26. 24.
24.
Callie
“Fuck!”
Ben curses and I can only agree. We turn a corner and instead of looking at the spacious streets and gorgeous entryways, in front of us are people.
More specifically, paparazzi. They lounge in front of the mansion like it’s their new hangout place and Ben has to step on the break as the three of us gape at the crowd.
I left the house with a soccer jersey, denim shorts, and a ponytail. I was thinking about how much I wanted to see Sebastian. How much I missed that stupid face of his, but I completely forgotten that it wasn’t just me who watched the season finale.
The paparazzi spot us, and I curse when flash burns my retina. The first picture of me is probably of my shell-shocked expression over the dashboard.
Ben pushes the truck forward, seemingly not scared of running people over. They probably got the message by the scowl on his face and let us go, even if at snail pace.
A man a head taller than everyone else parts the crowd like Moses, and I breathe easily when I see Antonio’s familiar face. He shoos the reporters, a snarl on his lip, and Ben follows his directions to park in front of the mansion.
Without taking his eyes off the front door and his hands from the wheels, my older brother asks, “Are you ready?”
No.
No, I’m not ready to have my picture plastered in every shitty magazine tomorrow morning. I’m not ready to have them speculate about what Sebastian Riggs saw in a girl with a ponytail and Colombia’s national team jersey.
But I’m ready to see him. I need to see him. I nod numbly.
“I’m going to open the door and help you out,” Dario says. “You hold on to me, ok?”
I look up at my younger brother and try to feel secure about his words. Ben and Dario are here. Antonio is just outside, shooing people and keeping them away from the passenger door.
Sebastian is inside.
“All right.” I agree and grip his arm.
Once the door is open, I waver. The flashlights are blinding, their voices yelling on top of each other.
“What are you going to say to him?”
“Is it true you were having an affair way before this season?”
“What do you have to say to the contestants who fell in love with Sebastian?”
I don’t answer any of their questions. I can’t. I’m overwhelmed and confused. I look down and follow Dario’s steps as he follows Antonio’s. Ben magically appears behind me, and I hear him stopping one reporter and another when they venture too close.
It’s a short walk, but it takes forever.
They ask things repeatedly, and not all of them make sense. Not all are flattering, not all are about love. I tune out and look down at my shoes. When I go up the two steps to the main door, I breathe in.
Dario takes my arm and hauls me through. Ben is right on my heels, and then the noise is gone, the flashes stop and there’s finally silence.
I look up and I see all my friends.
I stumble back, but Ben holds me by my shoulders. Around the main shooting area is a small crew, cameras, sound, and assistants, and they all are smiling at me. David, the cameraman, gives me a thumbs-up from behind the equipment. Doris is at the back, smiling big.
I stay frozen, looking at them, an impossibly big lump stuck in my throat.
Devi comes closer, greeting me quickly before he starts to mic me. My mouth is opening and closing like I’m a fish. I let him run the wires under my clothes when Nessa comes along, her eyes full of tears.
“Just relax and don’t look at the camera, ok?”
“Nessa…” I’m able to say. But that’s it.
She smiles at my inability to talk. “Don’t talk too fast. David and Gary are working on A and B, ok?”
I don’t point out she’s the one talking fast now. Devi moves behind me, hooking the mic on my shorts. Nessa is giving me the basics that we run through with the first-timers. I never thought I was going to be on this side of the conversation.
My eyes must tell how scared I am, because once Devi is finished and gone, Nessa takes my hands and squeezes between hers. My brothers are not beside me anymore and my heart hammers inside my chest. I wiggle my hands in front of my body, and I catch Jeff making a face. I laugh, knowing I am ruining the shot if I don’t quit fidgeting and brushing my clothes on the mic.
I never said I was camera-ready.
I’m still laughing at the irony of it all when I hear the steps coming from the backdoor. My eyes raise the second he’s in the view.
The air leaves my lungs.
Sebastian Riggs.
He cuts through the small crowd, stopping in the middle of the room. He’s back on his mark. Every week, he stands there to eliminate a contestant.
My wobbly legs move when he calls my name.
“Callie…”
I love the way he says it. He even makes my name sound magical.
I walk to him and everything I practiced saying for the last couple of hours evaporates.
“What a way to get my attention.”
I hear a few snickers, but my eyes are fixed on him. His blue eyes are shining, and he has a little wrinkle at the corner when he smiles.
“You know me. I like to make a scene.”
“What would the King say?”
“I expect a stern-worded letter from His Majesty himself any minute now.”
“What’s stern-worded for royalty?”
He thinks for a second. “Unbelievably passive-aggressive.”
“Now,” I scoff. “That’s just British.”
He chuckles and I follow suit. Sebastian shakes his head, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Jesus, I’m mucking this up.”
“Why? Don’t you think the public wants to hear about us making fun of the King?”
With a serious face, he steps close and takes my hands with his. “Americans are way more sensitive about the royal family than most English I know.”
“Let’s talk about the probability of that being remotely true.”
“Let’s talk about us, Callie Sosa.”
I swallow my funny comebacks in a second. It’s easy to forget everything with Sebastian. We did that once, didn’t we? We forgot he was the Eligible, and I was a field producer. We forgot our places and why it wasn’t going to work.
And now I forget that we are mic-ed and all my colleagues are watching.
“This is not what you imagined,” he says first. “I know you never wanted to be on this side of the cameras. So, I need to apologize for that first.”
I open my mouth, but he shakes his head. “Me first.” I make a face but shut my mouth.
His thumbs play with the skin on the top of my hand. I feel his touch from head to toe.
“All I ever wanted was to find someone who truly saw me. Beyond my last name, the suits, and the charity events. I wanted someone for me and not for the Riggs’ last name. I agreed to come to The Final Rose because I wanted to be surprised at least once in my life.” He smiles. “And boy, how surprised I was.”
I bite my lip down, trying not to interject as he says, “And it was there,” he points to the little alcove to the right, “when I saw you for the first time. When you said I was too sarcastic and that wouldn’t work for TV. You wanted to give me a sarcasm sign.”
I chuckle and I hear other people laughing, too.
“It was right there,” he points toward the kitchen. “When Maverick kept sending me flower bouquets, and you said you’d kill me if I had a girlfriend.”
“Surely I said something way more colorful than that,” I argue.
“Oh, you did, but they are still recording, darling.”
I nod dutifully, and I can’t stop the little smile on my lips.
“It was out there,” he points at the back lawn. “When I asked if it was a sport of yours to emasculate all the men in your life.”
“YES!” Dario yells from somewhere.
Sebastian turns away from me for the first time, searching for a face among many. “Are your brothers here?”
I nod, “Yeah.”
“Oh, nice to finally meet you.”
He doesn’t wait for them to reply. His eyes are on me again. “It was in this house that I fell in love with you, Callie, and you know why?”
My vision blurs and I shake my head.
“Because I fell in love when I laid my eyes on you for the first time.”
I’m crying. I’m crying silently and I don’t know what to do. No one tells you what you say when the man you love says all these nice things for the first time.
But then I remember.
“Oh god, I love you, too!”
He chuckles a little, but a weighted breath dislodges from his chest like he thought for a silly second that I don’t feel the same.
“Well, that’s a great thing to know. Because I have a question for you…”
Sebastian removes his hands from mine and lowers down, bending on one knee. The crew obviously doesn’t give a crap anymore because they all gasp and I hear Ben swearing.
I place my hand in my mouth, shaking as the tears stream down. I can’t breathe. I can’t think.
Sebastian grabs something from his pocket, a box.
“I knew it when I saw you for the first time. I knew it when we talked and when we joked. Even when we fought. I always knew you were the person who was going to change my entire life. Calliope Sosa, will you marry me?”
I’m sure I don’t have words in me. Tears pour down my cheeks, but then a hollow sound finds its way out. I can barely hear myself over the beat of my heart, but everything in me is saying the same word over and over again.
“Yes!”
I say it again as he puts a huge ring on my finger. I say it as I cry and as he stands up and takes me in his arms.
I repeat the word in my head when we kiss. His mouth over mine, his body so perfect with me.
I shake, I cry, and I laugh.
Sebastian Riggs finally chose.
And he chose me .