Chapter 7: The Heartbreakers' Strategy Session
The locker room door swung shut behind him, sealing off the smell of ozone and the low murmur of male voices. David walked down the corridor alone, the words still ringing in his ears…
Under my protection.
He had been claimed before, by the Heartbreakers, but that had been an alliance. This was different. This was a debt he did not know how to repay.
The atrium hit him like a wave. Neon pulsing from violet to magenta to a deep electric blue, the murmur of contestants scattered across the lounge, the soft clink of glasses from the bar. And there, in the shadowed corner near the giant fern that everyone used as a meeting spot, the Heartbreakers were waiting. Four full-figured women in matching neon bandeaus, their bodies a wall of color against the dark glass.
Mia saw him first. Her face shifted from watchful to relieved, and she rose from the couch, crossing the space between them in three quick strides.
"You okay?" she asked, her hand finding his arm.
"I think so." David looked back toward the corridor that led to the gym. "Remy did something. I don't fully understand it yet."
"We saw." Renee had joined them, her orange bandeau bright as a warning light. "Through the glass. He looked like he was ready to fold Kyle in half."
"He was defending me."
"Mmhmm." Renee studied him for a long moment. "And you trust him?"
"I trust that he wants something from me. I don't know what it is yet."
Mia guided him to the corner, where Simone and Tasha had arranged themselves on a low sectional. David sat down in the middle of them, the cushions swallowing him, the warmth of their bodies pressing against his sides like a familiar weight.
"So," Tasha said, her voice light. "We've been doing some reconnaissance while you were in the boys' club."
"Reconnaissance? Of what?”
"You mean who. We’ve been Listening." Simone's dry voice cut through. "A skill you'd think would cost less, but here we are."
Renee leaned forward, her elbows on her knees. "The girls have been talking, David. Not about challenges, not about strategy. About you."
David felt his face heat. "What about me?"
"About the way you won that booth," Tasha said. "About the way you talked to the twins. About the way you handled Remy." She smiled, her dimples showing. "You've become something we didn't expect. A hot commodity."
"A what?"
"A hot commodity." Simone said it slowly, like she was tasting it. "I heard Claire telling Denise that you're 'unexpectedly magnetic.' Her words, not mine."
"That doesn't sound like me."
"It sounds exactly like you," Mia said. She had settled on the arm of the couch, her body angled toward him. "You've been walking around this house like you're invisible. But you're not. You won a challenge with nothing but your truth. You stood up to the biggest player in the house and made him respect you. You've got the twins… BOTH OF THEM… circling like sharks. I told you that they’re trouble.”
David absorbed this. It felt impossible, like a data set that could not possibly be accurate. He had spent his whole life being the one people overlooked, the one who faded into the background of every crowd. And now, in the space of a single day, the entire landscape had shifted.
"I don't know what to do with that," he admitted.
"You don't have to do anything," Tasha said. "Just keep being who you are. It's working."
A silence settled over the group. The neon shifted to a deep violet, casting long shadows across their faces. And then Renee spoke, her voice dropping into something more serious.
"Okay. So we've talked about strategy. We've talked about what the other girls are saying." She fixed David with a steady look. "Now I want to talk about you. And I want you to be honest."
"About what?"
"I called you into this group. We all did. You joined us. We taught you our handshake. We told you what sex feels like." She paused. "But you never actually told us what you want from this."
David blinked. "I told you. I joined to lose my virginity. Simple.”
"We know. That's what you said on day one." Renee's gaze didn't waver. "But here's what I'm trying to understand. Because I've met a lot of people in my line of work. And the ones who walk into a place like this with a single goal in mind, they don't usually talk about it the way you do. They don't ask what sex feels like. They don't ask what it means."
David felt the weight of her words. The others were silent, watching him. The cameras had drifted closer, sensing the shift in temperature.
"What are you saying?" he asked.
"I'm asking you what you really want." Renee leaned back, crossing her arms. "You've been walking around this house with this hunger in you. You told us you want to lose your virginity. But losing your virginity is just an event. It's a thing that happens to you. It doesn't change who you are, David.”
"It doesn't?"
"I've been with men who were virgins. Some of them were the best lovers I've ever had. And some of them fucked like they were trying to check a box." She looked at him steadily. "Which one are you?"
The question hung in the air like a challenge. David felt the heat rising to his face, the familiar shame creeping up his spine. But something else stirred beneath it. A stubbornness. A refusal to lie.
"I don't know," he said honestly. "I don't know which one I am. I mean, I do want to lose it so it can be over with, then I can move on.”
"I understand that. But let me ask you this: When you think about it, when you imagine what it's going to be like, what do you see?"
David was quiet for a long moment. He thought about the stranger in the booth, the way she had asked to touch his face. He thought about Mia's hand on his knee, the warmth of it pressing through his jeans. He thought about the twins, their matching smiles, the way Diana had held his wrist.
"I see someone looking at me," he said slowly. "Really looking. Like I'm the only person in the room. And I don't have to perform. I don't have to be smooth or funny with great lines. I just have to be there. And they're happy that I'm there with them.”
The silence that followed was different. Softer. David looked up and saw Tasha's eyes glistening, Simone's face unreadable.
Renee nodded slowly, her gaze steady.
"That's not just a virgin talking about losing his virginity, David. That's a man talking about being loved."
The words landed like a punch. David felt his breath catch.
"I don't know about that…” He said, his voice barely above a whisper.
"I know you don't." Renee's voice was gentler than he had ever heard it. "You've spent your whole life convincing yourself you don't need it. That you're fine alone. That you can satisfy the hunger with pixels and numbers and all the things you can control." She shook her head. "But you came to this house. You’ve put yourself on worldwide television. You put yourself out there. You told a stranger your deepest secret and you won a challenge because of it. That's not a man who doesn't want to be loved. That's a man starving for it."
David felt something finally break open inside him. A crack in the wall he had been building his entire life. And for the first time, he let himself look at what was on the other side.
“Ladies and gentlemen, it’s time for our next challenge. Come gather in the main room, please.” Zola said.
“Think about what I said, David.” Renee said.
"I will."