This time, I'm serious

Relying on her

The girls lounged in the sun, enjoying the morning coolness of what was sure to be a scorching hot day.

Jas smiled. "We didn't do too poorly, did we? The four of us? Life could be bloody worse."

"We did very well, I think." Valentina agreed. She broke into a wide smile. "I honestly wouldn't mind if any of you guys won."

"Neither. But what would you guys do? With the 25k?" Angie asked

"House. Definitely house." Thabi said.

"It's not gonna buy you much house in Brighton, babe."

Thabi laughed. "Nah, but it's the deposit on a very nice apartment... plus... James and I... already decided that we'd go in together. If we won."

Jas's stomach dropped a little. "You guys are gonna buy a place together? Holy shit"

Valentina started firing questions at Thabi about mortgage lending practices, interest rates, and financial incentives. Thabi looked like she immediately regretted bringing it up.

"Hey actually, that reminds me. Jas, I need to talk to you about something real quick. Kitchen?"

"Yeah, sure!"

They reached out their hands to each other, using each other's body weight to pull themselves up out of the beanbags.

As they walked up to the kitchen, Angie was frowning.

"I didn't have a chance to chat to you yesterday about it, but that reminded me. You guys aren't moving in together any more? What the hell?"

Jas shushed her. "Yeah. I'm gonna get my own place for a bit. I'm still going to Liverpool though."

"Babe... what happened? Is this you freaking out or is this him?"

"Um... both? I guess?"

Angie shot her a look. "Babe... you were so excited."

"Look... he was nervous about us moving too fast, that's all."

" Moving too fast? Jas... you guys have been going Usain Bolt since you laid eyes on each other."

Jas laughed. "Not like that, I meant it like... okay, hang on."

Angie looked at her expectantly, trying to cross her arms, forgetting she had a doll on her chest in a carrier.

Jas sighed. "You have to admit, we're in a bubble here. We don't actually know each other outside of Love Island. Like what if he's a really bad driver? Or what if..."

Angie waited for her to finish, and Jas giggled.

"What if we get food poisoning and we've only got one bathroom? How do we navigate that dynamic? Like, how fast do you want to find out everything about a person?"

Angie snorted with laughter, and almost dropped Kitty's bottle.

"Okay.. well... that is an excellent point. Good. I just wanted to make sure you before you moved across the country for a boy you bloody melt"

Jas grinned at her, the tone of her voice slowing. She wasn't joking about what she was about to say, and she needed Angie to hear it as much as she just wanted to make sure that she gave it the respect it deserved

"Bruno and I are both in this for the long haul. We'll probably end up staying together every night anyway, but at least this way, a little bit of the pressure is off. We both... we both really want this to work. And if that means we move in together four months after meeting instead of four weeks, then that's fine by us."