‘No!’ I am in flight or fight mode. ‘My luggage isn’t even here yet. It’s in Dubai. I have no clothes or make-up. I’m a mess. I haven’t even got an all-over tan.’ It’s true. ‘I’ll look dreadful on camera. I’ll get voted off straight away. Surely that wouldn’t make any commercial sense?’
Porscha ignores me. ‘Is she telling me how to run my own show, Cameron?’
It’s like I’m invisible.
‘No. No, of course she isn’t,’ Cam says defending me. Porscha stands blinking at him. He flashes her a bright smile. It has an instant calming effect on her. She tears her eyes away from him to look at me.
‘So, you do want to go on the show?’
I nod. ‘But it would be great if I could wait until my clothes get here.’
She takes a moment to stare at me. She can’t believe the audacity.
‘Oh, right. Of course. Of course, we’ll hold the entire show up while we wait for your knickers to arrive from… where did you say you left them?’ She screws her eyes at me. ‘I’ll send a car for you.’ She looks down at her phone, rapidly clicks a few things with her two robotic thumbs and looks back up. ‘Done.’ She waves me off as though dismissing the hired help.
‘By the way, Libby, you should know that any liaisons between a contestant and a member of the crew will result in a breach of contract.’ She goes on to quote verbatim at me. It’s so unnecessary. ‘You’ll be sent home, and the crew member will be sacked immediately.’ She turns to Cam. ‘Without severance pay. I’m surprised you haven’t mentioned it to her. It’s all in the small print.’
‘I will try to keep my wandering libido to myself,’ I say, furious at not being able to tell her where to get off.
‘Please do. Save it for the islanders.’ She gives me an evil stare. ‘I’ll have a word with wardrobe. I’m sure we can find something suitable.’
It sounds more like a threat than an offer of help.
Nor am I loving her perfect impression of my headteacher. Dismissive. Uncaring. Pompous. It’s as though the whole world revolves around them and their careers.
‘Cameron, you better come with me. You can pick your stuff up later.’
I see Cam’s cheeks go red. He’s struggling to keep his temper. I can tell because he has this tick that goes off in his cheek. It was the same when he was talking to her on the phone. She must really get his goat. ‘You’re making out that something has happened here when it absolutely hasn’t.’
She is taken back by Cam’s forcefulness.
‘Porscha. You’ve walked in and thrown accusations around. Threatened to sack me. Assumed that I’m incapable of acting responsibly and now you don’t trust me to keep my hands to myself?’
She is backfooted by him. Her mouth opens and closes. ‘Very well. Have it your way.’
She swivels on her high wedged sandals and marches back to her car. With a loud crunch of gravel and an angry roar of the engine she drives off.
I’ve done nothing but encourage him to abandon his core values, his not mixing business and pleasure work ethic. And then there’s me violating his trust when he very clearly told me he is not quite ready to move on from his awful cheating girlfriend yet, and to top it all off, because of me, Porscha is threatening to ruin his career. Poor man. I must try not to make his life any worse than I already have.
Turning to each other, we let out a sigh of relief.
‘How do you feel about going into the villa? You can still back out, you know. I’ll ring her and let her know you want to go home.’
I look at his handsome face.
‘And I suppose they’ll get me on the first flight out tomorrow?’
He nods his head.
‘Is that what you want?’ I ask him. ‘For me to go home?’
I can barely breathe. Why am I putting him on the spot like this?
He doesn’t bat an eyelid. ‘No.’
‘But if I don’t go, the only option is to go in the villa.’
‘Worst case scenario is you don’t get voted off, and you win a hundred grand.’
