Page 11 of The Final Rose

I tsk. “They are all supermodel kind of hot.”

Maverick hums on the other side of the ocean. “Ok, let's do this at three in the morning. Tell me, is there anything that calls you first in a woman?”

Without meaning to, I think of the producer, Callie. From the second I laid my eyes on her, I couldn’t forget her face. It’s not just beauty, but the mischief in her eyes. The sharp words coming out of her mouth.

“I like attitude,” I tell him. “But it’s hard to know who has it when I’ve barely met them. It’s unfair.”

“Seb, just…” I can envision him rubbing his face, annoyed. “Tell me about one of them you remember.”

I chase it in my mind, without looking at their pictures. I smile because the one that comes to mind is Grace, the southern belle. Callie said I made the most ridiculous face when she gave me the tip about the contestant. But I did not know what to expect of a southern belle.

“Grace.”

“Good, good. So, she stays. Next?”

I chase the thread, and then I think of Summer, who Callie described aslong legs.One by one, I tell Maverick as I remember them, trying to connect names and faces. I’m running out of names when I get to ten.

“So, who is left?”

I take two pictures, Vera and Elliana. I can’t really remember any of them, and I try my hardest to picture the moment they arrived or what Callie said, but I can’t.

“I don’t remember them at all.”

“Well, so it’s one of them you have to eliminate.”

I look down at their pictures. Besides that, I only have their age and where they are from. There isn’t much to go on. For all I know, one of these girls might be the love of my life, but unfortunately, she only had thirty seconds to make an impression.

“And who is Callie?”

I’m so absorbed in the pictures I almost miss what he’s asking.

“Hmm?”

“Who’s Callie?”

“Why are you asking?” I put the pictures aside.

“Nothing,” he replies in that way of his that means it’s everything. “Just the name I heard the most.”

I relax a little, rolling my eyes. “Callie is a field producer, and she was helping me to memorize each girl.”

“How?”

I chuckle, sitting on the bed with my back to the headboard. “She’d say just one or two words before every girl arrived.”

“Almost like a game?”

“I guess.” But I chuckle once more.

“So, Callie is funny,” Maverick confirms.

“I guess,” I say again, but I’m frowning.

“And is she young?”

I’m shaking my head before he even finishes the sentence. “Callie is the producer and not a contestant.”

“Funny how your mind goes to the gutter so easily.”

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