Chapter 5
The beach had been set up to look like some death survivor's challenge.
Perhaps that was a bit of exaggeration but that was the first thing in Alyson's mind when she saw all the poles set up. Tall wooden poles had been set up with a pole lying horizontally between the two poles. A mattress lay in between the two poles, just below the horizontal pole. There were 11 sets of the same set up stretched out along the beach. The set up looked a bit similar to poles used for high jumps, just taller.
Alyson wet her lips. She did not like the look of this.
There were flags with different colours posted about a 100m opposite of each of the set up. Alyson and Lucas moved towards the red flag and stood waiting for the cameras to start rolling. Bru walked onto the beach from one of the shady resting tents on non-shooting ground. Several makeup assistants trailed behind him and moved on to each of the couples to touch up their makeup. Alyson grimaced when a slim, blond girl with the name 'Mimi' etched on her plain white tee, applied makeup on her face. The weather was hot and make up just didn't sound great at that moment. Lucas kept still beside her when Mimi transferred her attention on him and proceeded to apply some basic powder and a brown coloured substance to highlight Lucas's cheekbones more. Once the makeup assistants moved back to the tents, the cameras started rolling and Bru started speaking.
"Today, we'll be doing something a little more passionate than our first challenge." Bru's face lit up in a mischievous smile as he proceeded to look at each of the contestants. "Today's challenge will be something I'm pretty sure all of you can enjoy. There are two bowls with thirty grapes each in it. There are two of you in a team. One of you will be expected to do upside down sit ups while the other is required to pass one grape at a time to your partner using only your mouth while he or she does the upside down sit ups. The couple with the least grapes left in the bowls by the time the timer here ends, wins. Grapes that fall on the bed or the mattress will not only not be counted but if you drop any grapes, when the total grapes left is rounded up, we will double the number of grapes you dropped and add it to the total grapes left. The losing couples will, as usual face the threat of elimination. So, the question is who among you is the athletic one? You have five minutes to plan you strategy. When the bell rings, run."
Okay, this sucks. Upside down sit ups? She couldn't even manage a decent cartwheel without her legs hanging over like dead vegetables. She looked at Lucas, "Please tell me you can do the whole sit up thing?"
Lucas chuckled. "Though I work in an office, I can assure you I do work out. I'll do it." Alyson released a relief sigh but her breath got stuck in her throat when Lucas pulled his shirt over his head. Alyson swallowed. He was gorgeous. Sure, it had been some time lat when she had been with a man but Lucas's body was just...wow. The ridges of his muscles were well defined but not too much to look like a Gaston 2.0. He was built in all the right places. She couldn't stop her eyes from trailing down the light dusting of dark brown hair that lead into his beach shorts.
"Alyson!"
She blinked twice and looked back into his brown eyes.
His irritating smirk was back. "Were you checking me out? In case you want to know, it wasn't in the least subtle."
She blushed a bright red. "Shut up. I was not. I was merely checking and see if you were up to the task. Body-wise, you're well built for a man who loves wearing suits."
"Okay." Although he said okay, Alyson could hear the teasing hint of sarcasm in his voice. Her face burned a deeper shade of red. Changing the topic, Alyson asked, "So what do you propose we do?"
