The Hating Game (28 page)

‘
It’s just a show, anyway.’ Mattie tried to make her voice calm but instead it sounded like a hiss.

‘
Okay, okay.
’ Fabio put his hands up. ‘Jesus,’ he muttered under his breath as he played around with her curls, piling them on top of her head so a few tendrils hung loose on her cheeks. ‘Whoever it is, I hope he brings his pepper spray along. Here.’ Fabio handed her a zipped garment bag. ‘Wardrobe left this for you.’

Mattie unzipped the bag, wondering what monstrosity they would force her into this time. The dress inside was shiny and slinky, a stretchy jade-green material covered in millions of sequins. Mattie held her breath and shimmied into it, tugging the fabric down into place. Hmm. Not too bad. In fact, she looked half-way decent. Sexy, yes, but not the prostitute-gone-wild look she’d been forced to sport in the past. Or maybe she was just getting used to revealing a little skin?

Nate appeared at the door
. ‘Ready to go?’

Mattie nodded,
eyes bulging at Nate’s gelled-up hair and tight-fitting shirt that accentuated his rolls of fat. He looked like a blow-up version of Baz with specs.

‘
So here’s what will happen,’ Nate said, pulling at his top. ‘You’ll be on the set next to Seamus, as usual. The men will be on chairs to your right.’

‘
Is Charlie coming back?’ Mattie interrupted. She wouldn’t be surprised if he’d offed himself after what had happened.

Nate squirmed. ‘Um, no. We couldn’t get in touch with him. His ex told us Charlie’s gone to some Buddhist retreat in Indonesia.’

Mattie made a face. Typical. Well, at least he was still alive.

‘
So we’ll show some clips and highlights from the show. Then the voting lines will close, and there’ll be a brief commercial break while the final scores are tallied. Seamus will announce the winner of the two weeks with you, and we’re out.’

Mattie shrugged, trying to make it look like she didn’t care. But inside her heart pounded. What if more people thought like Fabio and Kyle won those two weeks? Could she keep a steady grip on her feelings with him beside her all that time? Even knowing he was somewhere in the building right now made her crave a whisky like never before.

‘
Break a leg!’ Nate said as he shoved his specs up his nose and did his usual hamster-run from the room to the studio.

Mattie
swallowed and smoothed out her dress. Everything would be all right. She could endure anything – even Kyle – for her business. Financial independence, her mother’s voice echoed in her head. The key to happiness.

‘
Let’s go!’
Headset motioned her to follow. Mattie wound her way through the corridors and towards the wings of the same big studio where the kick-off show had been filmed. As she stood next to the grey swinging door that blocked the stage from view, she wondered if Jess was here. Mattie had to admit, as angry as she was, she kind of hoped there was some support in the audience.

‘
And
now, let’s bring out our sexy single lady. Please welcome back . . . Mattie Johns!’ she heard Seamus shout.

Cheers and whoops broke out from the audience, getting even louder when
Mattie walked onstage. Mattie couldn’t help smiling. Having people cheer for her actually felt comforting.

She glanced to her right as she perched on the stool.
No men yet. She tried to keep her face neutral as the
Jackson 5
music swirled through the studio and the on-air sign lit up again. Last show, she said to herself. Think about the money. The money!

‘
So Mattie!’
Seamus bent down close, a bit of dribble oozing its way down his chin. Mattie leaned back, trying to get out of the firing line. He smelled even more like a brewery than usual and his swirly pink tie was so bright it hurt her eyes.

‘
You’ve had quite the week, haven’t you? Tell us, which one of the men do
you
think deserves a second chance for romance? Not that you get a choice,’ Seamus sniggered.

The studio went quiet and Mattie could hear the audience rustle as they awaited her answer. Who to say? Giovanni would probably try to seduce her every ten seconds; Kyle . . . not even an option. That left Adam. Yes, she could deal with Adam for two weeks – a robotic nerd was better than an underwear-model wannabe.

But if she said Adam,
would the audience vote for someone else just for fun, to go against her? Maybe vote for Kyle, to mix things up? Maybe she should say Kyle, so they’d go for another man. But then Kyle would think she wanted to be with him, and . . . no, she couldn’t face going through that again. Anyway, these were lame people who watched game shows, not corporate strategists. She was over-thinking the whole thing.

‘
I think Adam deserves a second chance,’ Mattie said
finally.

The audience erupted
. ‘AD-AM! AD-AM!’

Clearly
there was no accounting for taste, Mattie thought. How anyone could root for the robot was beyond her.

‘
Well, let’s get our men out here and see what they have to say!
’ Seamus crowed. ‘Welcome back to the stage . . . Giovanni!’

Mattie swivelled
as Giovanni trotted on, resplendent in cowboy boots with heels and a tight-fitting shirt
à
la
Baz tucked into a pair of leather trousers. Good Lord, did he plan to hit Pimps R Us after the show? There was a smattering of applause and he bowed with a flourish before settling onto his stool, legs wide part to ensure maximum exposure of his goods.

‘
And . . .
welcome Adam!’

The audience
burst into cheers as Adam appeared, moving forward with jerky strides, looking polished in yet another tailored black suit. Everything – from his shiny shoes to his crisp white shirt and lacquered hair – was perfect, as if it’d been pinned into place.

‘
And finally, welcome back Kyle!’

Mattie studied the audience, anxious to gauge their response. A few boos – but surprisingly, plenty of cheers – rang out in the studio. What if Fabio
did
reflect the thoughts of the nation? Sweat broke out on her upper lip and she quickly wiped it away. Suddenly the studio lights felt a million degrees hotter. It didn’t matter if Kyle won. It didn’t! She’d deal with it.

Seamus
pushed back from the podium and sleazed over to the men.

‘
Let’s talk to Giovanni first. Giovanni, voting lines close in fifteen minutes. Tell me, why should people vote for you to be with Mattie?’

Giovanni grinned into the camera. ‘I amma cool. I amma fit.’ He looked over towards Mattie. ‘We have da fun, yes? I fun!’

Mattie couldn’t help but nod mutely. He
had
been fun, she thought, remembering their flour fight in Ali’s small, dingy kitchen.

‘
And now over to Adam. Adam, same question. Why should people vote for you?’

‘
Pe
ople should vote for me because Mattie and I have chemistry. If you watched our date, you must have seen it. We belong together.’

‘
Awwwww!’ the audience sighed
. Mattie only just stopped herself from snorting. Chemistry? They barely had enough spark to light a match! There was something so dead about Adam the only chemistry would be decomposition.

‘
And finally, Kyle. Kyle, why
should you be the one to win those two weeks with Mattie?’

Mattie held her b
reath and stared straight ahead even though every inch of her strained to turn in Kyle’s direction. She steeled herself against his coming words.

There was a pause
, and then she heard Kyle say: ‘I shouldn’t.’

What? That was the last
thing she’d expected – she’d been psyching herself up to ignore another plea. She swung around to face him, trying to read his thoughts. Was this some kind of game? But his pale face and the tense expression made it clear it wasn’t. Mattie had never seen him so exhausted.

‘
Mattie’s made it clear she doesn’t trust me, that she doesn’t want a second chance
,’ he said, staring straight at her. ‘I have to respect that.’

Mattie
wrestled her eyes away from his, struggling not to show her surprise. Kyle had tried hard to talk to her after their break-up, begging for a second chance. He’d even come on this show, for God’s sake! Had he finally given up on them? A strange feeling fluttered in her gut and she forced herself to smile. She should be happy. He was finally leaving her alone. Yes. She
was
happy. The way forward would be much easier now.

‘
Yeah, you’ve got someone waiting at home anyway, eh
Kyle?’ Seamus sneered. The audience laughed as he walked back over to Mattie and put a hand on her shoulder. She could feel the heat and sweat seeping through the sequins of her dress. ‘But it’s not up to you or Mattie. It’s up to our audience.’ He leered at them. ‘With five minutes remaining, let’s see a few highlights from the four dates.’

The big screen behind them lit up
and the
Jackson 5
theme tune rocketed through the speakers. Mattie spun around to see images of the ballroom dance instructor dry-humping Charlie and Charlie leaving in tears. Poor idiot. Then she and Giovanni were laughing in the mud pit, Ali grabbing Giovanni by the throat . . . and she and Kyle in Castle Combe, and him telling her he wanted to start over.

Her
throat tightened as the video cut to the angry look on Kyle’s face when Chloe came in the restaurant. Mattie shook her head. No matter what else Kyle had or hadn’t done, she couldn’t
really
believe he’d been involved in the set-up – he wasn’t that good an actor. A few horrific shots of her and Adam snuggling in the hot-air balloon came on and then the video ended. The lights flashed on and off again and the giant purple
Hating Game
logo came up.

‘
And lines fo
r your Date Rate are now closed.’ Seamus paused and looked meaningfully into the camera. ‘Join us after the commercial break when we reveal which sexy ex gets to spend two weeks alone with our single lady to repair their relationship or destroy it – forever!’

‘
We’re out! Five minutes,’ a voice off
-stage boomed.

Fabio breezed out from the wings and gave Seamus’s greasy hair a quick comb, then minced over to Mattie’s stool. ‘You saw Kyle’s face, right? In the video?’ he whispered as he tugged a curl. ‘I told you! It was a set up!’

‘
Are you deaf as well as dumb?
’ Mattie dodged a brush. ‘Didn’t you hear what he said? It’s over between us. For good.’ Even though she’d been saying that ever since their break up, a surprising heaviness pushed at her heart as she heard herself speak the words.

Fabio s
hrugged. ‘Of course he’s saying it’s over – didn’t you run out on him last night? You haven’t given him much choice. Come on, girl. Get some guts and go for it.’

‘
Thanks
, Dr Phil-io,’ Mattie muttered. She opened her mouth to say more, but was cut off by Nate running around the stage like a rodent on speed trying to get everyone back into place.

‘
Thirty seconds!’ he sang out
, clearly trying to appear authoritative but sounding more like an adolescent whose voice was changing. ‘Thirty seconds!’

Mattie settled on
to the stool and tried not to look in Kyle’s direction as Fabio’s words swarmed through her head. She
was
being gutsy! Saving her business was the smart choice; the choice a modern, independent woman would make. It wasn’t the 1950s for God’s sake. She didn’t need a man to come rescue her. If Kyle couldn’t accept that – which clearly he couldn’t – it was his problem.

‘
Back on in three! Two! One!’ The floor manager cued Seamus.

‘
Welcome back to
The Hating Game
.’ Seamus grinned into the camera. ‘It’s now time to reveal . . . which one of these men will spend two weeks with our lo-ve-ly single lady?’ He paused, swaying dangerously. ‘Can I have the envelope please?’

Mattie’s heart thumped as a runner darted onto the stage and handed Seamus an envelope.

‘
And the winner of the two week holiday
. . . with gorgeous single Mattie Johns . . . the ex with the highest Date Rate is . . .’ Seamus struggled to open the envelope with his sausage-like fingers.

Hurry up! Mattie’s
head was about to explode.

The pissed host peered closely at the card, his hand
visibly shaking.

Oh come on!
Couldn’t they just tell him through the earpiece
?
He couldn’t even walk straight, let alone see straight.

Another dramatic pause, then Seamus opened his mouth.

‘
Adam!’ he
yelled.

The
Jackson 5
song started up again and the audience burst into applause. Mattie arranged her face into a smile over the chorus of their chants and cheers, willing her eyes away from Kyle. Adam had won. That was okay then.