Oh God. He couldn’t look in Obiora’s direction.
“Sophia, are you okay?” Noah asked before the rest of them could.
“I’m fine, I’m fine.” Sophia tried to wave them off. Her voice was hoarse. She stood off to the side, away from the men, hugging her arms around her chest. “Ameri has something to say.”
It hit Ejiro suddenly, that if the therapy sessions had hit the men hard, how bad must it have been for Sophia, who’d had to go through it eight times?
“I owe you all an apology,” Ameri said before the men could press further. “This episode was supposed to be a bonding episode between you and the bachelorette. Sasha was meant to reveal what wasn’t working between y’all and Sophia, and give advice on how you could make it better. But instead … it turned into this. I’m very sorry.”
The men were silent for a moment.
“It’s all right.” Jin finally spoke. “I appreciate the apology. It would have been better that we were warned so we could mentally prepare, rather than it being a surprise, that’s all.”
“You’re absolutely right.” Ameri nodded. “Anyone else have anything to say?”
Ejiro couldn’t help but glance at Obiora. Obiora wasn’t looking at Ameri, or anyone else, his eyes instead focused on the wall. Ejiro bit his lip.
It seemed Jin had said everything.
“All right.” Ameri clapped her hands. “I’ll let y’all say goodnight to Sophia.”
“Goodnight hugs, then?” Noah asked, smiling a little.
“Yeah.”
“Sounds good.”
More sounds of agreement echoed around the room.
“Sophia?” Chris Wu prodded gently.
Sophia sniffed, then shrugged, smiling a little. “Yeah, sure, all right.”
The men grinned, walking up to her one by one to give her a hug. Noah and Chris Wu kissed her cheek, Jin kissed her forehead. The rest gave her different degrees of lingering hugs, gently rubbing her back.
By the time they were done, Sophia was teary-eyed again.
“Thank you,” she said, voice thick. “Goodnight.”
“Goodnight,” the men chorused.
The cameras followed her out of the house.
“So,” Dean began when they were alone, hands on his hips. “Anyone who wants to get completely smashed right now, say I.”
“I!” the guys yelled, making themselves laugh.
Ejiro’s eyes met Obiora’s. He blushed furiously, and looked away. Dean had already headed to the kitchen presumably to get the drinks, followed by Noah and Chris Wu. The rest of the men were heading to the veranda.
Clearing his throat, Ejiro headed in the latter direction, feeling his breath seize when Obiora moved at the exact same moment, ending up with them walking side by side.
Ejiro could feel his body heat like it was a furnace. His lips tingled with vivid memory. He couldn’t look at him.
When they got outside, Obiora headed to the other side of the wide table, but not before brushing the back of his hand against Ejiro’s in a not-so-accidental caress.
Ejiro bit back a sound of pure desire. And then he gritted his teeth and forced himself to think of Sophia, who was hoping for a stronger relationship with him—with all of the men.
He and Obiora couldn’t carry on like this behind her back; it wasn’t fair to lead her on. But the thought of making the decision to either tell Sophia what was going on, or pull out of the competition entirely, was completely terrifying.
