36. Thirty-Six
thirty-six
GINGER
The grounds of the Hacienda are empty when I pull into the driveway, but the number of cars I’m forced to park behind say everyone is working overtime to get cleanup done. I walk the remainder of the way up the hill and climb the steps to the kitchen patio. Before entering, I peer through the glass door panes. Kat is screwing the cap on a bottle of whiskey and returning it to one of the exposed shelves. I tap on the door, and my friend waves me inside.
Everything is pretty quiet. I expected more action.
“You have the phone?”
I reach into my bag.
“Wait—no—” Kat interrupts with a wave of her hand. “I wanted to show you something first. Come with me to the Candle Room.”
“Why?”
“I knew you’d show up wearing your interview clothes, so I had Vanessa go and buy us these two outfits I saw on sale at Nordstrom. We are going fancy tonight.”
“I look fine. I don’t need to be fancy.”
But Kat’s already crossing the empty living area and heading for the Candle Room. I follow her. “Where is everybody?”
“Out by the pool and the guesthouse, I think.”
Reaching the romantically decorated room, Kat closes the door behind us. She picks up a garment bag from the velvet sofa and shoves it at Ginger. “I got us a reservation at Castile’s, so you can’t wear that. Try this on.”
People say amazing things about the desserts at Castile’s. “I’m sure it’s fine.”
“Just try it on! Jeez. How much do I ask from you? Your makeup looks awesome by the way. How’d the interview go?”
“Pretty well, I think.” I unbutton my blouse as Kat unzips the long black bag. “White? I’m pretty much planning to drown myself in chocolate sauce, black would be better?—”
“Here.” Kat thrusts the short, flirty dress at me. “I’ll give you a second. You don’t have to strip naked in front of me, but when I come back, I want this dress on that bod. Got it?”
I laugh, some of the awkwardness of returning to the Hacienda dissipating in the midst of Kat’s ridiculous demands. “Yes, ma’am.”
Kat whisks herself out of the room, leaving me alone to change.
ELLIOT
My heart lodges in my throat.
All the footage, every snippet of film that I insisted must exist of me and Ginger during the season scrolls across the screen before my widening eyes. And then some. Moments I never considered, but someone combed through and dug up. “This is impossible,” I whisper.
“Obviously, we’ve all met your producer Ginger,” Michelle says. “The two of you tackled challenge after challenge, sometimes easily, sometimes not so much. The day you came across the zip line together you demonstrated everything the show stands for.”
“Compatibility, communication, compromise,” Lavonne supplies. “The three Cs of every successful relationship.”
“And chemistry,” Natalie adds with a smile. “I totally ship it.”
“I like her for you, Elliot,” Michelle says.
It’s too much to process. My emotions bounce between anger and elation. “You wanted me with Jenna.”
“I wanted you to find your match,” she says.
Hope—something I thought was completely lost—emerges like a newly lit flame in my chest. “What does this mean?”
My mother beams at me. “It means you have our blessing to follow your heart. The choice is yours.”
“ Ginger is one of my choices?”
The entire Panel nods.
“Is she here?”
The door to The Panel’s room opens. My head turns sharply toward it. “We need your decision first, Elliot,” Kat says from the hallway.
I point at the screen where Ginger’s beautiful face remains frozen in a laugh. My heart threatens to shatter my ribs. “That woman. She’s the one. Consider me matched.”
GINGER
The commotion approaching from the hallway sounds like Kat’s bringing a pack of dogs with her. It’s more likely people are hauling equipment out of The Panel’s room, though. Without a mirror to check myself, I’ll have to rely on Kat’s word to let her know whether this dress is far too much for a night out or not.
I suspect it is.
The door flies open, and my former PA bursts in. “Get your shoes on!”
“What? Why?”
“Um—because—Kat says—uh....”
“Jesus, Vanessa.” I step into the sensible black heels I wore to my job interview. They don’t go with the dress at all. “Is there a fire?”
“I don’t know.” Vanessa scoops the open garment bag into her arms, along with the clothes I wore over. She tosses all of it behind the velvet sofa.
Before I have a chance to protest my expensive pants being thrown on the floor, Vanessa is closing in on me, fluffing out my hair, fingers rubbing beneath my eyes. I bat her hands away, stumbling backward in my heels. “What the hell are you doing?”
“They’re coming!”
“What—?”
The first camera enters the room, green light blaring, and my stomach drops. “What’s happening?”
More cameramen push their way into the small room, surrounding me, crowding my view of the door, leaving me no means of escape from whatever stupid prank Kat’s pulling.
“Ginger!”
His voice.
Elliot, looking insanely handsome, appears in the doorway between two cameras trained on him.
Every other lens captures my jaw drop as my knees soften to nothing.
He’s on me in a heartbeat, hands grasping my waist, moving up my back, burning lips capturing mine in a passionate release of a kiss.
At first, I try to hold him off, desperate for no one else to see this, but I miss him too much. I shift to cradle his face, holding him close to me for as long as we have left.
Wait—how long do we have left? He isn’t supposed to be here—why are they filming?
What the fuck is happening?
“Wait—” I manage to say, breaking away and leaning back to meet his intense gaze. “We can’t—” I glance at the cameras and spot Kat and Matt crowded against the wall behind them. Matt eyes me nervously, but Kat looks like she’s about to burst with glee or— pride?
“You can,” Kat says, beaming.
“We have The Panel’s blessing,” Elliot says, dropping his forehead to rest against mine. Like he ran a thousand miles, he closes his eyes and lets out an exhausted sigh. “You and me. Please tell me they didn’t make another mistake.”
The pieces put themselves together. The footage I caught Kat going through, the cameramen, Vanessa, the white dress...
I’m on the finale.
I’m Elliot’s match.
“You picked me,” I whisper.
He nods, our heads moving as one.
“And The Panel was okay with it?”
“I need you to catch up, Ginger,” he says quietly. “I’m freaking out here.”
“Why?”
“Because if I lose you one more time, I won’t have any heart left to give away.”
“I—” I can barely form a thought, much less words.
He hugs me tight, arms wrapped around my back, his cheek pressed against mine. “I love you. I meant every word. I was about to walk.”
With that, I melt against him, secure in his embrace, sure he’ll hold me up if I do indeed swoon.
“Okay. You have to say something. Are we in this together or not?”
“Of course we are,” I manage.
“And?”
I pull away a few inches to be able to look him in the eyes. Those gorgeous eyes, slaying me once again. “I love you, too.”
A grin stretches across his face, showing his laugh lines and his perfect teeth. “How ’bout this loophole, huh?”
His joy is radiant. “I guess you showed me.”
He lifts me clear off the ground. Despite the crowd, despite the cameras, I give myself to the moment and wrap my whole self around him, officially claiming the man of my dreams.
“If you guys don’t mind,” Elliot announces to the room, “I’d like to have my happy ending now.”
“That’s the season, ladies and gentlemen,” Kat calls out. “It’s a wrap.”