However Do You Want Me... || Chenford / The Rookie

Part 10

AN: Check out the external link at the end of the chapter if you want to see a video of what the challenge looked like beyond the visuals included below. The challenge begins at 7:46.

Also available here for those on the app:

https://rb.gy/xabpp

***

Lucy quietly slips back into her own bed just before the sun comes up, the sounds of the crew assembling equipment downstairs warning that filming will resume at any moment.

Neither she nor Tim directly addresses the night prior as the morning progresses and they gear up for the next challenge, but there's definitely a shift between them — an ease and familiarity that wasn't there even just 24 hours earlier — Tim gripping her waist as he leans around her to reach his sneakers, Lucy grasping his arm for balance as she attempts to stretch out her hamstring, sidelong glances and suppressed smiles like they've managed to get away with something that only the two of them know about.

***

Excited and nervous murmurs fill the air when the contestants arrive at the challenge site for the day — a massive shipwreck set up on the beach. Their host explains the 'Don't Rock the Boat' challenge, "Each team has to climb the rigging up to the first of the ascending masts at the top of this boat. Your goal will be to jump from post to post until you reach the crow's nest and ring the bell. But you cannot move to the next mast until both partners are standing or sitting on the platform, or you will have to start over. The team with the fastest time will become the power couple, while the team with the slowest time will automatically be eliminated."