Page 33 of The Final Rose

“The Eligible.”

“Oh.”

When I look at her, she’s nibbling her lips. It’s cute. Callie usually looks capable and in control. It’s not always that I catch her looking vulnerable.

“Did you bring any games?” I ask at the same time she says, “Do you want to talk about the date?”

I make a disgruntled sound. “My date with Mackenzie?” She nods. “Have you watched?”

That’s another thing. Callie is never around during my dates. She vanishes into thin air. Funny thing for someone who only wants to talk about them.

She nods, confirming something I already knew. She watches all the dates. Taking notes or whatever, I bet.Perv.

“She’s…” I don’t have words to explain what Mackenzie is. Eventually, I find them. “She’s like many women I've met before.” Callie’s eyebrows rise and I elaborate. “She worries about looking posh.”

“That’s what she said to you? I’m Mackenzie and I worry about being posh?”

She laughs like it’s the most ridiculous thing she ever heard. Mackenzie might not have used those exact words, but she wasn’t far from it.

I let my head fall to the backrest and close my eyes. When I open them, Callie is watching me.

“I can tell she has all these rules of how to behave,” I elaborate. “She follows them and expects everyone to do so. All she talked about was unimportant things, and how to be perceived.”

Callie nods, “Yeah, I mean, I don’t know how you kept a straight face during that date,” she winces. “I stopped watching after the first ten minutes.”

“I hope she’s not edited too roughly.”

I can see by the grimace on Callie’s face that it is exactly what is going to happen. “No one put words inside her mouth. She said them. In a very dull, horrible monologue. But to be fair, you look like someone who’d like talking about those things.”

“About the best restaurants to go to? And the proper places to be seen?”

“She did not list the proper places to be seen!”

I shake my head. “No. But when she told me about a restaurant she liked, she added we can only order in because we can’t possibly be seen on that side of town.”

“Oh, I bet it’s just beside my apartment,” she plays.

“I’d imagine you live just above a Chinese restaurant? Like in the movies?”

She sighs with a dreamy look. “But the owners are simple and hardworking people who like me very much and always give me a doggie bag.”

“And even if you went to the posh part of town, you’d miss your true friends,” I finish with my hand resting on my chest.

She actually snorts and doesn’t apologize for it. “I’m sure that’s a rom-com movie.”

I agree. “Yes, she’s going to fall in love with the billionaire and show him money isn’t all.”

Callie groans and rolls her eyes dramatically. “That’s rich people talking. I’m telling you; money isn’t everything, but it would surely fix most of my problems.”

“You should ask for a raise. You work too much.” I tell her. I don’t even know how much she makes, but for what she works, I know it isn’t enough.

“We all work a lot. It’s television.” She pins me with a look. “I could afford a better place, but I’m saving.”

“Oh, tell me, Miss Sosa. What are your hopes and dreams?” I perch up my elbow over the armrest and tilt my head on top.

“You know, people look at you, handsome, rich, and with a great accent and wonder how the hell is this man still single? Well, Riggs, that’s why.”

I sober up, looking right into her big brown eyes. “No one gets to know me enough to see this part, Callie. They never let me be me enough to get to the–”

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