It’s a few seconds before I realise it is me.Shitting hell. Hopefully they’ll cut that bit. Thanks to some pretty intensive teacher training, it’s the first time I’ve sworn out loud for years. I am mortified. ‘I meant get the fudge on with it.’
A broad grin spreads across Carlton’s face as he makes eye contact with me.
‘I just love a girl with spirit,’ he says in his Texan drawl. ‘Come to papa.’ He winks at me, and I almost throw up in my mouth. My hand flies to my lips as I retch a few times.
I shake my head vigorously. ‘No, I don’t think so.’
Come to papa. I mean who says that? Who?
Carlton looks to Destiny with a confused look, as if to say is this not the plan? Destiny looks astonished as though no one has ever thought to disagree.
‘Well, erm…’ Destiny looks about. She taps her earpiece to check it’s working. ‘I erm, so, Carlton. How about Mimi? You two look very cute together.’
Mimi has tears running down her cheeks. I’m very much ruining the show, but it is probably three in the morning, and I very much don’t care. I just need to go back to bed and dream about how wonderful Cam is at rubbing nipples.
‘CUT!’ bellows Porscha. I knew that was coming. She appears before me, smoke blowing out of her ears. Cam is close behind trying not to laugh. His eyes are glassy. His hair is sticking up and he has a very sexy, sleepy look about him. ‘That’s the last time we get any teachers on the show,’ she screams at no one in particular. ‘ROLL AGAIN!’
‘Could I change my mind, please, Destiny?’ Carlton is asking her. ‘I’ll just go for Mimi instead. It’ll be easier.’
Mimi looks momentarily offended until it clicks that she’ll be coupled up again at last. A whole six hours or so of being single has taken its toll. She turns to Carlton and leaps into his arms, straddling his waist with her short, skinny, terrier legs. She pumps up and down a few times before he peels her off him.
‘Cheers, bro,’ says Giovanni who sags back into the cushion. He has been saved a dumping. He turns to me with eyes full of lust, rubbing his hands together like he’s about to tuck into a Thanksgiving feast. ‘Looks like it’s me and you again, babe.’
‘No. It really doesn’t.’
Cameron comes over to the firepit and I notice he is holding something. ‘We’ll film from Carlton’s entrance, look surprised people and then you can all go back to bed. Carlton, Mimi, places please. And action!’
Cam steps away out of shot. He has a clipboard in one hand, and a pineapple under his arm. He gives me the briefest of glances. Our eyes connect and it sets my pulse racing. I look down at my hands clamped to the edge of the seat. I must regain my composure so as not to give the game away.
It feels near impossible to control my emotions when the heart wants what the heart wants.
‘So, Libby,’ says Giovanni, distracting me. ‘How long have you fancied Cameron?’
‘Who?’ I say, startled.
‘Cameron, the producer?’
Fuck!!
Chapter 19
Time seems to stand still as I quickly assess my predicament. His words will have been captured on the microphone. My reaction will be recorded on camera. My mind is whizzing.
I am a teacher.
Therefore, I am resilient.
I am a quick thinker.
I am a beast when it comes to being put in impossible situations.
I weigh up all the information. Giovanni has noticed that I go to pieces every time the incredibly handsome and thoughtful, kind-eyed, mild-mannered and extremely competent producer is near. How disappointingly perceptive of him. Fortunately for me, I have four years’ worth of telling bare-faced lies to school parents about their adorable little genius children under my belt.
‘Giovanni, are you deflecting your own insecurities?’ I say, in a concerned voice. ‘Or is this because Mimi is pretending to vibe off Carlton just to make you jealous?’
I have used a simple trick of giving him a choice to make. Either choice is of no consequence to me. They simply serve to distract him from his original pursuit of the truth. It works like a charm.
‘Wait. What? Is she?’ His head whips round to find Mimi smiling enthusiastically at Carlton. Carlton is giving her the eye back. They both have very recent rejections in common. But right on cue, Mimi looks over her shoulder to check that Giovanni is watching her.
