Chapter Twenty-Six
Troy
“Wow! That’s not what I expected, but I guess The Stud always delivers with the great twists!”
Tay Drake awkwardly spoke into his mic again, trying to relieve the stark tension in the silent atmosphere, but it didn’t work. Everyone was still staring at Eden and me with expressions of pure shock on their faces. Next to me, Eden began to tremble, and she whispered to me. “Please tell me this is just a bad dream.”
I shook my head. “No,” I replied. “This isn’t a bad dream. It’s a good dream. Because fuck it…now I can finally do what I’ve wanted to do for weeks.”
“What? Troy…”
Before Eden could stop me, I held up a hand and called out to the crowd as the cameras continued to roll. “Well, now you all know the truth. The only woman I love is on this show, like I hoped for, but it’s not one of the contestants. It’s Eden Zamora, and to be perfectly honest, I’ve loved her since the first moment I saw her seven years ago.”
Glenn finally stepped forward, his face like thunder. “You….you….” he spluttered before finally finding his tongue. “You’ve ruined my show, you cunt! I’m going to fucking kill you!”
With that, he began to run full pelt towards the stage, and I grabbed Eden’s hand. “Run!” I said before breaking into a sprint, pulling her along behind me until we reached the steps on the left side of the stage; the opposite direction from where Glenn was coming.
By now, everyone else in the audience had finally begun to make noise again, tittering amongst themselves and throwing dark looks at us. I would’ve thought that Hayley might throw a tantrum upon realizing she wasn’t going to be picked by me, but instead I was surprised to see and hear Anya screaming.
“How dare you, Troy!” she shouted, her face red with rage as she watched us dash away. “You fucking bastard!”
She kept screaming and crying hysterically as Eden and I reached the far end of the cruise ship, and I could still hear her as we headed below deck. “Where are we going?” Eden asked as her little legs worked overtime to keep up with me, her hand still entwined with mine.
“The speed boat on the landing deck. Tay’s driver left the key in the ignition earlier!” I called back to her.
“You won’t find the key there.”
We both stopped dead in our tracks at the sound of another person’s voice, and my pulse began to race even more than it already was as Candice stepped out of the shadows near the white door which led to the landing deck.
“I saw him leave the keys earlier too, and I told Tay I’d go back and grab them for him later, just to make sure no one decided to go for a little joy ride. That boat is worth fifty grand, remember?” Candice said. “You told me that, Troy.”
I nodded, and Eden opened her mouth to speak. “Candice, I’m so sorry. I…” Her voice trailed off, and I knew she had no idea what to say, or how to apologize for all the sneaking around and lying.
Candice stared at us for a moment, and then she reached into her pocket and pulled the keys out, jangling them in the air as she held them up. “So I guess it’s lucky for you guys that I grabbed them before someone else,” she said with a wry smile as she tossed the keys in our direction. “You better hurry. I can hear footsteps above us.”
My eyebrows shot up as I caught the keys. “You’re helping us?”
“Yeah. Unlike everyone else on this show, I’m not a blind, selfish idiot. I could tell how you felt about Eden every time you looked at her for the last two months, and vice versa. I tried to bring it up with you earlier to see if you wanted to talk about it, but you clearly wanted to keep it under wraps,” she said. “And I kept my mouth shut to everyone else this whole time, because you know what? Fuck Glenn and everyone else on this goddamned show. I wasn’t going to see Eden lose her job just because she loves someone.”
She turned to address Eden. “Eden, you’re one of the only decent people I’ve met the whole time I’ve worked on reality TV, and I’ve been here a while. It’s toxic. So fuck everyone else. You deserve to be happy,” she said. She hesitated a little before speaking again. “Also, I still feel a bit bad for not trusting you during the Blair situation. I should’ve known better, and I owe you something like this as an apology. So hurry up and get on that boat! I’ll stall the others.”
Eden jumped forward and tearfully hugged Candice, and I nodded at Candice over her shoulder. “Thanks.”
“No worries. Just put in a good word for me with Tay Drake, now that you two know each other,” she said with a wink.
Eden and I raced through the door to the landing deck, and I quickly helped Eden onto the boat before sticking the key in the ignition and starting the motor. I’d driven one of these boats in a California marina with my friends a few times, which wasn’t exactly the same as driving on the choppy ocean, but I got the hang of it pretty quickly, and soon we were zipping well away from the cruise ship, the sun setting over the horizon behind us.
I was glad my relationship with Eden was out in the open now. Maybe not so glad that it was literally out on the open ocean, but still, a huge weight had been lifted from my shoulders. Nothing felt better than admitting my feelings out loud to everyone back there, and I didn’t care what the world decided to throw at me anymore. The showrunners could sue me for breach of contract, the media could paint me as a complete and utter asshole for abandoning the two final contestants at the last minute….I didn’t care. Not one bit.
All that mattered was Eden.
I could see the coastline in the distance, and I slowed the boat down a bit as we headed towards it. I had a vague idea of where the nearest marina was, because the cruise ship hadn’t headed out too far from the port when we left earlier this morning, and I switched the boat’s lights on via the panel near the ignition as I saw that the sun was almost gone. Eden leaned down and trailed one hand in the aquamarine water as we cruised along, and she let out a sigh.
“The water is still so warm. I feel like it’s a good allegory for my life right now.”
“Because you’re in hot water career-wise?” I said gently, turning my gaze from the ocean to her for a second.
She nodded. “Yeah. I’m screwed. No one will ever hire me again,” she said softly.
“That won’t happen. You’ll be fine,” I said firmly. “I know you’ve never cared about this kind of stuff, but I’m a pretty famous guy, Eden.”
“I can’t live off your money—” she began to say, and I cut her off.
“That’s not what I meant. I mean I know people in the media industry. I can help you get another job; a better job. No matter what, I’ll support you. You know that.”
She gave me a watery smile and nodded, and I squeezed her hand with one of mine as I kept the other on the boat’s steering handle. I knew exactly how guilty she felt—it was the same guilt I’d felt a couple of years ago when I’d stupidly gotten a DUI. My teammates, coaches, and the team owners had been understandably pissed at me for the bad press I’d brought upon the team, and at the time I’d been concerned that my career was already over. But it wasn’t. I kept clean and refused to make the same stupid choice again, and it blew over eventually. This wasn’t the exact same situation, but that horrible guilt and worthlessness I’d felt over possibly destroying my career and everything I’d worked so hard for was exactly what Eden was going through right now.
Whatever it took, I was going to find a way to show her just how much she was worth.