Ghosts (A Christian Yelich Story)

Chapter Sixteen: Can We Be Careful?

At that night's group meeting, Ellen had an announcement. "For your last night in the castle, you'll work with a different person. Sleeping arrangements will not change at any point."

I looked over at Annie who was now biting her lip – something I noticed she liked to do when she was nervous. I put my hand on her knee underneath the table, and she looked over at me sadly.

I fully expected Annie to be paired with Asher and for me to be paired with Kaylie, but that isn't what happened. I was with Asher and Annie was with Kaylie. I rolled my eyes, and part of me hoped they captured it on camera.

"I guess this is better than you working with Asher, right?" I whispered to Annie.

"Yeah, I think so. Don't let him be a dick to you or force you to say anything stupid on camera, though. He manipulates."

"I won't," I told her. I wanted to kiss her, or at the very least hold her hand and squeeze it, but I was pretty sure she was still trying to keep that part of our "friendship" off screen. I didn't want to cross a line. I decided on "I can't wait to see you tonight."

She smiled at me. "The best part of the day." I really wanted to kiss her now.

Ellen broke us apart. "Chat time is over. Off to your locations."

Asher was glaring at me from the doorway. "Hey," I said, attempting to be friendly, while I walked over to him.

"Let's just get this over with," he grumbled.

"Yeah, sure, dude."

We were escorted to the castle's cathedral while a producer told us the story of how haunted the cathedral supposedly was. Neither Asher nor I listened too closely.

We were both directed to sit in a couple of chairs in the back of the church for a while and wait to see if we sensed any "activity." The producer then left the room and left us in the dark. I could barely see Asher's face.

As soon as the producer left, Asher started his ploy. "So, you're fucking my fiancée, huh?"

I gave him an "are you serious?" look. "Man, you cheated on her with a good friend, and she hasn't been your fiancée for months. And why do you think we're sleeping together?"

"If you had any clue who that good friend is, you wouldn't blame me," he said, laughing a little. Jesus. Christ. What a dick. What did she ever see in this guy?

I didn't say anything, but he continued, "Anyway, you're really defensive of her and you constantly look at her like she just gave you the best fuck of your life."

I rolled my eyes again, even though he was probably right. "You have no idea what you're talking about."

He laughed. "I know exactly what I'm talking about. I mean, she is pretty amazing; I get why you're enjoying yourself. If she hasn't given you a blow job yet, you should get on that. Top notch shit."

It was hard not to punch him in the face at this point, but Annie's words to not let him manipulate me were fortunately stuck in my head.

"I'm just going to let you know that I have every intention of leaving this project with us back together, so don't get too comfortable. She's a bit out of your league. Pardon the baseball pun," he smugly finished.

He obviously wanted to start something, so I didn't refute him. "She's out of both our leagues, man."

***

The session dragged on forever and mostly involved Asher and I sitting in silence. I was so relieved to be making my way back to Annie.

When I made it back to our room, Annie was already in bed reading a book. "Hey, nerd," I joked.

She snorted, "Hey. Mr. I Haven't Read a Book Since High School, and I Think That Makes Me Cool, But Really It Makes Me an Uninformed Loser."

I laughed. "That's actually pretty accurate."

She smiled, marked her page, and set her book down on the nightstand. "I missed you. Don't leave me alone with Kaylie ever again. She definitely has a thing for you, and she asked me so many questions. What's he into? What's his middle name? Does he live in a mansion? Does he make more money than me? I've never had to say 'I don't know' so many times in a row."

For whatever reason, hearing her say "I missed you," made my stomach flutter a bit. I had a serious schoolboy crush on her, and I had no idea how to navigate it.

"I missed you too," I mumbled, jumping into bed. "Asher is definitely convinced he's going to re-engage you at the end of all of this."

"That'll be a no from me, dawg," she said. "But that clarifies that he definitely came on this show to fuck with me. That's a little upsetting." She sounded a little hurt.

"Hey," I said, reaching out for her hand and grabbing it. I was positive she'd push me away, since cameras could technically still be on us, but she didn't. "Don't think about him too much. He wins then."

"I know. I need to just treat this experience like he's not here."

I nodded. "I think that'd be best."

"Christian, can I ask you a question?"

"Sure," I said, unsure what to expect.

She looked nervous all of a sudden and her face reddened a bit. "This may be completely off base, and I may embarrass myself completely by asking you this, but are you developing feelings for me . . . or is this just a sex thing? I'm just a bit confused, and I don't want to get any wrong ideas or make any mistakes."

"Um, uh," I stuttered a bit. "Feelings. Yeah, definitely feelings." I was not the world's most eloquent person, but I wasn't lying. There were feelings, and they were getting pretty strong. "I asked you on a date for a reason."

"Okay," she said. "Can we be careful?"

I nodded, "Sure," but I wasn't exactly positive what she meant. I don't know if she did either.

I squeezed her hand, which was still in mine, and went in for a kiss.

Fuck the cameras.