Chapter 10
The big move is here. I couldn’t put them off any longer. Just walking into the house takes forever. I have to do it several times so they can get me coming in from different angles and also get the reactions of the other women when they see me coming in. At least some of the crew offered to carry my bags for me. My arms would have fallen off if I had to lug those monster suitcases back and forth that long.
I waste as much time setting up my room as I can. I don’t want to join the other women. They’ve all been friendly enough to me so far—no one wants to piss off the person making them look good for the camera—but I have a feeling some of their attitudes will change now that I’m competition. They aren’t going to like that I’ve been added to the show.
It starts when I get to the bedrooms. There are fifteen women, including me, after the rose ceremony last night. The whole compound has sixteen bedrooms total, but only seven of those are in the main house, so all of the contestants have been sharing rooms. I’m not complaining. I’ve just gone from three roommates down to one.
But then Bridget walks in while I’m unpacking, and I change my mind. I’d rather cram into a military-style bunkhouse with all the other contestants than share a room with the grown-up mean girl. Of course she’s still here. With Ana gone, she’s the new villain. What I wonder is, if Sebastian picked her willingly, or if the show told him to keep her.
I’m not the least bit surprised they’ve paired us together. “Hey, roomie,” I greet, partially hoping my friendliness will keep her snarking to a minimum, but also knowing it will annoy her. I can’t decide if I want to avoid her or provoke her. As much as I hate drama, I also hate bullies.
“Don’t touch my things,” she says in lieu of a greeting. “No borrowing my stuff, and keep your half of the room clean. I’m not living with a slob.”
I roll my eyes. This is going to be fun. “Did you need to run a line of tape down the middle of the room? I’m sure the crew could find you some.”
She glares at me, and I can’t help smiling. Yeah, there’s no way I will be able to not antagonize her.
“Stay out of my way.”
After I’m unpacked, all the women are gathered into the main living room, and again, they film me entering several times before they let me sit down. Everyone is here besides Emma, who is still on her date with Sebastian. I cast my gaze around the room, studying who’s still left. There’s a mix of women. Blondes, brunettes, white, black, Latino, and one Asian. I’m the only redhead. Some are tall, some are short, but all of them are beautiful. I’m pretty in my own way, but I’m not the bombshell most of these women are. I’m also one of the youngest women here. Sebastian is 31, and most of the women here are around his age. A couple of them are even older than him.
I get some friendly smiles, but I get some really snotty looks, too. When I finally take my seat, I squish in between Jalisa, a 28-year-old speech therapist, and Willow, a 26-year-old yoga instructor. You know how they say a dog often matches its owner? The same goes for careers. Willow fits every stereotype you can imagine for her name and profession.
Both women offer me friendly smiles. “Welcome to the dark side,” Jalisa teases.
Willow pats my leg. “We’re excited to have you.”
Several women scoff, and the woman sitting beside Bridget, a 27-year-old blonde bartender named Calista says, “Speak for yourself.”
Willow gives her a condescending smile. “I was speaking for myself.” Her smile at me is much more genuine. “I’m excited to have you. We can do our yoga together now. Do you do a lot of meditating?”
I grin. It will be nice to have a yoga partner, and it’s good to see I have some allies. I wasn’t sure if everyone was going to turn on me or just the catty, jealous ones. “Not a lot, but I might need it now that I’m here.”
She winks at me. “It’s a great stress reliever.”
“How are the twins?” Jalisa asks. “How did their father’s surgery go?”
I’m not surprised to see more than a handful of concerned faces. Juliette was probably the most-liked woman in the house. She’s always been popular wherever she goes. Their worry is touching and makes me feel a little less judgy. Maybe there are only a couple of bad apples instead of only a few good ones. “They’re happy to be home with their family,” I say. “Rich’s surgery was more involved than they originally hoped, but it went okay. He’s recovering right now. Thanks for asking. Prayers for their family would be much appreciated.”
I get mostly nods and smiles, but also a couple scoffs and eye-rolls.
“How come you’re here?” Bridget asks. “So what if the twins had to leave? Why did they ask you to take their place?”
Ask? There wasn’t any asking involved. Maybe I’m cattier than I thought, because I smirk at her and say, “I don’t know. You’d have to ask Sebastian. It was his idea.” I shrug. “Guess he saw something he liked.”
No need to tell her it was only because I have famous friends and can get them into an exclusive charity ball filled with celebrities.
“He doesn’t really like her,” Calista says. “Aaron told me the whole story. Vivian is Ella Oliver’s best friend. When the twins left, Vivian begged them to let her take their place. Andrea and James said they’d let her join only if she helped get Brian and Ella on the show.”
I snort so hard it hurts my sinuses, but most of the women believe the lie and the claws come out. “Pathetic,” one woman says, while another laughs. “She’ll be gone at the next rose ceremony. Sebastian will never go for someone as low-class as you.”
I laugh again. These women are ridiculous, and their attitudes are only going to make them look stupid.
“How did you really get on the show?” a woman whose name I can’t remember asks. She’s quieter than the others and sort of bland. She mostly fades into the background with all these more dominant personalities constantly demanding the spotlight. She’s smart enough to see through Calista’s crap, though, so I like her.
“It really was Sebastian’s idea. The show wasn’t going to let the twins out of their contracts to go home, so Sebastian made them agree to the exchange—them for me.”
“But why?” Bridget whines. “You’re nobody. Just because Ella Oliver is your friend, it doesn’t make you special. You’re not very pretty. You don’t have money?—”
Someone snorts and mumbles, “She doesn’t need money. Sebastian has plenty to go around.”
Bridget folds her arms and huffs. “What could he possibly see in you?”
I try not to wince, thinking of last night. I’m pretty sure after our last conversation, whatever Sebastian sees in me isn’t good. I plaster a smile on my face. “Again, I couldn’t tell you. Maybe you should ask him.”
Bridget scoffs again. “As if I would spend my time with Sebastian talking about you.”
“Same,” Calista says with a saucy smile. “We’ll be too busy making out to worry about anything else.”
One of the women gasps. “Has he kissed you already?”
Calista’s smile turns coy, and she doesn’t answer one way or another. She’s trying to make us all think they kissed without actually lying. Because liars on the show are always hated by the audiences.
None of the women fall for it. Why would we? We’ve all seen the show. Some bachelors have kissed women in the first week, but it’s not that common, and I just don’t see Sebastian as the type. He doesn’t have the patience for women in general. I seriously doubt overly aggressive women are his type.
Not that I care if he’s kissed any of these women.
“Has he kissed anyone?” Jalisa asks the room.
No one speaks up. I doubt anyone is just keeping quiet. Most women on the show are always happy to boast about it when they get anywhere in their relationship with the bachelor of the season.
“He probably kissed Juliette,” Willow says. Heads nod all around the room. “She was so beautiful and so sweet. She got the first rose and the first solo date.”
Something shifts in my stomach. It’s almost as if I don’t like the idea of Jules kissing Sebastian. But why would that matter? I was happy for her after her solo date. She didn’t mention kissing him, but she did say they had more fun together than she’d expected.
“Emma! You’re back!” someone cheers, while I am absolutely not analyzing my sudden feeling of uneasiness.
I glance up to see Emma entering the room. With the full attention of the entire group on her, she stumbles to a stop and her face turns pink. “Come sit,” Willow says, patting the couch beside her.
“Yeah, we want to hear all about it,” Jalisa says.
Excitement ripples through the group. They’re salivating for the details. Poor Emma’s shy heart is going to give out.
Jalisa and I scoot over to make room for Emma next to Willow.
She sits down, face still flaming, and ducks her head. I’m pretty sure it takes every ounce of inner strength she has to raise her eyes and meet the stares of everyone in the room.
“How was it?” someone asks.
“What’d you guys do?”
There’s a long pause while Emma takes a deep breath. “It was nice,” she says. “We went deep sea fishing.”
Several women scrunch up their faces. “Fishing?” Calista asks. Her disdain is comical.
Emma frowns at her. “It was fun. I was worried we’d have to do something scary like skydiving or something. Instead, it was just a nice, relaxing day out at sea. We even caught a few fish.”
“How was he?” Laurel, a 26-year-old kindergarten teacher, asks. “Was he less grumpy when it was just the two of you?”
“He’s so intimidating,” Emma says, biting her lips. “I was terrified for the first hour at least. He was so quiet.”
“Quieter than you?” I tease, picturing the most awkward afternoon two people have ever spent together.
Her eyes widen. “It was horrible. The camera crew kept trying to make us talk to each other, which only made it that much worse.”
Jalisa’s brow furrows with worry. “But it got better, right?”
When Emma blushes, all the women start to tease here. There’s obviously a story there. “Girl, don’t hold out on us,” Laurel says.
Emma tucks her hair behind her ears and puts her hand to her scarlet cheeks. “We were standing there, silent, both of us concentrating on our own fishing poles, when this big wave came out of nowhere and rocked the boat so hard, I lost my balance. I almost fell over the side, but Sebastian caught me.”
“How romantic,” someone croons.
Emma grimaces. “It could have been, except he pulled me back so fast that I lost my balance again and tumbled into him. I knocked him over and we fell to the floor of the boat. We were all tangled up in fishing line, and I couldn’t get up. I kept falling on his chest over and over again until he just started laughing. The fishing guys had to come untangle us. It was so mortifying.”
Bridget and Calista snicker and mutter something to each other that I can’t hear. I doubt it’s flattering. They laugh at whatever horrible thing they said to one another, and Emma ducks her head again. They’re clearly making fun of her, and she’s already embarrassed enough. To distract her, I grin and say, “So you got to feel him up? How were his pecs?”
Emma gasps, shocked, but then after a moment she giggles. “They were amazing. His abs were, too.”
This sets the women off, tittering like a bunch of horny teenagers. I have to admit, as much as I dislike the guy, I definitely imagine touching his muscles right along with everyone else.
“So, what happened next?” Jalisa asks.
“Once we were free, he sat us both up and I was kind of sitting on his lap. He couldn’t stop laughing. Then I started laughing too, because it was so ridiculous. It was easier after that. Not the icebreaker I would have preferred, but he was cool about it, not teasing me or anything.”
“Aww, how sweet,” Bridget snarks. Tension rises instantly, sucking the good mood out of the room.
“Did he kiss you?” Laurel asks, trying to break the silence.
Emma blushes again and shakes her head.
Bridget laughs. “Why would he kiss Emma? No one ever has before.”
A few of the women laugh, but most of us shake our heads or protest. My temper flares no matter how hard I try to keep it in check. Emma is the kindest, sweetest woman in this competition. “Somebody’s jealous,” I say, earning a few smirks and snickers. “Feeling threatened, Bridget?”
Bridget’s glare could rival one of Ana’s. It’s impressive. Good thing I’ve had years of practice with my frigid friend and am immune to nasty looks.
Next to me, Jalisa snaps, “Go be a bitch somewhere else.”
Bridget’s jaw drops. She blinks at the group full of angry faces and jumps to her feet, dragging Calista with her. “Whatever,” she spits. “Who wants to sit around here gossiping over the prude’s date anyway? You’ll see a real connection when I get the next solo date. I guarantee I’ll get the first kiss from Sebastian.”
She and Calista storm out of the room like they think they’re better than the rest of us. The women automatically start trash talking her. I smirk to myself. She’s going to be pissed when she realizes I’m the one going on the next solo date. For the first time, I’m actually happy to be bringing Sebastian with me to the ball if for no other reason than to make Bridget insane with jealousy.