me,” said Jessie archly, “I haven’t fainted and would you mind getting your head off my chest.”
Nick’s head rose sharply and Jessie struggled to sit up. “I haven’t fainted because I wasn’t even in trouble in the first place. I was just…” She broke off, searching the sand around her. “Oh, no, my bag, where is it?”
“What?” said Nick in bemusement.
Jessie clambered to her feet, unceremoniously using Nick’s shoulder as a prop. “My bag,” she said insistently. “I don’t believe this, you lost it.”
“Are you okay?” he said.
She looked at him. “Am I okay?” she said derisively. “Of course I’m okay. For your information tough guy, I was doing just fine until you came along.” She pointed out towards the ocean. “I was just treading water and trying to catch my bag when you came storming up and almost killed me. What on earth were you thinking?”
He stood up, eyes flashing. “What was I thinking? Oh, I don’t know, maybe when I see someone struggling in the water I just assume that they could use some help. Why did you wave at me if you weren’t in trouble?”
“I was just waving hello!” Jessie exclaimed, her embarrassment making her defensive.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” he said angrily. “You stop swimming to wave hello and then you sink underwater a couple of times just for good measure? What is that, your idea of a joke?”
She was about to fire back another retort when she spotted a familiar red shape that was rolling in the small waves nearby.
“My bag,” she cried gleefully, stumbling towards it.
“Oh, great,” said Nick, following her. “You found your bag. I’m so glad. We wouldn’t want you to go through the next ten days without your makeup.”
She made a face at him and bent over to pick up the bag. Unfortunately she caught it by the bottom and released the contents in a shower as she lifted it. She fell to her knees and grabbed at the sewing kit as it tried to float away on a wave and she dug the penknife out of the wet sand before thrusting them back into her purse.
Nick’s voice came from above her. “Don’t forget these.”
She turned her head and her gaze traveled up his long legs to see the condoms that he was holding out to her.
She snatched them out of his hand, not even looking at him and shoved them crossly into the bag.
Nick turned on his heel and stomped away from her. “Lois, you and I need to talk, right now,” he said.
“Be right there, Nick,” said Lois. She turned to Kenny, her eyes shining with excitement. “Did you get all that?”
Another thumbs-up from Kenny. Lois clenched her fists triumphantly. “This is great television,” she exclaimed, trotting after Nick.
Jessie put her head in her hands. Welcome to paradise.
JESSIE UNDID THE STRAPS of her shoes and took them off before she stood up. Okay, that was a start. There were strands of hair sticking to her face and she wiped them back while she looked properly for the first time at the two people who were going to be her companions for the next ten days, as well as her competition.
“Hi, there,” said the woman. “Is that your own dress?”
Jessie looked down. “Gosh, no. There’s no way I would have worn this.”
“It’s beautiful,” said the woman. “I wish they’d given it to me.” She put out her hand. “I’m Cindi Todd. That’s Cindi with an i.”
Jessie shook hands with her, frowning slightly. “Isn’t Cindy usually spelt with an i?”
The two women looked at each other.
“I mean, with an i at the end,” said Cindi.
“Oh, okay.” Jessie nodded. She laughed. “So it’s really Cindi with two is.”
Cindi’s smile tightened. “I’ve found that people usually know what I mean.”
Jessie raised her eyebrows at the condescending tone and there was an awkward pause before Cindi spoke again, pointing down at her own attire. “I think I’m supposed to be one of the ship’s crew. A chambermaid or cabin-maid or whatever they call it.” She was wearing a fitted black uniform with a white apron. It had long sleeves, Jessie noticed jealously.
She doubted that “Cindi with an i” was a chambermaid in real life. She had the look of someone who spent a lot of money looking after herself. Her short, platinum, tousled hair emphasized her big eyes, full lips and Slavic cheekbones. She was five and a half feet of slender, toned perfection and she made Jessie feel gangly and clumsy.
It didn’t help that Jessie was also an inch or two taller than the other contestant.
The man pushed his glasses up on his snub nose before he spoke.
“I’m Malcolm Talbot,” he said. “From Denver, Colorado.”
“Nice tuxedo,” said Jessie. It probably had been nice originally, and on a handsome man it might have looked rakish and dissolute, but Malcolm didn’t look as if he’d be comfortable in a tuxedo at the best of times. With his round face, receding hairline and owlish glasses he simply looked disheveled and lost.
“Did you guys get ‘washed-up,’ too?” asked Jessie.
Cindi and Malcolm looked at each other.
“Uh…no,” Cindi said apologetically. “We were brought to the shore.”
“I’m not a very good swimmer,” added Malcolm. “So I probably couldn’t have done it anyway.”
Jessie could see that he was trying to make her feel better and she smiled in appreciation.
“It really was quite a long swim,” chimed in Cindi. “You shouldn’t be embarrassed about getting into trouble.”
“But I didn’t,” said Jessie. She kept her voice pleasant but spoke firmly. “I only stopped because I thought I’d dropped my bag. I didn’t actually need to be rescued.” She turned to Kenny who was hovering silently nearby. “I mean, you were filming it. You saw that I wasn’t drowning, right?” She paused, waiting for an answer. “Kenny?”
Kenny’s head came away from the camera’s eyepiece and he grimaced apologetically. “Uh…I’m not really supposed to talk, you know. I’m just like, an independent observer. Just pretend I’m not here.”
“It’s okay,” Cindi said reassuringly. “I don’t have a clue about any of this survival stuff, either.” She shrugged. “That’s what we have the men for, right?”
Jessie’s mouth fell open but before she could respond, Malcolm spoke up.
“I’ve got lots of survival books at home and I love Nick’s show. I mean, I’ve never done anything like this before
