We all stood and murmured platitudes as Mickey grabbed his bag and headed for the door. I avoided the hug he tried to give me and gave him a friendly wave instead. As soon as the door shut behind him, I turned to Brodie and whispered, “How did you manage that?”
“We’ll talk later,” he said, but there was a smile on his face.
Huh.
“Contestants, you have ten minutes to change and arrive on the challenge course,” a voice piped over the intercom. “Please hurry.”
We scrambled to change, and as the girls rushed to the bathroom to strip out of our confining dresses, I stopped Marla on the way. “Did you know that Mickey was going to be leaving?”
She nodded and gave me a sympathetic look. “When Sunnie told us what was going on, we agreed that he needed to go.”
Sunnie, huh?
Sure enough, the redhead came to my side and captured me in a long hug. “I did that for you, girl,” she said, beaming at me.
I hugged her back, still a bit surprised. “Thanks, Sunnie. You’re the best.”
“You owe me,” she whispered.
“I do,” I agreed.
It seemed more like I owed Brodie, though.
We didn’t have a chance to talk more because everyone was too busy changing clothes and braiding their hair up. I barely managed to finish changing and make it out on the challenge course in time, and I groaned when I saw what lay before us.
Six dining tables—since Sunnie and Casper wouldn’t be able to participate—complete with checkered picnic cloths. A wicker basket was set up on each table.
“Contestants, pick a table,” Sunnie called out, waving a hand at the line of tables like she was Vanna White.
I picked my table and sat down and noticed immediately that there was a bucket under my chair. Uh oh. This was a gross food challenge. I swallowed hard and looked at Jendan, who sat next to me. He looked a bit green in the face.
“This season,” Casper read, “has had a horror movie theme to it. And tonight’s dinner will be no different. You’ve all seen the movie where the hero has to eat a giant roach or a dish of monkey brains. Now, you get to experience those things for yourself.”
A chorus of groans came from the six tables.
“Oh god,” Jendan muttered next to me. “I’m going to be sick just thinking about it.”
I couldn’t help but giggle, just a little. Of everyone in the house, Jendan was the pickiest eater. He liked disgustingly healthy foods and ate a plain chicken breast and broccoli when the rest of us snacked on hot dogs and potato chips. “You have a barf bucket,” I pointed out helpfully.
“I’m going to need it,” he called back.
I grinned and then sobered, leaning over. “Did you save us?” I whispered. I had to know.
“Talk later,” he said quickly as a cameraman swung past.
That wasn’t a ‘no.’ I nodded as Casper pulled out another card and continued reading. “There are five courses in all,” Casper read. “Each round, the person that finishes their dish the slowest will be eliminated until there are only two contestants remaining. Those two will go head to head for the Power Play. Are you ready?”
“Ready,” we said.
“All right,” Casper read. “Contestants, open your picnic baskets. The first item for dinner is…monkey brains.”
Next to me, Jendan made a gagging noise.
~~ * ~~
Hours later, I was pretty sure that despite half a bottle of mouthwash and four rounds of marathon tooth-brushing, I still had the taste of fish eyes in my mouth. I’d only made it to round two before losing the challenge. Poor Brodie had made it all the way to the final round and had to suffer through every course before losing to Jayme as she swallowed mealworms like a champ.
Jendan had barfed after every round, starting with the first round, after taking a bite of his food, and then continuing with sympathy barfs when he saw what the others had to eat. Poor guy had a weak stomach. I couldn’t laugh because I’d barely managed to eat my monkey brains. I’d tossed my own cookies on the fish eyes.
Now, with the excitement of the evening dying down, we were all settling into our new rooms. Jayme and Fido had the Power room for the week, and since Brodie had done so well, we’d gotten to stay in the Queen room, which was the least creepy of the rooms. It was full of antique furniture and weird portraits of historical people and two-way mirrors, but at least it wasn’t an attic full of hanging nooses. I considered that a win.
I lay on the bed, chewing mint gum frantically as Brodie changed for bed. He’d stripped off his challenge clothing and tossed it into the hamper, then, clad in nothing but a pair of boxers, scratched his belly and headed for bed.
“So,” I asked. “Were you trying to win that competition tonight?”
“Yes and no,” he said, climbing in to bed next to me. “Yes, because I figured if I had to eat all that shit, I might as well get something out of it. No, because I figured if Jayme won, we were safe for now.”
“Oh? Are we safe with Jayme in charge?” I trailed a finger on the quilted bedcover. This was news to me. “Is she another one of your harem?”
He just grinned at me. “Maybe.”
I grimaced and rolled out of bed to spit out my gum, still tasting fish eyes. “So who did you not want to win?”
“Jendan or Marla. As long as they lost, we were safe.”
“Because you have Sunnie and Jayme in your pocket,” I verified.
He put a finger to his lips and glanced at the door. “Not so loud. Someone might be listening.”
I hopped back into bed and pointed at his side, indicating he should join me.
“Yes, ma’am,” he said with a grin, and he bounded into bed.
The entire thing creaked so loudly when he landed I thought the others would come running. I winced, waiting. “Everything okay?” someone called a moment later.
“Just me,” Brodie yelled. “Getting too enthusiastic in bed!”
I groaned. This was like having far too many roommates. “Great, now they think we’re enthusiastic in bed together.”
“Which is not the worst thing anyone’s thought about me,” Brodie said with a grin.
“I’ll bet.” I slid a little closer to him and dropped my voice to a whisper. “So tell me what happened earlier.”
Brodie wiggled his eyebrows at me, looking quite pleased with himself. “You’ll notice that I was pulling the strings of the female companions here in the house this week?”
“If you mean, did I notice you all over them? Yes. I think everyone noticed that.”
He just grinned as if I’d paid him a compliment. “Like I said, I didn’t like the way that guy was treating you, so I talked to the other girls and made sure they saw things my way. Wasn’t hard, considering he’d also made Jayme and Sunnie really uncomfortable. Marla, too. I think he kept asking to see pictures of her daughter, and she got a little wigged out.” He shrugged. “At any rate, you’re welcome.”
“I…don’t know what to say.”
“How about thank you?”
I leaned in and gave him a one-armed hug. “Thank you, Brodie. For all your horn-doggy-ness, you can be surprisingly sweet.”
When I pulled away, he looked a bit disgruntled at my words. “I don’t know which I find more insulting—the horn-dog comment or that you’re surprised that I’m sweet.”
“Do you deny that you’re a horn dog?”
“Pfft. Hello, Kandis, did I not just confess all my plans to you? I’ve been all over Sunnie and Jayme because I wanted to make sure we were safe. That’s you and me. Not because I wanted to score some p**sy.” He tapped my chest, right above my breastbone. “You.” Then he tapped his chest. “Me. Got it?”
I nodded.
“It’s a game, you know. And you catch more flies with honey.”
“Yeah, but did you have to spread the honey on so thick?” I muttered.
Brodie just grinned at me, seemingly delighted at my surly attitude. “If I didn’t know better, Kandis, I’d say you were jealous.”
“Yeah, well, you know better, don’t you?” I said, surprised at how defensive my voice sounded. “Just turn out the light, already.”
“Because you can’t wait to get me in the dark—?”
I ignored that. “Night, Brodie.”
“—and have me all to yourself?”
“Good night, Brodie.”
He laughed and reached over to flick off the light. “Night, Kandis.”
CHAPTER FIVE
“God. Kandis. Dat ass. Wait, strike that. She’s going to kick my ass if she hears I said something like that in the confessional. You stopped recording, right? Hello?” – Brodie Short, Day 12
I curled my legs under me in the big easy chair in the confessional booth, waiting to be addressed.
It didn’t take long. “Kandis, how are things going now that the latest House Guest has been evicted?”
I smiled at my reflection as if I were talking to a real person. “Well, I am breathing a lot easier around the house. It’s good to know he’s not lurking around every corner, just waiting to catch a glimpse of my ass. You have no idea how freaking nightmarish that was. So living-wise, I’m really happy. Strategy-wise, I don’t know that it matters so much because Mickey was a floater. He went with whoever was in Power and made it clear that he’d do whatever it takes to stay on. You can’t trust people like that.”
A pause. “How are things with your partner?”
I licked my lips and thought hard. “Brodie’s been…surprisingly more loyal than I thought he would be. When I came on the show, I expected him to be the biggest horn-dog ever. And he flirts a lot, don’t get me wrong. But there’s some strategy behind it, I think?” I gave a light shrug. “And I can’t get mad, because I see the strategy. And he shares his plans with me, so I know what’s going on.”
“So it doesn’t bother you that he’s hitting on all the women in the house?”
“Oh, I didn’t say it didn’t bother me. I just said I understood the strategy behind it. And it shouldn’t irritate me, really. We’re just partners, nothing more.”
“But you showered together.”
My fingers twitched and I tugged at the hem of my t-shirt. “That was just so we could talk. It wasn’t for…sexual purposes. Man, it sounds really awkward to say that, but it’s true. There was nothing sexy about it.”
Except for the fact that I’d watched his nak*d ass when he’d left the shower. And maybe thought about that moment far more often than anyone who was ‘just friends’ should. After all, I wasn’t sitting around and picturing Jendan nak*d.
“How are the alliances shifting in the game?”
The intercom’s question caught me by surprise, breaking me out of my reverie. “Um. They shift every day, to be honest. Jendan and I are strong, though. At least, I feel like we are. We share info and keep an eye on each other’s backs. Ditto myself and Brodie. Of course, that’s not enough to win the game, but Brodie swears he has both Sunnie and Jayme, and Jendan has Marla, so that puts us in a majority as long as we all vote the same way.”