Page 18 of Changed By You
“Then let’s move ahead as planned. Rita, you can come by anytime or reach out to my assistant for updates. This is my fifth season doing this show, and I know what works. We need viewers to stay hooked, and that requires some drama. But this is all gonna pan out just fine.” He looks at his wristwatch. “I have to go. Dalton, get practicing those volleyball serves!”
It’s not a bad idea. And it will get me away from Rita. I excuse myself, planning to find JP and get in some practice since I know we’ll be on the same team.
I’m also hoping to run into Alice so I can apologize for last night. She wouldn’t even look at me during the yoga session this morning.
Farrah still seems interested in both me and JP, though, so I don’t think Alice told her what I said. I just hope she doesn’t decide to.
seven
Alice
Hours.I’m going to have several hours to myself while Farrah is on her date with Dalton. After the day I’ve had, I kind of want to spend it in bed staring at the ceiling and not thinking about anything. But this is too precious an opportunity to waste.
There was a sand volleyball game last night, and Dalton and JP dominated. They scored almost every point their team got, Dalton edging JP out with two more points. That meant Dalton got first choice for a one-on-one date tonight, and he picked Farrah.
After seeing his display of aggressive athleticism, not to mention his washboard abs, she was excited about the date. She wore a red dress cut so low it leaves nothing to the imagination, and she looks incredible in it.
I’m sure Dalton “the douchebag” Lorenzo won’t tell her he thinks she needs to get her own water from the fridge, but who cares? I’m freaking alone, and it’s not time to crawl into bed and hope I can get some good sleep before the alarm goes off for yoga while it’s still dark outside.
Dalton has been giving me puppy dog eyes and I can tell he wants to apologize for his douchery, but I’m evading him because I don’t want to hear it. While Farrah lay out by the pool today, I was hand-washing her lingerie. Scoping out the restaurant she and Dalton would be at tonight because she wanted to make sure the lighting and camera angles would be flattering. And reviewing her strict dietary restrictions with the restaurant’s chef so she could breezily order dinner without sounding high maintenance.
That went great. The chef doesn’t use ceramic cookware, which Farrah insists on, so I had to go buy him a saucepan and convince him to use it to cook her meal tonight. He called me a few choice names, so I had to break out my cash stash and buy his compliance.
When I finally got back to the house, Farrah’s organic, plant-based lunch in hand, she said she fell asleep in the lounge chair and had a dream that would be a great movie plotline. She insisted on telling me about it while I took notes on my laptop so I could write up a proposal for a studio.
The chef at the house is making brick-oven pizzas to order tonight. My stomach growls angrily as I walk into the kitchen because I haven’t had time to eat today.
A chef’s assistant, Carly, sees me and smiles, going over to a stack of white boxes and taking off the one on top.
“Perfect timing. I just took yours out of the oven. One pizza with garlic, extra cheese and extra pepperoni.”
The heavenly scents of pepperoni and roasted garlic make my mouth water with anticipation. My eyes fill with tears as I take the box from Carly.
“Thank you for this. It’s been a day, and...just thank you. I really appreciate it.”
“We’ve got you, girl. Go relax and enjoy it. There’s red wine, water, tea and lemonade on the sideboard in the main dining room.”
I take a cleansing breath as I walk away, embarrassed that I almost cried over a damn pizza. My emotions must be running high. They definitely were when I unleashed my fury on Dalton.
My job is none of his business, and he really should have just kept on walking instead of sitting down to chat with me. But I may have taken some other things out on him, and that may not have been fair.
That’s an issue for Tomorrow Alice, because Today Alice has fucking had it and she deserves a big glass of wine and some pizza.
I avoid eye contact with everyone I pass as I go to the dining room to get some wine because I’m so hungry I can only think about the first bite of this pizza that smells life changing.
Fortunately, no one even tries to look at me. Everyone in the house stops Farrah or says something to her when they see her, but most of them don’t even know my name. They just call me “Farrah’s assistant” and mostly ignore me.
I’m able to make my way out to the beach, where I settle beneath an umbrella that Misty was using earlier. Sand makes a killer cup holder for my wineglass. It’s just me, the sparkling ocean near sunset, and my dinner.
The pizza is incredible. I savor every bite, eating six of the eight slices. The chef couldn’t have chosen a better night for pizzas, not just because I may have an orgasm from eating mine but also because Farrah wouldn’t have eaten this. I would’ve spent my evening getting her dinner. So I guess I kind of owe Dalton for picking her for his date.
Maybe she’ll come out of this show in a relationship. That would be great for me. When she’s dating someone, I get breaks from her when she’s on dates. The overnight ones are myfavorite because I get to skip sunrise yoga and workout. But it’s been a while since she’s had a boyfriend.
An occasional date so she can be photographed and make headlines? Yes. But someone meeting her crazy high standards and making it to relationship status? Not so much.
When I’m done with dinner, I take out my phone, willing it to not have a text from Farrah.
No such luck.
