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Kenna
Stu brings out the other two bachelors and they’re on their way. Both of them are cute, but neither do it for me. Next, Pryce walks around the partition and pretends to be surprised like Phoebe instructed. He takes my hands in his and kisses me on the cheek, sending a thrill down my spine. I know it’s fake, but even the chaste peck sends my heart racing.
Kenna, it’s not real, remember?
“What made you choose Number Three for your date?” Stu asks, knowing good and well why I chose Pryce.
Because I was supposed to. Oh, and the fact that I have this major crush on my boss.
I clear my throat before answering. “His answers to my questions sounded honest and… who doesn’t love sloths, right?” I turn to the audience, and their response is a mixture of laughs and groans.
Stu chuckles while Pryce shrugs, hamming it up for the camera. He puts an arm around my shoulders, and my knees get weak. While Stu rambles on about how the dates are randomly selected, his assistant wheels out the guitar case lying on a cart and opens it, revealing all the folded cards that hold date options.
Stu’s assistant waves an arm toward the guitar case. I hover my hand over the choices. Phoebe insisted on this being spontaneous, which means I have no idea what our date will be, and neither does Pryce. I dive my hand deep into the case, hoping I don’t choose a card that says axe throwing or golf and pull out a piece of paper from the very bottom. I hand it to the assistant. She does a wiggle dance, whipping the audience into a frenzy as she walks over to Stu to hand him the card.
“And your destination will be…” Stu unfolds the paper and adds, “Climb Nashville!”
It’s not necessarily a romantic date, but it’s not terrible. I quickly plaster on a smile as Pryce hugs me. Forget where we’re going on our date. Nothing is as exciting as being held by Pryce. As I’m actually relaxing enough to enjoy his arms around me, he pushes away to cheese for the camera.
“Climb Nashville is the premier indoor climbing facility in Music City,” Stu says. “They offer bouldering, lead, top rope, and so much more.”
I keep smiling. I have no idea what any of that is, but I pretend to enjoy the prospect of our date by bouncing up and down and clapping. “Yippee.”
Pryce chuckles as he shakes his head.
Stu removes the guitar case and says, “Let’s give our couple a round of applause. We can’t wait until tomorrow to see how their date pans out. Speaking of dates, after this commercial break, we will check in on Becca and Everett to see how they fared on their date at the Ryman.”
During the commercial break, we are escorted off the stage. We head down the hallway, and as soon as we are safely away from the cameras, I let out a massive sigh of relief. “I never want to do that again. Sloth? What was up with that?”
Pryce scrubs his face with his hands. “Number Two kept taking the good answers. For a minute, I thought you were going to pick him. And what was it about Number One?”
He does a full body shiver, then opens his office door. I collapse onto the couch then stare at the ceiling. “That is ridiculous.”
Phoebe storms into the room and slams the door. With clenched fists, she spits out, “Sloth? What were you thinking? Oh, and vanilla?”
Through gritted teeth, Pryce replies, “If you had given me the questions ahead of time, I wouldn’t have sounded like a doofus.”
She throws her hands in the air. “I have no idea if the viewing audience will believe she would pick you after those horrible replies.”
Pryce and I share a moment of mutual concern. I break the silence by asking, “What if we weren’t convincing? If not, this is going to implode and take us all down with it. Phoebe, what do we do at this point?”
She types out a message on her phone as she mumbles under her breath. “Here is what you are going to do. You will go on this date—”
“Which could not be any more horrible,” Pryce says. “I am terrified of heights.”
She stares him down, and he is smart enough to clamp his mouth shut. “You are going on this date, and no matter what happens, you will have a good time if I have to yank a knot in your hair!”
Pryce and I snap our mouths shut for fear of making her angrier. She rarely loses her cool, but when she does, it’s not a pretty sight.
Phoebe lets out a long, deliberate breath and adds, “You will enjoy this date, and if it doesn’t end with an offer for a second date and a kiss, I will come after you both.”
I blink like a doofus as my heart races. “What? I, we, uh… a kiss? I can’t fake that.”
“Well, you better figure out how to. I see the way you affectionately gaze at Pryce. It probably won’t be hard for you to make it look real. And if you have to, practice makes perfect.”
My mouth drops, and my eyes ping-pong around the room, doing my best not to catch Pryce’s expression. Maybe I should pinch myself to see if this is all a bad dream. My ears burn, and I’m too embarrassed to see how he’s reacting to her outburst.
“Phoebe, I’m sure Kenna and I will be just fine. She can help me get over my fear of heights, and maybe I’ll catch her when she pretends to fall. The camera will love it. And it won’t be too much of a burden to have to kiss her.” His voice is soft and low, and I dare a glance his way to catch him flick his eyes from mine to my lips then back to my eyes. Oh dear…
