Say hello to Ejiro David Odavwaro, AKA bachelor number one! Ejiro is twenty-five years old, works as an assistant chef at EWOMA’S, his uncle’s restaurant in Manchester, and is an aspiring artist. During his spare time, he likes to draw comics and hang out with his twin sister and best friend, Ajiri, and her girlfriend, Blessing.
Ejiro, a painful romantic at heart, has always wanted to find love.
Let’s hope he can do so with CUPID CALLING!
Click here to read the full transcript of Ejiro’s Highlight Reel
HIGHLIGHT REELS
OBIORA ANOZIE
Say hello to Obiora “Obi” James Anozie, AKA bachelor number seven! Obiora is twenty-six years old and works as a junior architect for ANOZIE & IKEM, his father’s architectural firm in Sheffield. During his spare time, he likes to work out at the gym, and watch TV shows with his two older brothers, extended family, and closest friends.
Obiora has lost love, AND had his heart broken. He hopes to find something real with CUPID CALLING.
We wish him the absolute best!
Click here to read the full transcript of Obiora’s Highlight Reel
FIVE
WELL, THAT HADN’T LASTED LONG. Ejiro’s confidence, that is.
Be yourself. But try not to be too much of an introvert. Initiate conversations whenever you can. Ask questions; people love talking about themselves! And for God’s sake, smile! You glower when you’re nervous and it makes you look like a serial killer.
Ejiro inwardly shook his head, his lips quirked as he remembered Ajiri’s words before he’d departed for the filming in Oxford, about a week ago. Thanks a lot for the pep talk, Ajiri, but it’s done f-all to help.
He was pretty sure he’d looked like a cow when he’d filmed what Ameri had called his “highlight reel”; a Q&A style video he’d filmed with the director herself acting as his interviewer. It would act as an introductory video of him for the future fans, and would be released about a month before the show itself started airing, to give fans who to root for. After filming that, it had been a waiting game until today. The first official day of filming.
He’d been the very first bachelor to arrive; Ameri hadn’t wanted the bachelors to meet until today, so their reactions to each other would be genuine. He’d counted his being the first as a good thing, because not only had he been able to make a hopefully good impression on the bachelorette, it had given him no choice but to greet the next bachelor to appear or risk coming off like an ill-mannered donkey.
And the bachelor after that, and the bachelor after that, and so on. But eventually, there’d been enough bachelors that they had begun to mingle with each other, and he’d sort of … faded into the background.
The bachelors were loud and boisterous and knew how to control a conversation. Each time Ejiro tried to interject with something—tried to make his presence known—he was overshadowed by someone else. Eventually, he stopped trying, bobbing at the edges of conversations and grimacing awkwardly.
Now, he lingered by the long table holding the drinks and snacks, and couldn’t, for the life of him, remember the names of any of the guys he’d greeted. He remembered the very first guy and that was only because his name was Adam—like Adam and Eve, Ejiro had told himself so he’d remember—and he had incredibly pale skin that clashed with his bright red hair and freckles.
The rest of them, though? Zip. A flush of shame and dejection warmed his cheeks. When he got as nervous as he was right now, he tended to operate on autopilot, so he wasn’t entirely surprised that his brain was so busy trying to keep him from tripping all over his own feet that it hadn’t retained a single lick of information from the entire past hour.
Had it even been an hour? It could’ve been ten minutes for all Ejiro knew, and his anxiety was what was making the seconds tick by slowly.
He had his first meeting with Sophia Bailey, the bachelorette, going for him—the way she’d looked at him from underneath her eyelashes when he’d first introduced himself, hugging her after her request, made his heart give a weird thump in remembrance. But it had been her awed and overjoyed reaction to the realistic painting he’d drawn of her that had sealed the deal. Ameri had shown him a surprise picture of her to end his highlight reel, wanting his unfiltered reaction for the clip. Sophia was so freaking gorgeous Ejiro hadn’t resisted the urge to immediately put her likeness on paper.
But what if the other bachelors had done something equally or even more extravagant to capture her attention and he was forgotten?
She was here right now, making her way around one of the pools behind the house where the bachelors had congregated, cameras and lights following her as she talked to each bachelor one on one. Her pale blue dress glittered, complementing her full figure, and bringing out the rich plum shades underneath her dark brown skin. Her thick black hair fell in silky waves to her shoulders.
Ejiro felt like he was going to be sick. He’d slowly been gravitating away from her approach as all the endorphins from earlier fled from his system, leaving him feeling cold and exposed.
God, Ajiri would be so disappointed in him.
“You going to drink that?”
Ejiro startled, turning to look at who’d spoken. He felt his stomach sink—even further than it had already sunk every time a bachelor had walked through the back doors.
The stranger was ridiculously handsome, because of course he was. He was Black, with warm, dark brown skin and a riot of curls falling over his forehead, shaved close on the sides. Stubble artfully framed his square jaw—Ejiro didn’t even know stubble could look artful—and when he smiled, a tiny dimple appeared on his right cheek.
Jesus Christ. If there was anything more attractive than two dimples, it was one single dimple. Ejiro felt the sudden urge to draw him, the fingers of his free hand twitching. He got the urge sometimes, when he met people whose features or mannerisms were so vibrant, he just needed to put them down on paper, to somehow immortalise their sheer vitality. The urge this time, however, made him feel slightly annoyed. He might as well eliminate himself right now.
