Page 46 of Most Eligible
“The two-on-one date,” I blubber. “‘Only one can survive’ and all that bullshit. I just thought…”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” she snaps. “I’m not going to kill you. I’m helping you get down. All that villain shit is just for the cameras anyway.” She pouts at me, her expression daring me to believe her.
“Why would you—” I grip the ladder more tightly, shuffling my feet further onto the rung. “Why would you pretend like that?”
She lowers her voice, but I doubt the mics on the cart above will pick up what she says. “Why does anyone come on this show? I want to get more followers.” She shrugs. “Lainey said if I went along with the villain edit, she’d give me more screen time.”
My head is spinning. In and of itself, this isn’t surprising—it’s an open secret that producers trade favors with contestants, that some villains are made, not born. Even theLove Shackprep book I tore through mentioned the possibility. I’m more surprised that anyone would consent to being so publicly awful, just for a brief moment of fame.
“You can do this,” Addison continues. “Show all those bitches they were wrong about you.”
I blink in confusion.Shewas supposed to be the “bitch” that I was proving wrong.
She scoffs. Sexy scoffing should be illegal. If I tried, I’d sound like Presley coughing up a hairball.
“You seriously think that the Ferris wheel just ‘stopped working’? Come on—if you don’t start moving, I might be forced to push you.” I look at her in panic, but she smirks. “Kidding.”
She begins her descent, and I take another step down the ladder, trying to distract myself. “You think they did it on purpose?”
“I wouldn’t put it past them.”
The scoffing is the same, but the way she’s talking is nothing like the Addison I’ve gotten used to.
I have ten or so rungs left when my foot slips again. I barely manage to hang on, gripping with all the arm strength I have. The ladder shakes as Addison hurries up until she’s right beside me, wrapping an arm around my waist. When Rhett did this back in the mansion, I felt safe. But now, despite what Addison said, I can’t help but feel panicked. Only my toes are hanging onto the rung of the ladder, and Addison is much stronger than me.
“Addison!” Lainey calls. “Are you reallyhelpingher down?”
Addison grimaces, but the expression vanishes quickly. She looks at me, then heaves a breath like she’s working herself up for something. My limbs surge with adrenaline. Forget the cardio Serena suggested, I should’ve taken self-defense lessons.
“Sorry,” she says quietly.
My stomach drops. “No—”
Her arms disappear from my middle, and she gives me a little push. It’s enough to send me flying off the ladder. A scream leaves my mouth as I scramble to catch myself, but my fingers only find empty air.
I am going to die on reality TV.
How utterly humiliating.
Always be prepared to take your clothes off.
—Shacking Up: The Definitive, Unauthorized Guide to WinningLove Shack
Chapter Sixteen
I do not die on reality TV.
Instead, the crash mat balloons around me, absorbing the impact of my fall. Norbert charges in, arms flailing as the mat puffs and billows beneath his stomping feet.
He lunges toward me and heaves me over his shoulder as easily as if I were a sack of potatoes. I shriek and try to wiggle free as he starts running off the mat.
“Norbert! Put me down!”
“I’m taking you to the hospital!” he bellows. We’re almost at the edge when he trips and we fall spectacularly, tumbling onto the concrete.
Honestly, I might’ve preferred dying to this catastrophe. I’d thought my most traumatic Ferris wheel experience had happened already, my dad’s knuckles turning white as he gripped the steering wheel on the way home. I was scared of what my mom would say, but I think he was more scared that she was right: Since he’d moved out, he didn’t know me at all.
At least this time there was a crash mat to protect me from the fallout.
