Ty responds perfectly to Jodie’s tears. He moves closer to console her. ‘I know how that feels. I was engaged, and my ex just broke things off.’ He swallows a large lump in his throat and shakes his head, still in disbelief. ‘It felt like the life we’d been living together had been a lie. I didn’t get it. I tried to change her mind …’ He trails off. ‘It was like she turned off a switch.’ His voice chokes and his head falls into his hands for a moment as he tries to compose himself. ‘I love her so much, I don’t understand why she’s done this to me.’

I love her.

Present tense.

Ty is still in love with his ex, still coping with the pain of his heartache.

On screen, Jodie’s eyes widen. ‘Oh, Ty, I had no idea.’

This is the kind of thing that happens when you find a suitor in less than twelve hours. The suitor is still in love with someone else.

She looks to Alice, waiting for the wrath, the annoyance or even the explosion, but Alice’s eyes are dancing. ‘This is brilliant!’

Huh?

‘Oh, the audience will love this.’

But Darcy doesn’t agree. ‘They’ll be angry. He’s on a show looking for love when he’s in love with someone not on the show. It’s wrong.’ Darcy knows better than to mention that Alice had said the very same thing when Joe pulled out of the show because he was in love with someone else.

‘Don’t be silly, Darcy. They’ll fall even more in love with him. Women love a man who has been hurt. They’ll eat this story up.’ Alice watches the monitors with delight as Ty confesses more to Jodie. He talks about having to cancel the wedding, that his fiancée already had a dress and that they’d sent out save the dates. It makes Darcy feel sick. How had his ex let it go on for so long if she hadn’t loved him?

Ben had framed the shot beautifully. Ty’s face is a picture of devastation. Darcy had thought they wouldn’t be able to use any of the picnic footage, but they have so much of it that she isn’t exactly sure what to cut out now. ‘So, you want us to show it all?’

‘Yes, yes! Fit as much in as you can.’

Bonnie knows she’s interrupted something as soon as she walks into the kitchen. Suddenly she forgets that she was trying to count back how many coffees and teas she’s already had. She feels like she’s constantly making a new one just to give herself something to do.