Says the woman making herself comfy in his actual bed.
Cam’s cheeks flame.
‘Sorry. I didn’t mean to embarrass you. I just assumed…’
I just assumed you aren’t attracted to forceful man-eaters with extra-long legs.
‘No. It’s not that. It’s just the whole unrequited situation. I’m not ready for... anything just yet. And definitely not while I’m working.’
Oof. A double blow.
‘That’s completely understandable,’ I say, vowing to back off completely. ‘It must be hard to have beautiful women constantly throwing themselves at you every minute of every single day. If only you’d gone into nature documentaries. Although, knowing your luck you’d be carried off into a South-African rainforest by a randy Silverback.’
Cam shakes his head, trying not to laugh. ‘Wrong terrain. Wrong continent.’
‘I’m going to have a word with the British Government as soon as I return to England. Our education system is clearly lacking.’
Cam throws his head back and laughs causing an unexpected feeling of joy to spread through me. I throw off the quilt and follow him back to the lounge area.
‘What’s that?’ I say pointing to the L-shaped sofa.
Cam groans. ‘Oh, man. She left her walkie talkie behind.’
‘Meaning she’ll be back as soon as she thinks you have clean sheets,’ I giggle. ‘She’s admirably persistent, I’ll give her that.’
Cam smiles.
‘What?’
‘Thanks,’ he says simply. ‘I appreciate it.’
‘Appreciate what?’
‘What you’re doing. It’s very kind. Making me laugh to take my mind off the stress.’
I gulp, heat rising from my neck. I’d hate to embarrass him with another unrequited crush situation. ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about.’
‘Well, let’s just say I’m not like this around everyone.’
My cheeks are on fire. ‘You best return this to Porscha before she has time to come back in her stripper basque and peephole bra.’
If he thinks Porscha leaving objects in his trailer might be obvious and tacky, it’s nothing compared to me flying thirteenthousand miles across the planet just to see if there’s a spark of interest in those glorious eyes of his. The shame.
‘I’ll drop it with her assistant. Then I need to swing by the main villa to drop some kit off and check in with the technicians. You’ll be stuck with me for another few hours. Is that okay?’
I’d like nothing more.
While Cam has gone into theLove on the Islandvilla, I have remained hidden in the car behind a section of trees. I’ve tried peeking, but the villa itself is hidden behind a massive purpose-built wall and ironclad gate. They are obviously leaving nothing to chance, and security is disappointingly rock solid. He has left me with a plethora of things to schedule. I need to work out the driving times from each of the ten villas housing the contestants, so that I can co-ordinate the drivers and entry times and match those with camera operators and runners. And according to the notes, I need to cross-reference those with the timings of kitchen and housekeeping crew who need to be in, set up, cooking the food, doing the final sweep to check all the cameras and microphones are working and then need to disappear before theLove on the Island-ers gather by the firepit for the first big welcome to the show. It’s very exciting. I have goosebumps. I’m much better suited to behind-the-scenes. Before I know it, Cam is climbing back into the car.
‘How did you get on?’ he asks, looking at my clipboard.
‘All done,’ I say, turning it round to show him. He makes a big ‘O’ with his mouth. ‘You’re welcome, Cam. Least I could do after such an awesome morning.’
‘I really appreciate it, thank you. And you were right. There’s a blind spot exactly where you said it would be.’
‘What are you going to do?’
Cam shrugs. ‘Not sure yet. Every day we are set back costs roughly four hundred thousand dollars at this point, plus penalties from sponsors if we don’t air on time. It’s a shitshow, all right. I’m tempted to let Gram get away with it. If you were on the show, would you go looking for blind spots, or would you just assume there are cameras everywhere and there would be no point?’
