Page 47 of The Final Rose

“I wanted to–”

Thank God Adam interrupts me, trying to keep us on the right track. “Sebastian and Mackenzie had a horrible date. There wasn’t a way to salvage it. She’s a difficult person to edit.”

Jeff snorts. “She’s a self-obsessed bitch.” He offers. “And Sebastian wasn’t hiding how much he dislikes her.”

“As much as I like to keep her for the drama…” Adam shakes his head. “After that date, it would hurt Sebastian’s image.”

“She made comments about politics.” Nessa wrinkles her nose.

My eyebrows rise. So it'sthatbad. I should have watched their date but I was too annoyed at Sebastian and I hate Mackenzie’s guts.

Nessa bobs her head. “Oh yeah, it’s bad. Everything she said was at the same time misinformed, confused, and just plain….” She swallows something that was on the tip of her tongue. It’s bad.”

“It was tough to watch.” Adam concedes. “But it was ok. Sebastian wanted her gone for weeks now and we were finally on the same page until…” he trails off and looks at the screen.

Until Sebastian kissed Isla. And eliminated her right after.

I swallow the lump in my throat, refusing to be anything but professional. This nonsense already hurt me enough. They never had to update me on events. I’m always there with them. But today, of all days, I decided to wake up at the crack of dawn and head with the set crew to the country with a flimsy excuse.

“So, then we have to change the fucking narrative, so Isla is the main girl,” Anya explains, like it’s needed. “Which is fine… But then he goes and…” She waves at nothing, trailing off.

“Did they have a good date before…” I clear my throat.

“It was cute.” Nessa offers. “She’s a nice girl, she might just be a little camera shy, so she didn’t exactly shine a--”

“She’s a season filler.” Anya interrupts. “Nice enough, but a complete season filler, and we all need to take footage out of our asses to make this make sense.”

“We have footage of them all.” Jeff starts. “We did it before and we’ll do it again. You just hate when people don’t behave like your puppets, Anya.”

“And what about the elimination, uh?” she challenges. “It’s a kiss and then he sends her home? How can we make this ok? People are going to hate him.”

“We don’t need to show the kiss.” Adam ponders. “If we limited the date to something with little spark. We don’t need to act like this is a big deal.”

“Remember season six when Mark and Caroline got together off camera, and we needed to explain why he was choosing her?” Jeff laughs. “Anya went crazy.”

“Well, shit for brains, this job isn’t just filming it. We need to make the public buy the story. We need them to like the outcome. And how can we do this when this shithead goes off the rails?”

“He’s not off the rails, Anya–” Adam shakes his head, but it’s Nessa who interrupts.

“I think he eliminated Isla because she asked.”

We all look at her like she grew a second head or started talking with an English accent. Twisting her mouth, Nessa goes to the screen, rewinding the raw footage I was just using for self-harm.

We are silent while watching the last words they share after the kiss. My hands close in a fist, my nails digging into my palm, but I have no reaction besides that.

“See?” Nessa says when the clip ends. “She wanted a kiss to see if they were compatible. And then she says she believes ina fierce kind of love.” Nessa goes to the clip again, stopping in Isla’s close-up after the kiss. “This is not the face of a woman who was just kissed by someone she cares about.”

“Oh,” Anya scoffs. “And now we are here to analyze their faces and–”

“What I am saying, Anya,” Nessa continues over gritted teeth. “Is that you’re so afraid of what the public will think about this elimination, but this makes Sebastian the ultimate good guy.”

There’s a pause, and then Adam is nodding. “The exit interview. We can get Isla to confirm this version of the story on camera, and we do the same when Sebastian arrives.”

Everyone agrees, and Anya looks straight at me. “Go back to London and get that exit interview. I’d let Kara deal with it, but if it’s this important, I needyouto talk to Isla.”

I open my mouth, not even sure why, but Anya is talking again. “If this is not the story? Make it be. Make her say she’s happy to be eliminated. Put Sebastian on a pedestal, you hear me?”

I’m only able to nod.

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