King of the Castle

You Are A Liaaarrrrr

Somehow, I make it to the evening without lynching Marisol. I spend the rest of my time up to the evening chilling, thinking about what I'm going to say, figuring that between the two new lads, the dates, and the party tonight for their arrival, that all this middle stuff probably won't make it into the main show.

My words with Marisol should make it onto the show proper, but they tend to split up long days over two episodes, showing some evening footage the next episode, so there's a chance that it might take a night before the viewers at home see it. So, that means there's a chance it won't be in the episode that they've seen me kissing Lucas in. Fuck. It's all too much, ridiculous.

When I speak with Matty after eating dinner, he has a chat with me about Marisol.

"You are going to speak to her about it, right?" He asks.

I nod, looking at him like he's stupid. "Duh. She needs to know that she doesn't have the right to interfere like that."

He nods along. "Do you know if she's said anything to any of the others, or was it just Bobby?"

Hold on. Pause. What? Is he fucking with me?

My eyes narrow. "I don't know, did she?"

He shrugs. "I've not seen the day's footage yet, so I can't confirm or deny it. But you and Lucas did really hit it off, didn't you?"

"You could say that. Doesn't mean I'm interested in getting to know him romantically."

He nods. "Just to kiss him. Have you told anyone about the kiss yet? You might be better if you tell one of the girls that you can trust. So, Marisol is out, right? I can't see you saying anything to Priya ... and with how good Hope's date was, she might not want to hear about you and Lucas kissing, so there's always Lottie."

How slick does he think he is? If this is really his attempts at trying to play me, he's in for a shock. Though, the info on Hope is intriguing.

I bat my little Bambi eyes at him. "Oh, but Hope told me she didn't have that great of a date."

"You should really trust your instincts on this type of thing."

That I should, you shit stirring fucker.

"I don't know, she got super snarky with me when I brought it up in front of the other girls," I say. "I don't want to piss her off."

He shrugs. "Don't say anything in front of them, then. Why don't you just see how the other girls feel about it? What they make of the situation?"

Is he setting me? Or is he setting Hope up? Either way there's bait and I need to decide if I'll bite.

"Interesting," I say. I clasp my hand over my mic. Matty does the same, taking the opportunity to stare down my cleavage. Pig. Not that I can blame him. "Did the kiss look bad?"

A thin smile crawls onto his smug face. "Two words, love: Damage. Control. My advice still stands: stick with Bobby. Let Lucas make a fool of himself chasing you, and you'll look so much better. I'll do my best to ... limit ... the kiss' damage on my end if ..."

Oh, am I going to have to blow him again? I'm already rolling my eyes, going to get on my knees, when he slides across the sofa, his arm slithering on the backrest by me.

"You need to cause some big drama, Georgie," he goes on, looking at me seriously. "The potential for a love triangle with you, Lucas, and Bobby is our biggest story at the minute – fresh story, anyway. If you can push Hope into your shoes, and make this her problem, I can make that work, or this thing with Marisol. Get things to kick off. If you can create a bigger story than your kiss for tomorrow's tabloid headlines, you can pretend that it never happened. Besides, you could still be doing without more bad publicity."