hey babes✿ sorry if this chapter took me so long :c i'll try to have Day 8 and 9 as soon as posible♥ as always, feel free to leave kudos, to comment, to ask me things and all that stuff, i always make sure to reply to everyone♥ thanks for all the support you guys, you're amazing.

The silence is comfortable, the kitchen feeling warmer than before. Minni throws quick glances at Gary, the way the pale color of his hair looks with this morning light catching her attention. She notices him putting in real effort into his task, the muscles of his body moving in tandem. His strong chest raises and falls rhythmically, at a calm pace. Abruptly, she remembers last night.

Chapter Text

Day 7

In the kitchen – Morning. ♪

The Villa’s outdoors kitchen is warm, golden sunlight illuminating Minni’s delicate features. She would look insanely attractive if she wasn’t cringing at the view of Bobby chopping potatoes unbelievably fast, over a cutting board placed in the middle of the counter. She knows that he is an experienced chef, but that doesn’t mean she trusts him when he has a knife in his hand.

“Oh my days, slow down. You’re gonna chop your finger off,” she gasps, eyes wide.

Bobby laughs at her and cockily flips the knife in the air. She flinches. Then, he catches it by the handle just fine and keeps cutting the potatoes in tiny squares.

This morning, Minni woke up perfectly tucked in her bed, alone and engulfed in soft bedsheets, not remembering how she got there. Her memories of last night are scattered; she recalls Priya taking her to the daybeds to prevent her from keep scolding at Rocco, then being all alone, feeling drunk and falling asleep. She remembers Gary making her company, his big arms around her, the soothing heat radiating from his body, feeling the beating of his heart beneath her ear and the vibrations of his chest while he spoke— he was sad, but she doesn’t remember why. Maybe because of Marisol.

Just when she got out of her state of confusion, she saw Bobby coming her way with a huge glass of water. He had gotten up earlier to get her some water, because he thought Minni would wake up with a bad hangover or just sad for what went down with Rocco. Much to his surprise, none of them happened. She is used to have crazy drinking nights at uni and besides, for some strange reason, she rarely gets a hangover, so she feels physically fine. And, as for her emotions, she is glad that she woke up feeling normal again. Even better, she would say, because she feels like a weight has been lifted from her shoulders, with it being all the emotions she accumulated since she got here. Perhaps this weight was also, partly, having to deal with all of Rocco’s jealousy and distrust towards her.

After having a brief chat, Minni and Bobby decided to use yesterday’s potatoes leftovers to make hash browns for breakfast, but more elaborated and with a gourmet and innovative twist of course, because Bobby took the lead of the cooking process.

“My job is done here,” the Scottish says, neatly arranging the food over the counter. “You need help with that?”

He put Minni to dry the rest of the peeled potatoes and to chop some herbs, and she hasn’t finished any of those tasks.

“I’m good,” she answers, stubborn.

Bobby raises an eyebrow. “Fine. I’ll go take a shower in the meantime,” he smirks. “Make sure you mash half of those potatoes too.”

“Yes, chef,” the girl responds with a smug smirk.

Her blue eyes watch her friend walking towards the Villa before focusing on her task again. Despite all the tension from yesterday, she has the sensation that most of the pressure on her has been taken away. She knows she should be worried because, technically, she’s single again, but there are more boys than girls in the Villa for the moment, so at least she has less chances of getting kicked out. What troubles her is that she hasn’t managed to stay coupled with someone for more than three days, and this is definitely a bad sign.

While she finishes drying the potatoes, she suddenly catches the apparition of a wide, golden-haired frame with her peripherical vision. She pretends not seeing him as she turns around to look for a smaller knife on the cabinets.

The vision of Minni under the yellow light of the morning, with her hair in two small braids and wearing a large hoodie over her pajamas, unconsciously makes Gary smile. After everything that went down, he never expected to see her looking so well and floating around the kitchen so early, but he is glad to see that she seems to be doing fine.

When she definitely fell asleep last night, Gary took his time to expel all the sadness that got accumulated in him after remembering the time he got burned. He spent several minutes awake under the moonlight, lying in the daybed just the same and sliding his fingers across Minni’s soft hair, until all of his heartache went away. Then, he carefully carried her to her bed, which was empty because Priya managed to move Rocco to the sofa, tucked her in and went to sleep on his own bed, beside Marisol.

He is still feeling uneasy and insecure, specially because Marisol pied him off for Rocco and there’s still more boys than girls in the Villa, so the first thing he did when he woke up was hitting the gym. Deep inside, he knows that he will get himself injured if he keeps going that often and increasing the intensity of his workout like he is starting to do, but he can’t stop either. Not when he is worried that losing size will get him dumped from the Island. As the tension raises, he’s starting to feel less like himself.

Luckily, in a moment of clarity, he decided to take a break and go fill his water bottle. That’s when he spotted Minni all alone, doing something with potatoes in the counter, and chose to get closer to the kitchen instead. It seems like she hasn’t seen him yet, therefore he takes this opportunity to just watch, in hopes to sneak on her and have some banter after. As she turns around and grabs some herbs, he quietly tip toes behind her back with a mischievous grin on his face.

“If you’re here to see the Leidenfrost effect, I’m sorry, mate. We put oil in the pan already,” Minni says once he’s positioned right behind her.

Gary’s face falls. Next, he lifts his eyebrows in surprise. “How did you know I was here?”

The girl chuckles quietly, without turning around to see him yet. “I just knew,” she smiles, cutting a few leaves. “Or maybe it’s because your sweat stinks.”

“W-What? I don’t stink,” he frowns.

Minni laughs at his reaction, so he definitely knows she’s bantering. Still, he quickly smells his armpit to double-check, before getting closer to her to see what she’s doing. Silently, he peeks over her shoulder and squints— he went so rapidly to the gym that he forgot his glasses on the nightstand and didn’t put on his contacts.

At the feeling that he is getting way too close, Minni turns her face around, raising an eyebrow. She has to contain a giggle when she sees his expression inches away from her, his eyes squinted and nose scrunched. How blind is this boy? she asks herself, the face he is making being too adorable.

Suddenly, Gary is aware of what he’s doing and takes a step back. “Looks promising, what you’re making there,” he comments, trying to play it cool. “Can I have a little?”

She shrugs. “Sure.”

A huge smile forms in Gary’s lips and he moves so he is now leaning back on the counter, right next to her. Minni shoots him a glare.

“You really expect me to give you some of my amazing hash browns when you’re just staying there watching?” she teases. “Give me a hand, at least. Chop those herbs, yeah?”

The blond man sighs and whines quietly. “Mate, at this point I’m suspecting you’re trying to make me cook just to make fun of me.”

“Are you sure your name isn’t Sherlock?” the brunette replies, giving him a quick cheeky look.

“Very funny, you are,” he responds, the corners of his lips tugging a little as he pretends to be annoyed.

Determined, Minni puts a fistful of leaves in the cutting board and the knife on top of it. Subsequently, she slides it to a perplexed Gary.

“C’mon! I know you can do it,” the brunette insists. “You’re a handy guy, aren’t you?”

Gary smirks, a cocky expression settling all over his face. “I’m handy at other stuff, love. Maybe you’d like me to show you, sometime,” he says, leaning a little so his face is closer to hers.

After hearing his words, Minni doesn’t know how she manages not to get red as a firetruck. Her stomach flutters, leaving her flustered as she holds her gaze, blue eyes meeting. This man, she thinks, mentally biting her lip.

“Now that you’re asking, I kinda need another shelf at the dressing room,” she smiles cheekily, faking that she didn’t get what he meant. She maintains her eyes fixed on his, and then quickly moves them to analyze his handsome features.

The boy lets out a chuckle at her response, liking the way she managed to get around his innuendo but acknowledged it at the same time with her body language. She’s the only girl in the Villa that always has a cheeky response to his advances, and he relishes on that. Because he can’t say no to her, he washes his hands, takes the knife and tries to do his best at chopping whatever those leaves are. He can almost hear his mates' laughs after they see this on the telly.

A few minutes of quiet pass, with both of them working on the ingredients over the counter. The silence is comfortable, the kitchen feeling warmer than before. Minni throws quick glances at Gary, the way the pale color of his hair looks with this morning light catching her attention. She notices him putting in real effort into his task, the muscles of his body moving in tandem. His strong chest raises and falls rhythmically, at a calm pace. Abruptly, she remembers last night.

“Gary, um…” she starts, and he instantly has his eyes on her. “Thank you, for making me company last night. I don’t remember much, but I know that you were there for me. So, thank you.”

“Don’t mention it, Mins. I’m just glad I could help,” he smiles softly at her. Then, he makes a pause to process better what she just said. “You don’t remember much, huh?” he asks, scratching his beard.

“I mean, it’s not that I don’t remember things, but the details are gone,” she lets out a small laugh. “Don’t worry, though. I sure remember your cozy cuddle.”

An involuntary goofy smile forms in Gary’s face. “Those are hard to forget, in my opinion,” he answers, happy. “Can’t blame you for forgetting the rest. You were well tipsy.”

The girl stifles a laugh, a little embarrassed. At least she didn’t do anything too awkward last night, which is enough for her. Before Gary turns his attention away, she puts her hand on his arm, gently.

“How are you feeling?” she asks. “I mean, because of Marisol.”

Yet again, Gary spots that sincere expression on her face, the one he saw yesterday. He feels all of his barriers going down when he notices that she truly cares about him, that it wasn’t just his vague perception or his incorrect interpretation of the raw emotion in her drunken state.

“Honestly… I’m not going to force things with her. It didn’t work, so that’s it,” the man confesses. “I’m moving on already, and it doesn’t make me feel as bad as I thought it would, you know. I’m proper ready to try things with someone else.”

“I’m so glad you’re fine,” Minni’s face lights up and her hand slides down his arms, going back to the counter. She stays quiet for a second, unsure of how to ask what she wants to ask him. She ends up doing it anyway, in the most subtle way she can think of. “So, do you have anyone in mind?”

“That’s for you to guess,” he simply winks.

Gary really wants to try things with Minni this time, but the competition to get her attention is fierce, even with Rocco out of the picture. Lucas and Henrik are pretty much tenacious when it comes to flirting with her, he’s seen, and it will probably get worse now that she is kind of single. In Gary’s opinion, they’re way more eye-catching than him, which brings out his insecurities once again. His plan for now is to take things easy, not rush anything with her so it doesn’t hurt much if she gets her head turned all of the sudden. Although he doesn’t exactly know where their relationship is standing, or where this is leading to, he can’t deny that it all feels lighter and easier to do now that they both can shamelessly flirt like in the first days.

Seconds of quietness pass before Minni notices how he has been chopping the herbs. They are almost disintegrated, triturated and mixed leaves splattered over the cutting board. The girl burst into laughter.

“What?” Gary pouts, looking at her. “I told you I couldn’t do this.”

Minni tries to contain her laugh as she shakes her head. “No, no. It’s perfect, mate.”

“Really?” the crane operator opens his eyes wide, hopeful. Seeing that she just smiles sheepishly as a response, he figures that she was just trying to make him feel better. “You’re a bad liar, Minerva,” he can’t help laughing too.

“I appreciate your effort, though,” she grins sweetly. She proceeds to take the knife out of his hand tenderly and hands him a bowl of potatoes and a tool he has never seen before. “Here, mash these instead.”

“Is that your way of saying I’m brute?” he teases, faking being offended.

“No,” Minni responds. “Is my way of saying that you’re strong, big guy.”

The unexpected nickname makes him blush wildly, he can’t pinpoint exactly why. Noticing that the skin in his face gets incredibly hot in a matter of seconds, he turns it to the opposite side so Minni doesn’t see him. The girl smiles, pleased with herself, but otherwise pretends not to notice Gary’s reaction, the blush extending to his neck.

As he tries to focus solely on figuring out how to use that tool Minni gave him to mash the potatoes, Gary realizes that he’s growing quite fond of this girl with the complicated surname and huge blue eyes, that he’s liking her personality, her banter and flirting more than he expected to and feels comfortable admitting for the moment. The idea gets him mildly scared for a second and he thinks about leaving the kitchen in an attempt to put some distance between them, but he doesn’t. He can’t. She pulls him like a magnet— like gravity, she would say.

“Let’s get these hash browns fried!” Bobby exclaims, entering the kitchen freshly showered and dressed with a colorful patterned shirt and his swimming suit. He walks towards the counter and takes a look at the ingredients, frowning immediately after seeing the state the herbs are in. “Who cut these?” he asks, horrified.

“Don’t look at me,” Minni shrugs, fighting off a smile.

Subsequently, Bobby turns to Gary. His expression is so perturbed it almost looks like the messed-up state of the herbs hurts him physically.

Gary raises an eyebrow. “What? You know it’s not my forte.”

“I understand the sandwich thing, but… you can’t cut some leaves?” the Scottish asks, nearly gobsmacked.

Here we go, Minni thinks. She sees Gary standing his ground, his biceps bulging as he crosses his arms in front of his chest defensively.

“Well, can you operate a forklift?”

In the kitchen – Morning.

“Honestly, I never thought I’d see Minni getting angry, like, ever,” Hope comments.

“She’s so sweet and all, but I think Rocco’s behavior just… made her snap,” Priya speaks, a conflicted expression on her face.

The Islanders are gathered in the kitchen, gossiping about last night’s events now that Minni, Rocco and Marisol are nowhere to be seen. Hope and Noah are sitting in stools closely together, Lottie and Gary are standing next to the counter with Priya and Ibrahim in front of them and Bobby is arranging some utensils in the cabinets, so they’re organized just the way he likes.

Ibrahim sighs. “She’s always so chill. Like…” he starts saying, but doesn’t know how to continue the phrase with a good analogy. “Like… a mountain.”

Next to him, Lottie bursts into a mocking laughter. “A mountain, really? Is that the first that came to mind?”

“Oh, I see it,” Priya interferes, trying to make her partner feel better about his lack of skill with words. “She’s mostly calm and stable, and all of the sudden she becomes a volcano and burns everything around her.”

“So, yesterday we saw Volcano Minni,” the golfer adds, thankful for the save.

Lottie rolls her eyes but doesn’t say anything else, the kitchen becoming quiet for a while. Deep inside, she’s quite scared of Minni’s bad reactions now that she’s seen them, so she has tried to stick with her as much as she can with this whole Rocco situation. Hopefully she gets something out of staying on the girl’s good side, because surely she doesn’t want to be on the bad one.

“Her personality went full 360°,” Bobby whispers, shaking his head. “I never thought I’d see her going rampage like that, to be honest.”

“Mate, it’s 180°. If you go 360°, you end up in the same spot,” Gary sighs. It’s the first time he has spoken since the other Islanders started chattering about the topic, because he hates participating in gossip, with it being worse if it implies talking behind Minni’s back.

“What about 270°?” Ibrahim asks, clueless.

“Don’t look at me, I was never good at math,” Bobby shrugs.

“I bet Minni would know,” Noah says.

“Where is she, anyway?” Bobby asks, looking around. “I feel like I haven’t seen her in forever.”

“She’s having a chat with Rocco at the roof terrace,” Lottie responds, looking at her nails.

The boys immediately stare at her with wide eyes. Everyone noticed that the pair has been pretty much avoiding each other since yesterday, so the Aussie’s information is startling, to say the least.

“I hope it ends well,” Bobby pouts, looking up at the roof terrace.

He can’t see them from where he is, but he can faintly listen to their voices if he pays enough attention.

“So Lottie’s just your comfort blanket? And Marisol is just a sleeping bag or a hammock you’re trying out?” he hears Minni saying. She sounds pissed off, but not as much as last night. “You’re joking, right? Do you know how that sounds?”

Bobby winces and looks at his friends, who are distracted and separated in couples as they talk in the kitchen. Hope is talking to Noah, Priya is listening attentively to Ibrahim and it seems like Lottie is trying to flirt with Gary, her body language being very evident as she leans towards him as she speaks. Then, he turns his attention back to the roof terrace.

“I’m sorry, Minni,” he can hear Rocco saying. “Really, I am. I wish this could have worked. But I thought it better that you know how I felt, you know?”

Next, he listens to the girl, who lets out a long and heavy sigh. “Let’s just move past this and be cool, yeah? I’m still mad at you and there’s no way we’re cracking on again, but at least we can be mature about it.”

“I agree. Seriously, thank you for giving me a spare second to talk, Minerva,” Rocco responds. “I hope I haven’t offended you too much.”

When Bobby’s focus returns to the kitchen, he notices that Ibrahim, Priya, Hope and Noah are gone, and spots them walking amiably towards the pool area. Gary has started to boil the kettle, with Lottie perched in a stool close to him. Not much time passes until all of them can hear chunky shoes softly hitting the decking as Minni strides towards them. She looks annoyed and bummed out, her usually sparkling blue eyes a little less bright, but at least she’s calm and composed.

“I still can’t believe Marisol and Rocco. It’s like they have no respect for boundaries,” Lottie says once she sees Minni approaching them. Then, she looks at her skeptically. “I hope breaking your cold shoulder vow was worth it, hun.”

“He actually apologized. We’re cool now, but nothing’s happening between us like, ever,” the blue-eyed girl tells her, sitting on a stool right beside her. “It annoyed me so much that he repeated over and over that he’d still rather be with Marisol,” she sighs, frowning. “Obviously I’m like ‘sure, keep him, whatever’, but why rubbing it in my face like that?”

During the entire morning, Minni tried to avoid Rocco at all costs, accompanying this attitude with a very evident indifference towards him. The girl’s silent treatment isn’t something she intends to use childishly, less with manipulative or bullying intentions; it’s like an uncomfortable comfort zone for her to hold her emotions in, or what’s left of them, but also to make it clear that she’s not thrilled with someone without engaging in conflict. Because of this, she wasn’t planning on talking to Rocco anytime soon, until he approached her while she was hanging out with the girls near the pool. Her first thought was obviously to reject him, but she changed her opinion just because he had the nerve to go and ask her to have a chat even after everything they said to each other last night.

Their talk wasn’t friendly, but they managed to come to an agreement. Minni accepted his apology even though she still doesn’t think that what he did was justified, and they settled on letting this pass because, at the end of the day, they still have to live in the same Villa. Overall, the best part of it for her was that Rocco offered to keep sleeping in the sofa.

Lottie looks at her with pity. “Oh, hun. I’m so sorry. You so don’t deserve that,” she states. Next, she turns to Gary. “Gary, quick! Minni needs her tea,” she orders.

The other girl is about to say that it’s not necessary— Gary doesn’t have to be her servant just because she feels bad, but the blond man is already coming over, drinks in hand.

“A banging cup of tea for Minni,” he speaks softly, passing her a mug. The girl recognizes it’s the same mug in which he prepared her a cuppa the second day in the Villa, and smiles at him as a way to thank him. “And of course, a cup of tea for Lottie!”

Lottie takes it with both hands. “Thanks, I need this for my reading. This whole thing is exhausting.”

Minni looks down and pouts, feeling preoccupied all of the sudden. “I’m not gonna lie... I’m kinda worried,” she admits. “What if I get kicked out at the next Recoupling for being single again or something?”

Right after hearing her words and noticing that she’s actually feeling quite low after talking to Rocco, Gary sits close to her and puts a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

“Mate, there’s no way you’ll be single after the next recoupling,” he declares, sincerely. He is aware that most boys fancy Minni at this point, so she’s bound to get picked by someone, even if it’s not necessarily him. Anyway, he hopes this comment hints her something about his intentions, because if she’s anyone’s first choice, it’s his.

The brunette girl turns her naive eyes to him and purses her lips. “How are you so sure?” she asks, oblivious.

“Just because,” he nudges with a playful smile, trying not to give away too much.

Sensing flirty vibes coming from Gary towards Minni, Lottie clears her throat loudly, which makes him turn to look at her. “I could find out by reading your leaves, babe,” she offers the other girl, casually moving Gary away from her and positioning herself in the middle.

“Guys, it’s all just momentary drama,” Bobby interrupts, trying to lighten the mood. “You’ll have forgotten about it next week.”

The blonde girl rolls her eyes. “You don’t know that, Bobby. We’ll just have to see what the tea leaves say.”

In that moment, Priya, Hope, Noah, Marisol and Ibrahim all walk in, laughing and chatting casually. Marisol looks around for a second and, as soon as she catches Minni’s eye, she quickly looks away. The younger girl is not interested in instigating drama or in calling her out right now, but she can’t help her poisonous gaze. Noticing Marisol’s reaction, she decides to ignore her and move closer to Bobby, who is at the opposite end of the kitchen. On the other hand, Lottie starts playing with her nails menacingly, her green stare piercing the Spanish girl. The tension in the air starts to build up at a rapid pace.

“Kind of an atmosphere in here, huh?” Marisol comments. Next, she looks at Lottie, who is still glaring at her. “I don’t know what you’re getting so worked up about. He’s not even your man.”

“He was not yours either, in case you’ve forgotten,” the Aussie shoots back. “Minni is my girl, hun. I look out for my girls when there are snakes in the grass.”

Minni and Bobby share a quick look, and nobody else says anything. Marisol opens her mouth like she is about to reply with something, but it’s evident that she can’t come up with a response to that.

“I’ll go sort my hair, or something,” she responds instead, before walking away towards the Villa.

Even with Marisol out of the picture, Lottie doesn’t look like she’s going to calm down anytime soon, her eyes not leaving the girl until she disappears. After that, she turns to the rest of the Islanders, like she is about to start ranting again about the situation again. Gary, seeing how stressed out she is and only wanting the drama to stop, chooses to have a nice approach and figures out that pulling her aside and talking a bit will make her feel better.

“Do you want to talk it out somewhere private, Lottie?” he suggests.

Her eyes light up. “Sure. Let’s go. I need to do my tea-leaf reading in peace,” she answers.

They both head back outside, slipping past the others. Minni’s blue gaze follows them as they saunter in the direction of the firepit and disappear behind the benches. She’s curious, but says nothing.

In the dressing room – Afternoon. ♪

A passion fruit scented mist lingers in the air as Minni enters the dressing room. She comes here looking for some sun cream but instead the first things she sees is Bobby crowbarring himself into one of Priya’s dresses and Henrik looking at different lipsticks.

“Are you sure it won’t be too much?” Henrik asks him, opening one of them. He smells it, curious.

“No, pal, that’s definitely your color,” the Scottish replies.

What have I just walked in on? Minni thinks, holding back a laugh as her eyes scan the room. Henrik and Bobby are still rifling through the makeup. Gary is sat near a dressing table writing something, then screws the piece of paper and groans in frustration. In the corner, Ibrahim looks like he’s practicing his acceptance speech. She doesn’t see Rocco, Noah or Lucas.

“Bloody hell,” she whispers, giggling quietly.

It just takes that for the boys to notice that she’s there. Everyone turns around to look at her and greet her, while still doing their thing. She chuckles and greets back, then goes straight to one of the cupboards to get her sun cream. As she is fumbling through all of the items stored inside, she spots Gary right next to her, resting his head on the dressing table surrounded by scrunched up balls of paper.

“Writing a dirty limerick?” she sneaks on him, cheekily.

He cranes his head upwards and his face brightens when he sees her.

“Alright, trouble. What are you doing here?” he smiles.

“I heard you were in a dress,” she banters, while looking him up and down. “But you’re clearly not, so I might as well leave.”

The blond smirks. “I only wear those long sparkly ones. I’m classy,” he responds.

Before leaving, Minni casts a glance at all the paper scattered around him. This could be the perfect opportunity to have some fun, mess with him a little and have a flirty time together, she reckons, so she decides to stay.

“You struggling, huh? Guess I’ll have to just help you with this contest,” she says, batting her eyelashes.

“Really? That would be great,” the man answers.

“So, are you stuck with the speech? Let’s start with that,” the girl speaks, leaning to take a better look at what’s in the dressing table. “Oh, what does this one say?” she teases, picking up one of the paper balls Gary discarded. After that, she starts opening it, to see what’s written in it.

“No, no, no. Not that one,” Gary says, nervously taking it out of her hand.

“What about this one?” she keeps going, with intentions of picking another.

Gary grabs the ball before she can touch it and frowns. “Minni…”

“Or this one?” the girl grabs one that’s out of his reach, doing her best not to laugh at the pissed off expression in his face.

Quickly, Gary takes it out of her hand again. “Minerva, I swear…” he sighs, annoyed. “You’re such a tease, you’re not even helping.”

Just in that moment, Ibrahim passes by and eavesdrops, a Rubik’s cube in his large hand. He looks at the pair, inquisitive.

“Wait, are you helping him?” he asks Minni.

“Yeah, why?”

The golfer shifts a little in his place, timid. “I need help too, with the secret talent thing,” he says. Next, he takes a blindfold out of his pocket.

“That’s a bold move of you, mate, but I’m not sure if Minni is into that stuff,” Gary jokes.

Noticing that two of the boys are around Minni and asking her for help, Noah gets closer to the group and interrupts.

“Minni, you’ve got to help me too,” he urges. He motions around the dressing room, troubled. “How am I going to complete with this?”

“Can’t you ask Hope?” the girl asks instead, raising an eyebrow.

“No way! Come on, Minni,” the librarian whines. “I’d owe you big time, please.”

“I’m sure Hope will be happy to help you,” she shrugs. She’s starting to notice that her cheeky attempt to have a little alone time with Gary is backfiring.

“But you’re here now. Come on Minni, you’d be doing me a huge favor.”

“Stop insisting bruv, she’s helping me already. Right, Minni?” Ibrahim smiles at her, putting his large hand on her slim shoulder.

Gary steps in and gets in between the both of them. “Hold it there, lad. Last time I checked, she was helping me.”

“Minni, how do I get this ‘long-lasting, smudge-proof lipstick’ out of me once I finish my presentation?” Henrik asks, confusedly reading the label of one of the lipsticks. He’s far away and in front of a mirror, fiery red color all over his mouth.

“Does anyone know how to zip this thing?!” Bobby shouts from the other side of the dressing room, irritated and fumbling with the zipper of Priya’s dress.

“Minni, I really need your help,” Noah insists, making the girl’s attention turn back to him.

“Mate, Minni’s with me,” Gary replies, rolling his eyes.

“How about you help me instead?” Lucas asks. He just finished getting dressed and is sitting comfortably in one of the bean bags with his arms behind his head, being the only calmed person amongst all the chaos.

Indeed, the physiotherapist doesn’t look like he’s struggling at all and is staring at the girl with a smug smirk. Minni realizes his intentions and gives him a flirty look, smiling back. Lucas winks. After seeing this, Gary panics slightly, an unexpected feeling of jealousy boiling rapidly in his insides. Before he can say anything, Bobby shouts angrily from across the room and everyone turns to look at him.

“I officially hate zippers!”

“I think I got glitter in my eye,” Henrik wails, walking in circles with a hand over his eye.

All of the sudden, the boys start talking at the same time, the volume of their voices increasing.

“Alright, everyone shut up, or I’ll end up giving my vote to Bobby,” Minni speaks out loud.

Impressively, the dressing room goes quiet in a second and the boys freeze in their places, all eyes on her.

“Wait, what?” Bobby asks with confusion, still holding the dress around his torso. “So you weren’t even considering voting for me?”

The girl shrugs, nonchalantly. She just used that as an excuse to shut everyone up, but, giving his reaction, she figured that she could take advantage of it and mess with him.

“Okay, what do I have to do to win your vote?” Bobby asks, crossing his arms in front of his chest to look defiant and keep the dress in place at the same time.

Minni pretends to think for a moment. “I don’t know… maybe bake something for me,” she smiles, mischievous.

“Deal,” he responds rapidly, determined.

Bobby extends a hand while keeping the dress up with the other, a confident smirk in his face. As she shakes his hand to seal the deal, Minni grins, being sure that there’s no way he’ll be able to bake something mildly decent in the few minutes they have until the talent show.

At the lawn – Nighttime. ♪

Bobby is still wearing his sash, and is still looking at Minni with an annoying, smug grin on his face even though the contest ended several hours ago. The girl never thought that giving him the vote she promised if he baked something would actually convince Priya to vote for him too and ultimately cause him to win the talent show, earning the Mr. Love Island title, a tiara and that pink sash. She has to admit that she underestimated his baking skills. Nonetheless, the personalized pink cupcake with fondant stars was delicious— it didn’t even taste like it had been hidden in his crotch area.

This was one of the most fun days Minni’s ever had since she arrived to the Villa. Despite not being able to get the alone time she wanted with Gary, she had a great time helping all of the boys; she pulled up Bobby’s zipper, got the glitter out of Henrik’s eye, managed to get Gary out of his writer’s block, helped Noah find his secret talent, timed Rahim’s trick with the Rubik’s cube and so on, all in a matter of minutes.

Of course, because this is Love Island, the fun was interrupted by the announcement of an incoming Dumping for tomorrow. Rocco, Ibrahim and Henrik, which were the ones who were voted by the girls as the less likely to leave the Villa with a girlfriend, are the ones at risk of getting kicked out, and their fate in here will be determined by the public. Minni obviously voted for Rocco in that one, and is sad for having good guys like Ibrahim and Henrik stuck at the same category as him.

After that stressful voting situation was over, she and Bobby decided to go and chill in the bean bags, enjoying the nice temperature of this night. The gentle breeze blows the ends of Minni’s hair, as she looks up at the sky for a moment.

“To be honest, I was getting worried that nobody thought I was boyfriend material in here,” Bobby breaks the silence, making her turn her eyes at him. “This actually has been a confident booster.”

“I’m so glad to hear that, Bobby. I’m sure you will find the right girl for you,” the girl smiles at him and gives his shoulder a friendly nudge.

The silence resumes for a moment, until he speaks again.

“How do you deal with it? I mean, do you ever get insecure about people not fancying you?” he asks, fumbling with his sash.

His question takes Minni by surprise. She blinks a couple of times, not knowing how to respond right away. She has asked that question to herself before, considering the situation she’s at in the Villa, but she always ends up trailing off and not really knowing how to feel about it. Because of this, she decides not to get too serious on Bobby and give a more lighthearted answer.

“Yeah, obviously. Sometimes I start to worry that maybe none of his guys is truly attracted to me, but then I remind myself that technically everything is attracted to me,” she grins softly. “The universal law of gravity states that every mass is attracted to every other mass. So even when I step on a scale at the pool, the weight I measure is not just my weight in the Earth’s gravitational field, it is also the Earth’s weight in my gravitational field. Gravitationally, I’m pulling slightly on everything around me. Everything is gravitationally attracted to me, even though that attraction is usually too small to notice… and yeah, that somehow makes me feel better.”

The Scottish raises an eyebrow.

“So you’re saying that the fact that one of the scales in the pool is attracted to you, according to science, makes you feel better?” he says, and then chuckles. “You’re a weird one.”

“You’re saying it like if you were the most normal bloke in here. Joking way too often about toes, putting cupcakes in your crotch and making pranks isn’t a regular thing to do either,” Minni replies, sticking her tongue out to him.

He is about to fire back when he remembers something. With a conflicted expression, he shifts to his side on his bean bag to face the girl.

“Speaking of pranks, I’ve been trying to think of a new one, but I’m having a ‘prankster’s block’ at the moment,” he tells her.

“‘Prankster’s block’?” Minni asks, puzzled.

“Yeah. That means I’m stuck in the middle of planning the prank,” the man explains, like if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “At first, I thought about something to do with water balloons, but then I remembered we don’t have any.”

The girl chuckles and gives him a look. “Mate, have you noticed that the Villa is full of condoms, right?”

Not getting what she’s really saying, Bobby blushes wildly. “So what? W-What are you hinting at?” he stutters, nervous.

A short laugh escapes Minni’s lips. She rolls her eyes and gets closer to him. “Um, hello? They are made of latex just like balloons, they can stretch like balloons and they can get filled with water…”

“Just like water balloons!” he completes her sentence. “Minerva, I like your thinking,” he states, pointing at her, proud. “So, we fill a bunch of condoms with water and stash them inside someone’s closet, after emptying it of course, and then when they open it—"

He stops speaking when he hears footsteps near them. Both of the Islanders turn around to see Gary and Lottie coming their way.

Now that he is not in danger of going home, Gary feels a lot less nervous about things, although the competition is still hard. After seeing how easily Lucas got Minni’s attention in the dressing room and the other lads practically throwing themselves at her to get help for the contest, some of them just doing it as an excuse to get some alone time with her, Gary feels like he has to play his cards right. Because of that, once all of that thing about who is the most eligible went down, he decided to hang out with Lottie all evening, to get to know her more; unexpectedly she turns out to be the one he fancies the most, after Minni of course.

“What kind of trouble are you two planning?” Gary asks once they’re close enough, gesturing at Minni and Bobby with his head.

“What makes you think we’re planning something?” the brunette complains, making him chuckle as he puts his hands on both of her shoulders as a way of saying ‘hi’. Lottie glares at him, but he doesn’t notice.

“Because you both have that look, the one you always have when you’re scheming something together,” the crane operator teases.

Minni raises her eyebrow and looks up at him. Still being behind her with his hands on her skin, he stares down, expecting her to spill her and Bobby’s secret. A smug smile forms in his lips, as he waits for her to give in.

“You’re right, but we won’t tell you,” she spits, looking away.

Gary’s grin widens and he lets go of her. “I knew it!”

“What did you know?” a voice asks from across the lawn.

All of them turn to where the voice came from and find Henrik and Lucas approaching them, coming from inside the Villa. When they arrive, the group starts to have a candid, friendly chat about lots of different topics. Time passes and everyone is sitting in the bean bags as they talk, except for Henrik, who, not to Minni’s surprise, prefers to sit on the grass.

“I think first dates are super important. If you don’t impress me in the first 3.9 seconds of the date, I’m out,” Lottie declares, flipping her pastel-colored hair.

“Sure, it’s all about that first impression,” Lucas agrees.

“I always make sure first dates aren’t too expensive. I don’t like to make anyone feel like they have to spend money on me,” Henrik tells them. “We don’t need to pay for good conversation. And you can’t beat a hike up a mountain.”

Minni smirks and leans towards him. “Where do I sign up?”

“I’ll show you the ropes someday,” the wilderness instructor replies, flirty. “You’d make any view a better one, Minni.”

Then, he smiles at her. Gary shifts in his place, feeling uncomfortable. This is exactly what he didn’t want to happen, the boys being all over Minni now that she broke up with Rocco. He hears Minni giggle, so he turns to face her and notices that she’s blushing. Is he really making her blush?, he thinks, now more annoyed than anything. He looks away, trying to play it cool despite how uneasy he feels.

“Ehem. Yeah… sure she would,” Lottie speaks. Perceiving that the boys are trying to flirt, she tries to take part in the conversation to see if she can graft a little too. “I love a bit of an adventure...”

“My kind of adventure is trooping around the city looking for an exclusive pop-up restaurant,” Lucas says. “And, like, I’m not being funny, but…” he makes a pause to look at Minni, his dark eyes meeting hers. “Imagine sitting across the table from Minni. What could be better?”

The girl bites the inside of her lip. She can’t believe that both boys are shamelessly flirting with her in front of the group, just like the first day they came in. To say that she’s thrilled would be an understatement— she likes the flirting game, even though there’s no feelings involved. She has so much fun with it, and now realizes that she missed this for getting somewhat attached to Rocco so soon.

“Well, you know, there are lots of people in the Villa…” Lottie keeps trying to get in the conversation with no results whatsoever.

Lucas doesn’t even notice her as he keeps talking, his eyes not leaving Minni. “Good wine, good conversation, good food. And you’re all good!”

Feeling awkward by having to witness the situation, Bobby and Gary share a quick look.

“You lads are all inviting Minni on dates based on activities you like to do, but what about what she likes?” the baker comments. “For example, how no-one has asked her to go to a library and solve math equations?”

“Har har,” Minni rolls her eyes at his teasing.

“Oh, you’re right, Bobby. We could always stargaze,” Henrik smiles. He points at the sky, looking up. “Is there any important constellation this season we could look for?”

Minni beams, her face lighting up in an instant.

“The constellations best seen in June are Boötes, Ursa Minor, Libra and Lupus,” she begins. “Now, the first two are located in the northern sky, and the other ones are in the south. You can actually spot Boötes very easily, in my opinion. See, we first have to spot its brightest star, called Arcturus, which is the fourth brightest star in the northern sky…”

Gary’s crystal blue eyes turn to look at her again, mesmerized as knowledge spills out of her mouth. He scans her delicate features in awe, the sight of her delighted expression, long eyelashes batting and a permanent, soft smile in her pink lips while she continues talking steal his breath away so quickly it takes him by surprise. Right now, in this very moment, he couldn’t care less whether or not this girl is interested in him, if she actually fancies him or not, if he is her first option in this bloody game or not, or if there’s nobody or a thousand boys competing with him to get her attention. Right now, the only thing in his mind are her enormous, twinkling and cheerful cobalt eyes looking up at the stars.