Bedroom Games (29 page)

For some reason, his words bothered me. Did
he think I hadn’t participated just because I knew I was safe? That
wasn’t how I felt at all. I frowned at Jendan, but Becky was
talking again.

“How are you feeling tonight, Kandis?”
Becky’s voice was silky smooth.

Gee, that was a loaded question. I smoothed
my green blouse and then ran a hand down my jeans, trying not to
fidget too much. “Well, I’m disappointed I didn’t participate in
the challenge, of course. I feel like I should have, but I just
couldn’t bring myself to do it.”

“With that in mind, do you feel vulnerable
for eviction?”

I looked at Brodie’s smiling, handsome face.
“No,” I said honestly. “Brodie’s had my back, and I trust him. So
I’m going to keep on trusting him.”

Brodie’s smile didn’t change.

“All right, then,” Becky said. “When we come
back, we’ll let the nominees have one final statement, and then
we’ll take the only vote— Brodie’s. Stay tuned!”

An unnatural silence hit as we waited through
the commercial break.

“Good luck, you two,” Jendan said. “No hard
feelings all around, right?”

I looked at him and smiled. “No hard
feelings.”

“It’s all just business,” Brodie said easily.
“After all this is over, we need to go out for drinks. Winner
buys.”

Jendan chuckled. “Sounds fair to me.”

Then, we fell silent once more.

“And we’re back,” Becky said, an interminable
amount of time later. Her hair and smiling face filled the
stretched-out monitor once more, and for a moment, I had the weird
impression that she was leering at us. “Since there are only three
House Guests remaining, Jendan and Kandis are the nominees for
eviction. Brodie is the Power Player this week, and he is also the
only one that can vote. We’ll let Jendan and Kandis each have a
turn to plead their case to Brodie. Jendan, let’s start with
you.”

Jendan stood up and crossed his arms over his
chest, a wry smile on his face. “There’s really nothing I can say
that can change anyone’s mind at this point. I just want to let you
guys know that we’re going to leave here as friends, no matter
what, and may the best man—or woman—win this thing.” With that, he
sat back down.

I smiled at him, feeling relieved. The last
thing I wanted was for Jendan—who had been my friend since I’d
stepped foot into this house—to be upset over getting voted
out.

“Kandis?” Becky inquired.

I stood up and smoothed my palms against my
jeans again. “I don’t have too much to say, either. I’m just glad
we’re all going to leave here friends.” I glanced over at Brodie
and smiled, and then sat back down again.

“All right, then. It’s time for the final
vote.”

Brodie inhaled, as if steeling himself, and
then he got to his feet. He moved to the center of the room, facing
the two of us. And paused. After a moment, he began. “This is a
hard vote for me. Harder than I thought it would be. I told myself
I was coming in here with no strings attached, and what happened
would happen. But I find that even the best promises aren’t always
ones we can keep.”

He looked at me.

I started to get a funny feeling in my
stomach.

“Kandis,” he said. “Beautiful, gorgeous,
smart, funny, Kandis.”

In slow motion, I watched his shoulders raise
in a regretful sigh, his face sorrowful.

“I’m sorry, but I’m voting you out.”

The world crashed.

My ears rang, blood roaring in them. I stared
straight ahead at Brodie, waiting for him to show me he’d been
lying. Joking.

Something.

But he just stared at me with big, blue eyes
that begged me to forgive him.

“What the hell?” Jendan’s voice was a mere
whisper. I looked over at him to see if he’d been planning this
with Brodie, but he looked just as shocked as I felt.

No, I wasn’t shocked, I realized as I stood.
I was numb. Completely, utterly numb.

I’d trusted Brodie Short. Brodie the
betrayer, who’d dicked over his sister last season just so he could
hook up with a hot chick. And I’d fallen for the guy. He’d told me
he’d loved me and that I needed to trust him, and I had. He’d told
me he’d win the last challenge for us, and I’d believed him.

And now he’d just voted me out.

As I stood, Jendan did, too. I gave him a
stiff hug of goodbye and patted him on the back. “Good luck,
Jendan,” I told him in a soft voice.

“I swear, Kandis, I didn’t know,” he
said.

I nodded. “It’s okay.” Then, I pulled away
from him and turned to my so-called partner.

Brodie was standing there, his hands shoved
into his jeans pockets, a tortured look on his face. When I moved
away from Jendan, he began to approach me.

I put a hand up, warning him off. “Don’t
touch me right now.” My voice was shaking. I couldn’t believe this.
Brodie had just humiliated me on national television. Even after
all the logical talking I’d done to myself, positive that I was
going to be cool as a cucumber and make strategic decisions, I’d
played with my heart in the end and gotten burned on the
process.

“Kandis,” he began.

I shook my head, stumbling away. “I don’t
want to talk to you,” I stated again, heading quickly for the exit
door that was always locked. “Just leave me alone.”

“Baby, please—“

“Don’t call me baby,” I snapped. Blind with
the tears that threatened to spill out of my eyes, I put my hands
on the exit door. It was always sealed except for when it was
confessional time or someone was being evicted. The green light was
on, showing that the door was open, and it was time for me to
go.

Time for
me
to go.

My game was over.

I reached for the door with
a trembling hand. I still had a chance to turn around and tell
Brodie what I really thought. How hurt I was. How betrayed I felt.
How completely, utterly foolish and betrayed and stupid and
betrayed and angry and
betrayed
…but I couldn’t bring myself
to do it. With a shake of my head, I headed into the hallway and
out of the
House Guests
house.

As I emerged out of the tunnel that led to
the house, bright lights flooded my face, and I hastily wiped at my
eyes, thankful that I’d worn waterproof mascara. There were people
cheering, the stands filled with a live studio audience, and Becky
Bradley was there, smiling, extending her hands at me.

“Kandis Thornton,” she announced. “You played
a great game, but in the end, it wasn’t enough.” She gave me a
wimpy hug and then gestured at the seat next to her. “Sit down, and
let’s have your exit interview.”

In a daze, I sat.

I mumbled answers as Becky
fired questions at me, though I was never really quite sure of what
I was saying. I was still too numb, too detached from the
situation. I hadn’t packed my bags. Hadn’t made a big speech about
how I’d played the game or even tried to save myself. I’d thought I
was safe, because the guy I was sleeping with, the guy I’d been
partners with since the beginning, the guy that had
declared love
for me, had
my back.

Which was all just a lie.

I was leaving the house a loser in all ways.
No money to save my mom, no chance to fix things, and worst of all,
completely and utterly betrayed by a man I’d known in my heart not
to trust. I had twenty-five grand to fix everything.

It’d be a drop in the bucket.

“So, Kandis,” Becky said, and she touched my
leg to bring back my wandering attention. “Tomorrow night is the
finale. How do you think you’ll vote?”

I stared at her woodenly. “I honestly have no
idea.”

~~ * ~~

Once the show was finished, I was handed off
to an assistant, Cassie. She was responsible for driving me to the
jury house where the rest of the cast was staying until tomorrow
night. And as she drove, she chattered on and on, rambling about
the weather and the show and how good it would be to get back to
Hollywood instead of North Carolina, which wasn’t her favorite
place.

I listened to her in silence, my mind still
focused on those last few minutes in the house. I felt betrayed, of
course, but I also felt really stupid.

Trust me, Kandis. I’ll make this right for
both of us.

I snorted. What a liar.

“Hmm?” Cassie looked over at me.

“Nothing. Just thinking.” I wasn’t in the
mood to talk.

The car pulled up to a hotel, and Cassie
parked in the check-in zone and handed her keys off to an employee.
“Come on, Kandis. I’ll show you to your room.” I followed her, but
she paused, frowning at me. “Did you forget your bag?”

“I didn’t pack it,” I said listlessly. I
hadn’t really considered the idea of Brodie betraying me. He’d
asked for my trust, and I’d given it to him a hundred percent.

Which, looking back, was pretty stupid of
me.

“Oh.” Cassie looked perplexed for a moment.
“What size are you? I can get you some clothes from a nearby store
for the finale.”

I told her, and she continued chattering on
the way in. The show had rented out the entire eighteenth floor of
the hotel, and it was nice to have their own floor but it was still
inconvenient to be on the eighteenth floor and it took some getting
used to and did I want to go hang out with the other jury members
for a bit before we shot our scene for the evening?

“Scene?” I mumbled, crossing my arms over my
chest.

“Yep. The jury has to get together and make
it seem like they’re hashing out the vote. We use it as a cut
segment for the finale. Since we’re on a truncated schedule, I’ll
come get you in about six hours.”

“Oh.” That was the last thing I wanted to do
at the moment. “Can I just go to my room, please?”

“All right,” Cassie said, and we got into the
elevator. “But as a reminder, no phone calls and no television.
We’ve removed both from your room for now, but we also ask that you
don’t approach anyone else to try and borrow theirs, either.”

That wouldn’t be a problem.
What would I call my mother and say?
Hi
Mom, I tried to win us a million dollars to get you out of debt,
but I fell for a guy that ditched me at the last minute. Sorry
about our future and all.

~~ * ~~

I napped the time away. It was a curious kind
of limbo, really. The world wouldn’t start moving again until after
the finale, and until then, I had nothing to do. I didn’t want to
talk to anyone. I didn’t want to read a book, and for once in my
life, I didn’t want to exercise.

I just wanted to mope, really.

Brodie’s betrayal hurt me so
much.
I’ll make this right for us.
How was voting me off making it right for us? I
just didn’t understand, and I hated that I was obsessing. I’d been
played. I needed to get over it. Instead, I just kept thinking of
Brodie.

He’d told me he loved me. How did someone
just make that shit up?

Cassie came to get me at two in the morning.
“We’re going to a lake,” she explained as I sleepily rubbed my eyes
and repaired my makeup. “They’ve got logs pulled up around a
campfire and everything. It’s very intimate looking. Anyhow,
they’re going to set the others up and you’re going to come in
last. It’s going to be a big surprise for them.”

“Don’t they know I’m here? Did they not see
the show?”

“They’re not allowed to see any of the
footage until after the vote.”

“Then they’re in for a treat, aren’t they?” I
was guessing that I was the last person they expected to see walk
in. How they’d laugh at the sight of her.

We drove into the woods, and Cassie busily
consulted her GPS as she drove. I slumped in the passenger seat,
not exactly chipper. Okay, I was sulking. It didn’t matter. I was
pretty sure this confrontation was going to be an unpleasant
one.

We pulled up to the spot on the lake. A short
distance away, I saw the campfire and a few people seated around
it. I also saw three different cameras and their attendant
cameramen hovering nearby. A sound guy held up a floating
microphone above their heads.

Intimate, my ass.

“Someone’s coming,” I heard a voice say in an
overly theatrical whisper.

I wanted to roll my eyes at the drama of it
all, but that would just look petty. So I forced a bright smile to
my face and headed toward the campfire. And I gave them all a small
wave. “Hi, guys.”

They were shocked. Okay, shocked was probably
an understatement. I saw Sunnie and Jayme exchange gape-mouth
glances, and Fido blinked at me. Off to one side, Marla clapped her
hands and stood up, clearly elated.

“Yes! Jendan’s in the final two!” she
crowed.

“Oh my god. What happened?” Jayme asked. “Did
Jendan win Power and pick Brodie?”

I realized with a sinking feeling that they
had no idea of what had happened. One of the microphones suddenly
hovered near my ear, and I wanted to swat it away. “No, Brodie won.
He chose Jendan to go to the final two.”

The women gasped.

“But…I thought…”

“You two were so cozy,” Sunnie exclaimed.

I’d thought the same thing. I shrugged,
hiding my hurt. “Guess I got played.” I stole a glance over at
Marla, who looked utterly triumphant.

“Serves you right for playing both sides,”
Marla said in a nasty voice. “You should have known it would come
back to bite you in the end.”

“Yes, well, thanks for that stunning piece of
input, Marla,” I said. “I told you guys I got played, all right?
Can we leave it at that already? Or did you want to sit here and
jump on my corpse for a bit longer?”

To my surprise, Sunnie moved to sit next to
me on my log and wrapped her arms around me in a sympathetic hug.
“I’m so sorry, Kandis.”