13. 13
T here are only seven of us left. Isabella, Jasmine, and Bethany H.’s eliminations were all uneventful compared to Victoria’s meltdown in our third week of filming. Then Aisha decided to leave, tired of the entire competition. Apparently, she realized dating the same man as eight other women wasn’t something she wanted to do.
I couldn’t say I blamed her. It’s been a whirlwind of a month and we have an entire month to go. The whole situation is weird and pressure filled, but there’s something about Parker that keeps me coming back for more.
After our solo date almost two weeks ago, I thought he was going to kiss me, and when he didn’t, I figured I was going home. But he called my name, asking me to accept his flame, and gave me a smile that turned my insides to molten lava.
Sam the Butler comes into the game room with the silver serving platter and dome, while Zoey and I are playing pool.
“Anastasia, I have a note for you,” he says, removing the dome.
I drop my cue onto the table, disrupting Zoey’s shot and receiving a disgruntled “cheater”.
I rip through the thick envelope and read the words quickly.
“We’re going on a group date. We need to wear swimsuits and something we can hike in. I hate hiking. I want to be a hiking girl but I’m not,” I complain, but I’m still excited for a chance to see Parker.
And if swimsuits are needed for us, hopefully they are needed for him as well.
“Who else is going?” Zoey asks.
She’s only had one solo date with Parker, and while I don’t think she expects to make it until the end, I know she has a bit of a crush on him. How could you not? He’s beautiful.
“You, me, and Carmen. This should be fun,” I say, rolling my eyes.
When I got out of the shower after the cooking date I lost to Carmen, Zoey was waiting for me. We decided to take some tea outside and sat with our feet dangling in the pool. And then Carmen came home gushing about how great the date was. Zoey was outraged on my behalf, disliking Carmen in solidarity, and offered to ‘accidentally’ knee Parker in the dick. I reined her in on that one, but it was a nice offer all the same.
“Don’t worry. I’ll drown Carmen if I have to,” she says.
I laugh, hugging her to me, as I go to find Carmen and inform her about our date .
After two hours, I’m hot, sweaty, and bramble scratched, but as I look out over the valley with the sound of a waterfall behind me, I don’t care. The waterfall cascades over a hundred feet into a secluded lagoon that reminds me of the one in The Little Mermaid movie where Sebastian sings “Kiss the Girl” to Eric.
There’s two camera women with us this time. The much smaller cameras they have are almost small enough to ignore. They move off to the side to get their equipment set up while we all look at the lake.
“This is amazing,” Parker says, awe in his voice. We all stand there, enjoying the view for a moment before he claps his hands, the sound jarring. “Who wants to go swimming?”
“I didn’t come up here just to look at the scenery!” Zoey says, dropping her small backpack production had provided for us onto a large, flat rock. She pulls off her orange shirt, exposing the simple black bikini top she favors. As she shimmies from her shorts, I see she decided to go with her flowery bottoms.
She walks cautiously into the water until suddenly she drops from view. Sputtering as she breaks the surface, she calls out for us to be careful of the drop off.
As Zoey swims around, Carmen rips off her clothes, showing her tight body and small, but high sitting boobs. While her swimsuit is technically a one-piece, the strategic cutouts make it feel like you’re getting an illicit look at her body.
Jealousy crawls through me as Parker watches her get into the water. I can’t say I blame him. My eyes are glued to the sway of her hips, the bottoms of her suit only covering half of her ass, at most.
Taking a deep breath, I rip off my shirt, showing my top. I’m not proud of it, but I definitely picked the one with wiring much like a bra, bolstering up my chest. I could absolutely do a good Baywatch run in this top.
My string bottoms hug my hips. While mine cover a bit more than Carmen’s, they aren’t as full coverage as Zoey’s. The cobalt blue color of my suit plays off my skin tone beautifully.
“Are you going to come in or just watch us like a pervert?” I tease Parker.
“Both,” he says, drinking in my curves, and making my skin heat. “Definitely both.”
“Let’s go then,” I say.
With a smirk, he rips off his shirt and my jealousy disintegrates along with my brain.
I’ve known he was in good shape, but I didn’t realize how perfectly chiseled his body is. His hard chest flows into an impressive set of abs. But even lower, and more mouthwatering, is The V. His swimsuit is sitting low on his hips.
I know I’m staring. My brain tells me I should look away, and probably wipe the drool inevitably falling from my lips, but I can’t. I’m too busy begging the universe for the string holding up his shorts to fail.
Zoey lets out a wolf whistle behind me, snapping me from my stupor.
“I like the way you look at me,” he says, his voice low.
With a Herculean effort, I pull my gaze up to his equally mesmerizing eyes.
“How am I looking at you?” I ask, as if I don’t already know.
“Like I’m the answer to every question you’ve ever had.”
“Cocky much?”
“Yes, but I’m not wrong.”
I sniff, unwilling to admit he’s correct, and turn toward the lagoon. His rough hand grabs mine, sending my heart skipping, and we walk into the water together.
Zoey floats on her back. After the initial sharp drop off, the water is no deeper than six feet in the area we are in, but Zoey is unable to touch. Parker stands just fine, but I’m on my tiptoes. Carmen squeals about something touching her leg, using it as an excuse to drape herself over Parker. He holds up Carmen and I decide to float like Zoey, so I don’t have to watch it.
“Do you want a family, Park?” Zoey asks, out of the blue.
“Oh, um, yeah, I do, actually, but they aren’t a requirement. I’m happy to just be an uncle as well. Whatever my partner wants, but I’ve always liked kids.” His answer starts a little stilted, but I chalk it up to nerves about opening up. It’s obvious to me that Parker is a private person and being on this show must be incredibly difficult for him.
“How many kids do you want?” I ask with interest.
“Two? Again, it’d depend on what my partner wanted, since she’s the one who would be carrying them. Bringing another life into this world isn’t a decision I take lightly. They, and their mother, would always be my first priority.”
It’s a good answer. An amazing answer. One thing I’ve picked up about Parker is how deeply he cares. And not just for the people he is close to, but any person.
He reminds me of my father.
Growing up, Dom and I never had to wonder if our dad would be at a game or a teacher’s conference or waiting for us when we got home from school. Our parents were deeply involved in our lives, and if I were ever to be a parent, I know it would be the same for me .
But I’ve never really thought about having kids before this moment. I always assumed I would have them, but I’ve never been with someone I wanted to take on the commitment with. Even if it doesn’t work out between you, once kids are involved, you’re stuck with the person in some regard.
Forever.
I take in Parker for what feels like the first time. I see past his stunning face and I know he would be an amazing partner. An image of a blond-haired, green eyed little boy sitting on his shoulders flashes through my mind and warmth blooms in my stomach.
“What about you ladies? Any desire for kids?” he asks.
“I had a hysterectomy when I was younger. I had really bad endometriosis and there was no other option. I could adopt, sure, but I think I’d prefer to be child-free. Then I could pour myself into the kids of my sisters and friends,” Zoey says, in her matter-of-fact way.
“I’m sorry you had to go through with that. Having that decision taken from you was probably hard,” I say, swimming over to her, wrapping her in my arms.
“It was at the time, but I’ve worked through it in therapy. I’m not one to let something I can’t change bring me down.” She pats my arm in silent thanks.
“Sounds like a good viewpoint to have,” Parker says, shrugging out of Carmen’s grasp, and coming to give Zoey a hug. My arms drop from my friend and I move out of his way. Watching Zoey and Parker does not make me crazy the way seeing him and Carmen does.
“If you give me a few minutes, I can make up a big sob story so you keep this hot bod pressed against me,” Zoey says, waggling her eyebrows up at Parker suggestively .
He lets out a bark of laughter before hugging her even tighter to him and my insides melt like a marshmallow over a campfire.
We all move around the living room in our cocktail dresses. The first night, this room felt so small, almost claustrophobic with all twenty of us and the production crew. Now thirteen are gone? It feels bare, almost. Zoey, Leslie, and I sit on a pair of couches, talking, as we wait for Parker to join us. The other ladies are mingling about, but we three tend to hang out together the most.
Leslie started joining Zoey and me at dinner, enjoying talking about something other than this show. She’s lamented multiple times about us being on different coasts. I guess with her event planning business, she needs a baker she can consistently rely on and suggest to her clients.
“I thought I had died and gone to heaven. I’ve never dated a man with a six pack before. And the fact it was pressed against me? And he was wet? I almost came on the spot,” Zoey says to Leslie.
“Girl, with love, if you tell me this story again, I’m going to stab you in the eye with my stiletto. I’m sufficiently jealous, okay?” Leslie says, partially joking.
“That’s a very specific place to threaten to stab her,” I say, trying to dig the cherry out of my drink.
“I feel like the eye would be the one place a stiletto could puncture.”
“I don’t know, I feel like with enough pressure, it could go through other places. Like the stomach, perhaps?” I suggest.
“Just in case my opinion matters, I would like it to be known I don’t want to be stabbed, regardless of the place,” Zoey calls out. Her tongue wiggles around, trying to find her straw without looking but it continues to elude her. Finally, she pulls the glass away from her face, grabs the straw, and puts it into her mouth, going cross-eyed as she watches it.
“Your opinion doesn’t matter in this case, but thank you for voicing it,” Leslie says, laughing at her straw antics.
Jacob Jacobson comes into the room and we all quiet down, immediately moving toward the middle of the room. We have done this enough now that production doesn’t have to herd us any longer.
“Hello, ladies.”
“Hi, Jacob,” we all intone.
“Welcome to the week five elimination—”
“Cut!” a member of production calls out, cutting Jacob off. “This elimination will be week six of the airing schedule. Go again.”
Jacob’s smile plasters itself on his face once more.
“Welcome to the week six elimination night cocktail party. Parker will be joining you in a few moments. You will have one hour to make a lasting impression. I’ll see you soon,” he says, and leaves.
Within thirty seconds, Parker is walking in and he smiles at all of us.
“Looking lovely tonight, ladies. Anya, could I talk to you?”
“Sure,” I say, Zoey and Leslie both making kissing sounds as I follow him outside to one of the couches, flipping them off behind his back.
Before I can sit down, he grabs me, pulling me into a hug. His spicy smell envelopes me and I press my face against him, taking a deep breath.
“I missed you the past few days,” he says, surprising me. Unless we are on a date, we don’t get the opportunity to talk to Parker .
“You just saw me two days ago,” I tease, but if I’m honest, I missed him, too.
“And? I can’t miss you if I’ve seen you already in a week?”
“That’s not what I said. I’m sorry, you just took me off guard. It’s nice to be missed,” I tell him. And it’s true. It is nice to be missed. Maybe I just hadn’t realized how much he’s enjoyed our time together.
“Tell me something. Anything. I want to keep talking to you.” He pulls me down onto the couch, making sure our knees touch as he rests his arm across the back, looking at me. Cameras move around us, but I ignore them, trying to focus on Parker.
“Zoey is trying to teach me how to play pool because she wants us to go to bars and hustle people.”
He chuckles, tucking his hair behind his ear.
“Why does that not surprise me? Just be careful. Some people get real upset when they get hustled.”
“You can be our bodyguard.”
“I would be honored,” he says, putting his giant hand over his heart.
His thick, wavy hair falls forward and temporarily obscures half of his face. Without my input, my hand reaches up and tucks it back for him, but instead of immediately letting go, I linger.
I’ve thought about having my hands in his hair many times. I never had a thing for guys with long hair before, but with Parker? It works. I couldn’t imagine him with short hair. It’s softer than it looks. Silky, almost. His green eyes search my face as I continue to stroke the strands in my hand.
“I love your hair.”
“You can touch it whenever you want. ”
“You might come to regret telling me that,” I sigh.
“I don’t think I will.”
Reluctantly, I pull my hand back. “Are you nervous about tonight? I don’t think I could send people home week after week. I don’t like hurting people’s feelings.”
“No, I know exactly what I want to do. Who I want to keep around. It’s not as hard as you’d think. The hard part is keeping people around when you don’t see a future with them because the show needs to have contestants.”
“If you could have it your way, how many of us would you have left at this point?”
“Two.”
There’s no question in his voice.
“Wow, that’s very definitive.” Even though I’m pretty sure I’m one of the two, a small, annoying piece of me is jealous the answer isn’t one. And that I’m not the one.
“I believe there are people in this world you click with and you just know there’s something there, no matter how much time you spend with them.”
“And you’ve felt that with two of us?” I ask, my heart beating as I let myself finally consider he could be as attracted to me as I am to him.
“No, I’ve felt that with one of you. The other one, there’s a curiosity there, but it’s not as strong.”
“I still don’t think I want to be in your position.”
Tenderness softens his face. His fingertips drag up my thigh, leaving flames in their wake. “I would do it all over again, I think. ”
My eyes fall to his lips. His plump, soft looking lips. I can’t wait any longer. I start to lean toward him, but the sound of the glass door sliding open stops me.
“Fucking hell,” I say, dropping my head. Heels click against the stone behind me.
His fingers settle under my chin, raising my face to look at him.
“I’ll see you back in there, yeah?” he asks.
“I’ll be there.”
He kisses my cheek before I stand, ceding my seat to Leslie standing behind me.
“Sorry, girl. They sent me out here.”
I squeeze her arm as I move past. “It’s okay, I understand.”
Disappointment has me turning back only to find Parker’s green eyes set on me.
Minutes tick by as the girls rotate out to talk to Parker one-on-one. When Carmen sashays her way out the door, the last of us to go, I feel my nose wrinkle.
“Hide it a little better, babe. A camera is probably on you right now,” Zoey says under her breath as she brings her new drink to her lips. Taking her advice, I paste on a smile and wait until we are told to find our places for the elimination ceremony.
“Ladies, it’s time. Parker, do you have anything you’d like to say?” Jacob Jacobson asks, standing to Parker’s right, like always.
“Every week this becomes more difficult. I never thought it would be this hard to decide who to send home. You’re all changing me for the better.”
“If you don’t receive a flame tonight, your time on House of Desire will be over. Parker,” Jacob says and then steps back .
Taking a candle from the basket, Parker lights it and turns toward us.
“Anya,” he says and a huge smile lights my face at being called first. It doesn’t necessarily mean anything, but after our talk earlier, I’m wondering if it does as I walk up to him. “Anya, will you accept this flame of my desire?”
“I’d love to,” I say, taking the candle from him as he presses another kiss to my cheek. I want to turn into him, let our lips meet, but after my brief moment of insanity earlier, I know that I don’t want the other women around for our first kiss.
I move back to my spot as Parker lights another candle.
“Zoey,” he says.
My blue-haired friend moves to stand in front of him.
“Zoey, would you accept this flame of my desire?”
“Absolutely,” she says, taking it with a smile. He doesn’t kiss her cheek.
After Zoey, he calls up Carmen, Leslie, and then Olivia before Jacob steps forward.
“Parker. Ladies. It’s the last candle of the night,” he says before stepping back once more, a languid smile on his face. It looks like he has no thoughts going on in his mind, a robot in standby mode.
Emily and Mia step forward as the last two while Parker lights the last candle.
“Emily,” he calls and she steps forward. “Emily, will you accept the flame of my desire?”
“I will,” she says, giving him a small hug before joining the rest of us.
“Mia, I’m sorry, you have not received a flame tonight, and your journey will end here,” Jacob says, and that is the key for us to break from our stiff positions. We all blow out our candles as Mia says goodbye to Parker.
One of the members of production carries a tray with seven glasses of champagne for our end of elimination toast. Mia waves goodbye to us and heads out of the mansion, Parker walking her out to the limo. Returning, he grabs his glass of champagne from production, lifting it up.
“Here’s to another week looking for love,” he says simply, and we all clink our glasses, mentally preparing for the week ahead.