hand.
“Thank you,” TJ said through a tight jaw. Then he robotically blinked and turned back to face Olivia and Chuck and the cameras. “Excellent. Now, one more thing before I leave you to unpack.” He repeated his line from before like nothing had interrupted him. “Your first challenge.”
Olivia and Chuck glanced at each other, unsure what to expect. Chuck was the one to finally grab the envelope and open it. He slid out a sheet of paper with theName Your Pricelogo at the top and scanned the short paragraph of text. Olivia leaned in to read it, but only got past the first few words before TJ cleared his throat.
“Out loud, please?” he said, and nodded at the cameras.
“Sorry,” Chuck muttered like he should have realized. He too cleared his throat and began to read.
“ ‘Olivia and Chuck, welcome to your new home. To make your stay more interesting, your first challenge, beginning now and lasting the duration of your time here, is no physical contact. This includes but is not limited to holding hands, hugging, cuddling, kissing, and any more intimate sexual acts.’ ” TJ bounced his head and smiled at each word like they were notesin a song. Chuck glanced up at him while Olivia felt her insides shrivel in dread. Chuck continued to read. “ ‘Should you engage in any of the aforementioned acts, your prize money will be reduced by an amount deemed suitable by the production crew based on the severity of the infraction’—wait, is this for real?” Chuck blurted. “We can’t touch each other, or we get docked money?”