“And here I thought you were learning to trust me after we slayed at the last game,” Jett pouted in mock offense. In spite of the remark, he took Anna’s proffered plate, balancing it with his own with the long lost skills he’d picked up in his early days waiting tables, and headed over to the lounge chairs to snag a couple seats for them before the area filled up. Already Madison, Bella, David and Nathan were sitting around the fireplace, chatting about the outcome of the most competitive game of chicken any of them had played in their lives. Bella and David were belly laughing about something someone had said before Jett had gotten within earshot, while Madison noticeably avoided eye contact with Nathan.

As he sat down in one of the empty chairs, Bella turned to him with a grin. “Well, well, if it isn’t one half of our champion team,” she clapped loudly, starting a small round of applause, to which Jett set down his plates to flourish a hand in a bow. “Who knew you’d be so good at pool games?”

“It was my major in college,” Jett quipped, smirking around the straw of his drink. “You should see me play Marco Polo.” The joke earned him another short round of laughter and gave him a nice, natural segue into the conversation. They went on about the games while they ate, reviewing the first one and pitching their guesses about what the next challenge could be. Of course, Bella ribbed him about Nina’s reveal, and the cameramen filmed the whole thing in the hopes of securing a few minutes of TV-worthy talking that could interest their viewers.

When Anna got back, Jett handed over her plate of food, which he hadn’t touched while she was gone. He’d been tempted to steal a piece of chicken just to see if she would actually notice its absence, but there wasn’t a point when he had more than enough on his own plate to stuff himself full to the brim with Hawaiian delicacies.

“That’s because I didn’t,” he told her through a mouthful of pork that he chased with another swig of his drink. He’d already worked his way through about a third of the small mountain of food he’d grabbed from the buffet line, and he nodded at her question. “Everything is great. They’re really setting the bar high for our meals on this show.” He gestured vaguely to the other people sitting around the fireplace as he added, “We were just trying to predict the next challenge we’ll have to do to fight for immunity here. Got any guesses?”