Chapter Thirty

Matt glanced up from his phone and pushed the button to shut off his screen. “Ginger’s out.”

Elliot recrossed his legs, still trying to find a comfortable position in the airport seat. Their flight back to the States didn’t board for another hour. Kat had gone to get coffee, leaving him and Matt alone for a few minutes. Not that it was any better being with one of them instead of both. “Out? Meaning she quit, or…?”

“Email says she resigned.”

Across the terminal, he caught Michelle’s eye. Her expression reminded him of the time she’d borrowed his car a few years back and left it at a bar but couldn’t remember which bar. To this day, she was still paying his gym membership to make up for it. He wondered what she’d offer to comp for him this time. Humiliating himself on national television was a few degrees worse than having to Uber through the south side of Chicago for three hours retracing her steps of the previous night. His forgiveness wouldn’t come so easy this time around. She’d let him down by not listening when he’d told her it wasn’t working, by not getting it in general.

“This can still work, Elliot,” Matt said.

Michelle finally blinked and looked away. “How do you figure?” Elliot asked.

“It’s what the show’s designed to do. You can still get what you came here for.”

And then some, Elliot figured. A relationship with no heart. What was meant to be a simple transaction—a fill-in-the-blank—had become an empty exercise leading to a result he no longer wanted. A partnership. An arrangement. A marriage in name only.

“Hannah and Daisy are incredible women,” Matt added.

“How is this gonna work exactly?” Elliot asked. “How is it that you guys are gonna make this look like I had any choice at all?”

“We’re working on that, Elliot, so if you’ll please chill…” Kat was back.

Elliot glanced up at the lanky redhead as she handed Matt the coffee he’d asked for. She plopped down in the seat between the two men.

Elliot had reached his limit. “This is such bullshit. You guys are unbelievable. And I mean that literally. Even if you could convince Michelle and my Panel to pick one of them for me—how are you planning to shut Jenna up?”

Kat lifted the lid off her coffee and blew a stream of air over the top. “That’s the lawyers’ problem.”

“You have no plan, do you?”

“What does Ginger see in you? Exactly.”

Elliot hoped she burned her tongue. She sure had a lot of fun throwing stones from her pretty glass house. “Hey, where’d you and Jamie get off to last night after the ‘blessings’?”

Matt lifted his head and turned toward the two of them.

Kat’s face flushed cherry red. Even the tip of her nose. It would have been cute if she weren’t such a terrible person. “Ginger’s gone, Elliot, and I’m glad. She can do better than being your girl on the side.”

“Is that what you told her?”

“More or less.”

“Thanks. Thanks for the help, Kat.”

“What? You wanted me to aid and abet your total violation of every contract you signed before coming here? No, thanks. I like my job. Ginger liked hers, too.”

“Thanks for looking for the best in me. I appreciate it. It’s what I like so much about this show—how everyone’s so invested in my future happiness.”

“Pfft.” She took her cell phone out of her bag and opened the lock screen. “She’s too good for you.”

Elliot took issue with that. They’d all but begged him to star on their show. “Is she?”

“She deserves someone who knows what the fuck he wants and isn’t afraid to make a decision by himself. She deserves a man. Not a boy.”

“Like Jamie?”

Deflecting again and without looking up from her phone, she continued. “I’m not trying to be a bitch, but you’ve gotta see this the way she sees it. You came here to find a wife because you weren’t able to do it on your own. Meanwhile, you can’t even follow the rules. I’m not saying I think you’re pathetic, but I mean…”

“Jesus, Kat,” Matt finally interjected.

Elliot plucked her phone from her hands. “You might think I’m a pathetic loser, but I’m not giving up.”

She faced him, eyes all indignant. “Oh. I see. You’re gonna wrap things up here, then violate your contract and go after Ginger? That’ll go over well on Twitter. And with her, too, I’m sure. You guys’ll be so cute standing in the unemployment line together. I’m so jelly.” She snatched her phone back.

“You know, I don’t know who fucked with your head and made you so goddamn bitter, but it wasn’t me, Kat.”

Fully triggered, Kat lit into him. “I’m so sick of men like you who think giving out good orgasms is the same thing as having a real relationship.”

“I’m out.” Matt stood and started across the terminal toward The Panel.

Elliot, itching to unleash, turned all his frustration on Kat. “You think that’s my problem?”

“Let it go, Hale. Let Ginger go. She was fine before you waltzed back onto her set, and she’ll be fine once you’re gone. All you’re doing anymore is complicating her life. Deal with your own shit. Pick yourself a trophy wife and go ride off into the sunset together. Leave the rest of us out of it.”

Her last words hit him like a smack across the jaw. The implication that he wasn’t a part of Ginger’s world, and never would be. He’d been a blip on her radar, easily forgotten. Out of sight, out of mind.

“Face it, Elliot. You’re stuck. This is your option. You know why this show works? Why we have the best long-term success rate of any dating show?”

“Why?”

“Because we take out the heart.”

A week before, he would have agreed with her. Not anymore. “I still have a heart. And it’s in love with your friend. You think you’re so good at your job, Kat? How’d you not notice? How’d you not see it was me and her this whole time? From night one. You can’t tell me none of what happened between us never made it to one of your monitors. I couldn’t take my eyes off her. Why do you think she wanted Jenna to come back?”

Kat gaped, speechless.

“Because she knew this was happening. She knew I’d fallen for her and she was terrified of falling for me, and then you know what happened?”

He took a breath to answer his own question, but Kat answered it for him, in a whisper. “She did.”

He dialed his rant down a notch. “She did.” Sensing an opening, his first glimmer of light in the cave he’d been in, he lunged for it. “Did she tell you about the night at the Hilton?”

“She—” Kat fumbled for a word, couldn’t find one, so she nodded.

“I tried to get in touch with her afterward. I wanted to see her again—I needed to. But then the show was crawling up my ass for an answer and—”

“Ginger is the show,” Kat supplied.

“She never responded. Because she knew you assholes wouldn’t stop until I was here. And what do I get for my trouble? An arranged marriage with the second runner-up because you’re keeping the first runner-up for yourselves. Assholes.”

“Elliot—no one was ever trying to hurt you. Or Ginger. I honestly didn’t see it.”

“Well, it’s there. There’s no way it isn’t. How bad do you think they’d sue me?”

Kat’s face lost a few shades of color. “Elliot…”

“How bad?”

“More than you have,” she said. “Way more.”

His savings? His house? 401k? Fuck it. He’d figure something out. “I don’t care. I quit.”

“You can’t.”

“I just did.”

Kat scanned the terminal, sending a desperate look Matt’s way. He was too busy talking to Lavonne to notice. Forced to respond to Elliot, she scrambled. “Give me three days.”

“To what?”

“You take three days off, decompress. Sleep. Imagine the kind of future you could have with Hannah or Daisy. Give us a chance to make this work. We aren’t stupid. We know what we’re doing.”

“I’m not interested in that.”

“Then what?”

“Talk to Ginger,” he said.

“What? Why?”

“Tell her what I said. Tell her I’m so fucking in love with her I don’t care if they take everything I have or everything I will have for next ten years.”

“And then what?” Actual fear widened Kat’s eyes. The same as he’d seen in Ginger’s when they were in the Redwood forest and the sun was setting. Everyone’s livelihood was on the line. Ginger had already lost her job because of him. The idea of Kat and Matt both getting fired because he tanked the show didn’t sit well, but hurting Hannah or Daisy the way he hurt Jenna didn’t either.

He changed course, hoping there was still some room to make a deal that wouldn’t screw them all. “What do you want?”

“Just pick a winner. Film the finale. Finish the season.”

“That sounds like a win-win for you. What do I get if I stay?”

“I’ll talk to her,” she said.

“And?”

Her face pinched. “I’ll figure something out.”

“What?”

“Fuck, I don’t know yet, but I promise I’ll talk to her. I’ll try.”

“This is such bullshit—”

“I’m asking you to trust me, Elliot—”

He laughed out loud.

She pounded her hand on the arm rail between them. “I am not as big an asshole as you think I am!”

The 'Matched' offices were dark late Tuesday night. With so many fewer moving parts to the show now that there were only two women left, there weren’t as many fires to put out. The finale was all that remained. One show. One production. One happy ending.

Ginger wished she were surprised Elliot hadn’t quit, but she wasn’t. Cassie was a fantastic option for him. He’d have been an idiot not to try for a future with her. Refusing to reminisce about all the good times and bad times she’d had at that job, she made her way to her office with her empty box. Passing the cutting room, she noticed the light was on. Unable to resist, she took a peek inside.

“Hey,” Kat said without taking her eyes off the monitors.

Ginger stared at the screens, too—all in freeze-frame. The first one that caught her eye was from the day of the barbecue. Ginger had her hand on Elliot’s collar, straightening it. He was staring down at her oblivious face with so much heat it practically burned the screen. In another, he was unhooking her from the zip line. He held her hand to keep her steady, and she was smiling so big it was a miracle her face hadn’t broken that day.

The third was in the Hacienda, the afternoon Jenna came back. They were in the living room, shouting at each other. His hand was on his heart, his face wrenched and torn apart. Her head was hung, guilty, devastated at what she’d done.

In the last, the grainiest and darkest, they were standing by the pool, toe-to-toe, and she was staring up at his face because he’d asked her to spend a day with him in Paris. She looked like she was seeing the sun for the first time after the longest rain. His arms were crossed, but his fist was clenched, like he was doing everything in his power not to touch her in front of the cameras.

It was their love story. Caught on tape.

It took her breath away.

“I’m sorry,” Kat said.

“You didn’t know,” Ginger managed to reply.

“I should have.”

“It wouldn’t have mattered. You only would have gotten pissed at me sooner. I would have had to leave sooner. The ending stays the same.”

“I would have been kinder. I would never have sent you that picture from the Eiffel Tower.”

“Ha. Well…I don’t think I deserve anyone’s kindness. You were right.”

“It doesn’t feel right,” Kat said.

“Not everyone gets a happy ending.”

Kat swiveled in her chair to face her. “You should.”

“I’ll figure something out.” Ginger moved to leave the room, but Kat’s voice stopped her.

“Ginger?”

“Yeah?”

“Elliot told me how much he loves you. He wanted me to tell you that.”

The words were like a blade slicing through an open wound. “You see him again, tell him I said same.”

“How did this even happen?”

Ginger leaned on the doorframe. “I don’t know. You know one day, I wanted to climb him like he was a rock wall, and the next day he was taking out my trash. I’m not exactly sure how we got there, but everything changed for me.”

“Yeah.” Kat smiled. “Taking out the trash sucks.”

“Good luck with the finale.”

“It’s tomorrow,” she said.

Apparently, they’d changed the filming date. Ginger didn’t bother asking why. “Why is no one else here then?”

“Matt went to grab dinner. Anyway. It’ll be over soon.”

Ginger wished so hard that were true. Her misery had other plans for her though. They included wine and anything with “Flaming Hot” in the title.

Kat stood, her tired body reluctant to leave her chair. “Let’s go on a girls’ weekend after this. Doesn’t have to be anything major. Palm Springs or something?”

“Yeah.”

“I really am sorry.”

Kat rarely apologized for anything work related, whether shady or straightforward, so Ginger knew she meant it. Sure, she could be a bitch sometimes, and her personal life was a mess, but Ginger had known Kat long enough to have seen how soft her heart was, what a true romantic she could be. “Palm Springs sounds fun.”

“I kinda want to hug you if that’s okay.”

Relieved she hadn’t had to ask, Ginger made the first move.