Page 157 of Love Overboard
The reunion set was the same as every other season: sleek white couches, nautical theme, giantClose Quarterslogo projected behind the host’s seat. Overhead, cameras slid on their tracks like vultures waiting for the moment we’d finally crack.
I hoped I wouldn’t give them that satisfaction.
Finn and I sat side by side on the left couch, the rest of the crew already in place on the opposite side. Leah caught my eye first, then Bernard. Gisella was dressed like she was walking the runway in a crimson red dress, her nails filed into pointed stilettos so sharp they could draw blood. Who knew. Maybe they would by the night’s end.
Eli offered me a tight smile. Cameron didn’t look at me at all.
Captain Gary was the only one who really beamed at us, and when he saw my expression, he nodded, his brows folding in. It was like he was silently dismissing any worry I might have, telling me I had this.
Glad one of us was confident.
The host was Graham Lavender. Tanned, toothy, and as practiced as any politician, he’d been steering these reunions since season one. And while he was good at his job, I knew better than to believe he’d tell our story the way it actually happened.
I didn’t trust a damn person here except Finn, of course.
“Welcome back to theClose Quartersreunion!” he said, his voice booming. “We’re here with the full Season 4 crew, now — welcome to Finn and Ember — and... we’ve got a lot to talk about.”
Cue the salacious grin from him, the laughter and mumbled agreement from the crowd, and the somersault of my gut.
Finn’s thumb traced a slow, steady rhythm against my knuckles. He was my grounding force — always.
Without wasting any time, Graham sat back in his chair, crossing one ankle over the opposite knee and tapping his notecards on the sole of his polished dress shoe.
“Ember. Finn.” He shook his head, laughing a little at the audience before he turned back to us. “Where do we even start?”
“How about from the part where my chief stew androommatefaked nice to my face beforeBLEEPmy boyfriend behind my back?”
That from Gisella, who was now smiling victoriously as she got the reaction she wanted from the crowd. I was sure the production crew advised her to really play into the dramatics, and she looked all-too pleased to oblige.
I opened my mouth to say… something, though I wasn’t sure what. But Finn beat me to the punch.
“I wasn’t your boyfriend,” he said — calmly, no bite in his tone whatsoever. “You know that, whether or not the production crew chose to show it or not.”
And they hadn’t.
When the last few episodes had aired, I’d been physically ill. They’d edited outallthe footage of Finn breaking up withGisella, Finn tellingmehe’d broken up with Gisella, and of course, the final dinner with the crew when everything hit the fan.
Instead, they’d chopped it up to look like we left when Captain Gary did. They then showed a few clips of the crew taking shots and cheersing their drinks and laughing it up that I knew was filmedbeforedinner.
It didn’t make sense to me. If anything, I thought the whole story made forbetterTV. But I guessed the production team had their story mapped out, and our truth was too innocent for their liking.
There were murmurs from the crowd at Finn’s words, but Graham didn’t play into them. He pointed the attention right back at us. “You were both fan favorites early on. But by mid-season, the narrative shifted. Viewers were shocked. Hurt. Some called it betrayal. Others, true love. How did it feel watching it back?”
Finn’s jaw tightened along with his grip on me. “Hard.”
That one word carried so much weight.
“We knew we’d face backlash,” I added. “But we didn’t know how far the producers would go to make us the villains.”
“Make you,” Gisella spat. “I’m pretty sure you did that yourselves.”
I noted the way Palmer’s nostrils flared and he shook his head, and I wondered if he’d been told to keep his mouth shut about it all.
Bernard, on the other hand, was grinning like the Cheshire cat, watching me like he knew something I didn’t.
That scared me more than Gisella.
“I think we knew going into it that it wouldn’t be pretty, but we hoped there would be more truth than what there was. Still, we watched every episode together,” Finn continued, voice steady as he dutifully ignored Gisella. “And we talked through itall. Laughed at the edits, cringed at some things, sure. But we never let it change how we saw each other.”
