Page 37 of Unscripted

“Have fun tonight,” he said, wiggling his eyebrows at me. It was the kind of look that told me he knew something I didn’t.

“What do you—” I asked, but he ignored me and shooed me out the door, motioning for me to follow the rest of the girls, who were a few paces ahead.

I hurried along to catch up and filed in behind Chiara. We walked up to a high-top table set up in the middle of the grass lawn. The boys were already there, standing around waiting for us. The other girls grabbed their wine glasses from the table and slotted between each boy.

Being the last to grab a glass, I turned to find that the only open space for me to stand was between Callum and Liam.

The two guys I was most hoping to avoid.

I tried not to roll my eyes as I squeezed between them. Callum’s warm scent infiltrated my senses. It immediately annoyed me.

Ella had been picked to make the toast. “To a fun evening full of new memories and strengthening connections,” she said, sounding more like a politician than someone on the most popular dating show in the United Kingdom.

We raised our glasses, and I took a deep sip of my wine. Coming into the villa, I had thought little of the two-drinks-a-night rule. It had even seemed like a great excuse for a bit of a detox. But now that I was actually here, and actively trying to find someone to date, I was rethinking my stance. A bit of liquid courage would have been nice.

The group began to peel off and settle around the garden. I linked my arm through Chiara’s, and we walked with Jess over to the fire pit.

I wanted to keep the conversation away from myself and Callum, so I quickly launched into asking Chiara about her and Adam.

“He’s bang on an ace geez,” she said.

I nodded along, pretending to know what she meant. I had come to realize that, with most British slang, if I listened long enough, I could piece together its meaning. I didn’t want to be the girl who kept asking everyone to repeat what they were saying because I couldn’t understand it.

“Our chat today by the pool was pure vibes,” she continued, “And I do like him . . . ”

“Why do I feel like you’re holding back?” Jess asked.

“I was in the kitchen this morning, making a coffee, and Hugh was there too, and we had a nice bit of banter,” Chiara said. She looked around to make sure Olivia was out of earshot. “I know Olivia says she fancies Hugh and that they’re crackin’ on, but after this morning I kept catching his eye all day. I think he was looking at me too, but I don’t know,” she finished.

“Do you think you’ll try to talk to him tonight?” I asked.

“I’m not sure. I don’t want to upset Olivia or Adam, but I also don’t want to ignore a potential connection,” Chiara replied.

Jess squeezed Chiara’s arm in reassurance, “Maybe you need to—”

Whatever advice Jess was about to give was cut off by the voice of a producer coming through the speakers in the bushes behind us.

“Can all Bellas please gather around the fire pit?” the producer said.

“What do you think that’s for?” Chiara asked, looking to Jess and me.

“No idea,” I said.

A nervous thrill ran through me. Gathering around the fire pit could only mean one thing: something big was about to happen.

The rest of the cast joined us on the arched bench and after a few minutes, just as I was starting to get a bit restless, a loud voice called out from across the lawn and a lone figure rounded the corner.

“Hello, Bellas!” the voice said.

As the mystery person walked closer, I could see that it was actually a very tall, very attractive man. His blonde hair and blue eyes stood out even from across the lawn, and his tanned arms were covered by a nice, light blue polo shirt.

I realized, with a jolt, it was the villa’s first Showstopper.

A “Showstopper” was an essential part of Bella Amore. It could be a guy or a girl, sometimes one person, other times two, brought in as the newest Bella. The time and place a Showstopper entered were never the same; sometimes it was during a cocktail party, but other times it was first thing in the morning or during the middle of the day. No matter how or when they entered the villa, though, a Showstopper had one singular purpose: to shake things up.

In my binge watch of the show, I had seen Showstoppers break up strong matches time and time again, throwing once peaceful villas into chaos. No one was safe when a new one came into the picture.

Harry’s wiggling eyebrows and suggestive tone about having fun tonight suddenly made perfect sense.