Page 26 of The Final Rose

Instead, we’ll have him in his environment with hopefully plenty of footage of the girls trying to fit into his life.

“Emily is annoying.” Olivia, the other camera assistant, points out. “I bet she can complain about London until the cows come home.”

Adam tsks. “We are keeping Mackenzie, but we need to give the public some satisfaction of a good elimination. They both behaved poorly at the group date, but Sebastian heard Emily’s whining while he didn’t know Mackenzie was talking about everyone behind their backs.”

“We can’t keep all the bad people,” Anya agrees. “It’s great for a storyline, but we all know the public gets frustrated when badbehavior goes unpunished. We need to give them closure, and Emily will be the sacrificial lamb.”

I sigh and bring my elbows resting on the table.

“What do you think, Sosa?” Anya watches me in the most intense way. “You spend time with him the most.”

She’s not exactly calling on me, but I feel a chill down my spine, nevertheless. My job is to be close to the contestants, but I bet what is bugging her is that I’m not reporting as much as I used to.

It’s not that I’m loyal to Sebastian over Anya.

No.

I just have nothing to add to the conversation. That’s what I tell myself, anyway. When I clear my throat to talk, my mouth is cotton dry, and my leg twitches under the table.

“Who’s left?” I stall.

“Isla, Vivian, and Summer,” Nessa replies promptly.

“I’d say Vivian then,” I tell them, not really thinking about it.

Adam crosses his arms over his chest. “Why?”

“She did ok during the group date. She’s nice, but it’s not like she will make it to the finale. You need fat to trim.”

“I think that’s a bad idea.” Olivia opposes. “It will look like it was set from the first elimination.”

“How?” I ask, resting my back on the chair.

“In the first elimination, we got names for the group date. We have footage of Isla and Kirsten talking about how they think Sebastian chose. We need to shake them off the scent. Vivian and Maya were on the group date, but they weren’t particularly remarkable. It’s VivianorMaya.”

I blow a raspberry. “Well, no offense, but we have a white-ass cast as it is. You can’t eliminate the only Black girl.” I’m still salty that not one single Latina was chosen for this season.

“So, Maya stays.” Adam nods, tapping his finger over her name already written on the board.

“It’s Isla or Summer.” Anya pins us with a look that ends on me. “A coin toss.”

I think back on my interactions with Sebastian, but he said nothing about any of them. It’s still too early in the game.

“Can we wait for him to decide?” I finally say. “We narrow down to two, anyway.”

Anya watches me for a second too long, but she nods. “Sosa is right. We nudge those connections on the board but leave Summer and Isla to be. Look at us, leaving it all to fate and shit.” She laughs and the rest of the crew follows suit.

Adam seems to be satisfied, and we are allowed to finally leave. My back is sore where the bra straps dig into my skin, my face feels oily and disgusting and all I can think about is a shower and at least four hours of uninterrupted sleep.

I’m going down the stairs as quickly as I can when Anya calls my name. I squeeze my eyes shut, but I wait for her at the bottom.

I did nothing wrong; I know that. I’m feeling weird, sure, but that’s not a reason to fire someone. I’m probably too tired and too emotional for whatever reason. Soon, I’ll be back in the game.

Anya nods toward the back door, glancing around so we aren’t overheard. While this side of the mansion works for us as an office, we can’t forget the rest is where the girls live and are being filmed still.

We slip to the backyard, but Anya doesn’t stop. We walk further away from the porch, past the jacuzzi, and toward the mini golf pitch. When we finally stop, she crosses her arms over her chest, and I almost feel naked with the look she gives me.

“Never saw you so quiet during a meeting.”

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