There was a pause.
Hunter laughed awkwardly. “I’m sorry?”
“I said please pack your things and leave. You’re going home right now, bachelor number two. I don’t tolerate homophobes.”
“Are you kidding me?” Hunter said, his voice rising. “Just because I have a different opinion—”
“Homophobia is far from a difference in opinion,” Sophia interrupted sharply.
“I am not a homophobe,” he growled. “As long as y’all keep that shit away from me, I don’t care. I just personally believe—”
The audience booed loudly, cutting off his rant.
“Can someone please get him out of here?” Sophia said, sounding bored.
Security was already waiting at the entrance leading backstage. They came onto the platform, but Hunter shoved them off when they tried to escort him out, stomping out of the place by himself. He called Sophia a bitch as he did so, the audience gasping with shock as he did.
Ameri looked like she wanted to stop the filming and deal with him, but Sophia said smoothly, “I’m so sorry about that. Let’s get back to it. Bachelor number three?”
Liam and Ronald stated that they were definitely pro-LGBT, though after that surprising elimination, Obiora wouldn’t be surprised if either of them were lying.
“My twin is a lesbian,” Ejiro said when it was his turn, and Obiora’s eyes widened slightly when he heard the “twin” bit. “Her relationship with her girlfriend is the entire reason why I’m here—I want a love like theirs, and that’s why I auditioned for Cupid Calling. Or rather, why I let them trick me into auditioning for Cupid Calling,” he added dryly, to the sound of muted laughter. “So, yes, as bachelor number one so eloquently put it, I’m in favour of people being treated with basic human decency, no matter their sexual orientation or gender identity.”
“Lovely.”
The questions were lighter after that, gently erasing the tense atmosphere after Hunter’s abrupt elimination. When it was all over, Obiora wasn’t surprised when Sophia picked bachelor number five as her winner.
For a brief moment, Ejiro looked like a deer caught in headlights, then he quickly replaced the expression with a shy smile, growing shyer and more self-conscious when the audience’s applause rose as he walked over the partition to reveal himself to Sophia.
After Sophia’s excited squeals at the reveal, and Ameri’s summary of the events, the bachelors were led off the stage, Ejiro following close behind. He grinned when Liam and Ronald congratulated him, but the smile didn’t reach his eyes. In fact, he looked slightly dazed; confused.
Strangely, it reminded Obiora of the night Ejiro had come back from his first date with Sophia, when he’d walked into the main sitting room where some of the bachelors had been instructed to wait and they’d begun teasing him about the date.
He’d had that same deer-in-headlights look about him then, even as he’d smiled and blushed and waved off their teasing.
He wanted to ask if Ejiro was okay, but Ejiro was turning to look at him at that exact moment, smiling at him so brightly, so teasingly that all of Obiora’s thoughts were immediately obliterated.
“I guess the third time isn’t the charm, then?” He raised an eyebrow, a teasing grin on his lips.
Obiora laughed. “Fuck right off.”
Ejiro laughed too, and Obiora completely forgot about everything else.
Episode 3 – Blind Date with the Bachelorette
Episode Summary: Sophia goes on her dates with the winners of last week’s obstacle course, sharing a steamy kiss with Liam and Damien during their dates, a tender kiss with Ejiro after his, and a lingering hug with Chris Wu.
For this week’s group date, the contestants are taken on a Blind Date style Q & A with the bachelorette: in four groups of five, hidden from the bachelorette behind a partition and their voices rendered unrecognisable thanks to scrambled mics, the bachelorette has to pick her winners based on their answers to her questions alone.
Noah’s smooth, sexy, savvy and at times vulnerable responses makes Sophia swoon and wins him the Red Heart of the night, Ejiro’s shy responses endear him to Sophia, Dean nearly makes her fall off her seat laughing with his charm, and Chris Wu’s charisma practically leaps through the barrier.
Hunter is the first bachelor to be eliminated during a date for being a homophobe. Chris Payne, Muhammed, and Leo are also eliminated.
Click here to watch the full episode on Netflicks!
TWELVE
GRIEF WAS A FUNNY THING. Sometimes, to Obiora, it felt like nothing but a trickle, an awareness in the back of his mind that was easily acknowledged and then put aside. Other times, it felt like the tide on a full moon, powerful and violent, yanking him off his foundations and dragging him into its dark, desolate depths until he was left floundering and scrambling to find the surface.
