not the only one

you owe me one

The following day was a frustrating one for Alex. First, she slept in, exhausted from the past few days and the drama of the Stick or Switch ceremony. By the time she got outside for a workout, the sun was high in the sky and it was hotter than she would've liked. Rahim was there and gave her a small smile in acknowledgement as he did sit-ups, but Shannon was sitting just off to the side and watching him like a hawk.

When she finally hit the shower, all the hot water was gone. There were sixteen people living in the villa, and apparently that meant needing to be early if you wanted a decent shower.

Despite there not being a challenge during the day, she barely found time to chat with Rahim. Every time she pulled him aside to talk, inevitably Shannon would find a way to reel him back to her side, or something else would happen to draw his attention away. She could kill Bobby for that floatie "incident."

Meanwhile the rest of the girls were determined to get the goss on what had happened in Casa Amor, and for some reason they expected her to talk to Shannon, of all people. She refused, and instead hung out with Blake, trying to figure out what Henrik saw in her. After only a few minutes of talking with the girl, she couldn't imagine two people less suited for each other.

Finally, to cap it all off, they were informed that the public had been voting and someone was being dumped from the island. The only good news was that it was the couples up for elimination, not the singles, so Alex was safe.

As they sat around the firepit for the second night in a row, the results of the vote were announced, leaving 4 couples up for elimination: Noah and Priya, Henrik and Blake, Jakub and Hope, and Chelsea and Elijah.

Alex gasped in shock when Hope's couple was announced as being in the bottom. She couldn't bear the thought of her best friend in the villa having to leave, all because her couple had been torn apart by forces out of her control. She turned and gave Bobby a frosty glare. He may not have been the one to separate them, but he had sewn the seeds of discord that started the whole situation in the first place. If Hope and Noah hadn't been fighting, there was a good chance Jakub wouldn't have picked her.

The next text from the villa overlords put the power in the hands of the single islanders – each of them being told to couple up with one of the at-risk individuals. Four singles and four couples meant four people were being dumped, and it was up to them to decide who.

Alex's eyes briefly flickered over to where Rahim and Shannon sat close together on the other side of the firepit. It was too bad they hadn't ended up in the bottom; it would've been satisfying to save Rahim and watch Shannon go home. She wondered what the public had seen in them.

Lottie was the first to choose and saved Noah, leaving Alex with a choice between Henrik, Jakub, and Elijah. She wasn't romantically interested in any of them, but she couldn't really stand Jakub and the last thing she wanted was to be stuck in a couple with him. She thought Elijah was kind of boring and didn't want him getting the wrong idea; saving him for Chelsea would be an option, if she knew for sure one of the boys would save her – which she didn't. And even if they did, chances were Chelsea would probably forget about Elijah as soon as the front door closed behind him.

That left Henrik. She didn't know why he'd coupled up with Blake, but she was pretty certain that was going nowhere, so he wouldn't be upset to not be leaving with her. Alex sighed. A few days earlier, she had yelled at him for picking her in a recoupling, and here she was, about to recouple with him again – on purpose this time. Not that she had much choice, but still, at least it was her choice.

When she said his name, his face lit up with a huge smile and he walked over to join her without a second glance at Blake, who glared at him. He gave Alex a quick peck on the cheek, then they sat down as Gary stood up.