Page 92 of Forsaking All Others

I’m imagining holding a gun to my head when he holds the next card up asking if the ball caused me to have an unexpected reaction to a particular contestant, with the prompt hastily scrawled in red pen: ‘Catriona?’

‘You little asshole.’

“Mr Dott, are you suggesting you’re going to film my dance with the Italian in its entirety?”

“Cut!”

“It wasn’t lost on those watching that you were having a heated argument,” he shrugs, “although what it was about wasn’t clear. Perhaps you could enlighten the viewers?”

“We were not having an argument,” I narrow my eyes at him.

“Sure looked that way. And, ah, I suspect I know the reason, but that isn’t going to be a problem from now on.”

“What are you talking about?”

“The make-up girl,” he says, his face reddening, “apparently you and she are, or were, ah...”

“I was fucking her, yes,” I scowl, “so what? She’s a consenting adult.”

“It’s against the rules, Viscount,” he sighs, “and her attachment was impacting on her work. Not to mention some of the contestants had noticed. I’m afraid we had to let her go.”

“Who noticed?”

“Well, clearly, ah, the angry little Italian.”

“You’re on completely the wrong tack, Mr Dott. If I were you, I’d roll the cameras before I decide to action my inclination to knock your block off and leave for the evening.”

“And...Action!”

“I only danced with Catriona once, much to her chagrin, but it really was for her own good. After our opening dance I could see she was still in a little pain and I didn’t want to exacerbate that by pushing her for further dances. She would have liked more, as would I, but it’s better to be safe than sorry, especially with another challenge on the horizon.”

‘Not entirely false. I could see she wanted to ask me about my assertion that my wife would not get immortality, but that’s a conversation I only intend to have when we’re down to the final three. And that’s still a long, long way away. I don’t know why I even brought it up with her. For some reason I always say more than I intend when I’m around her.’

The director widens his eyes and holds up a card asking if I’m developing ‘feelings’ for the Italian.

“As for developing feelings for her? No. Unless you count hunger, lust and curiosity as feelings, which it could be said I have for all of the contestants.”

“Cut!”

“You can’t say hunger, Viscount.”

“So just cut that bit out.”

“It will be difficult. Could you just repeat what you said without that word?”

“For fuck’s sake, Gerry.”

“Please, Viscount.”

Sighing heavily, I say again, “As for developing feelings for her? No, unless you count lust and curiosity as feelings, which I have for all of them.”

As I repeat myself I realise that’s not exactly true. She’s the only one I’m curious about.

67

“You can’t be serious!” Thorun repeats for the third time as she stares at the contest name on the card in front of her. “I thought Evelyn was joking when she said she’d competed as a baby!”

“I swear sometimes you don’t listen to anything I say.” I throw my hands into the air. “I told you there was a challenge involving babies.”