Four Keeps

Marcus straightens in his seat. “I’m an open book. What would you like to know?”

“When was the last time you were in a relationship?”

“My last relationship ended almost a year ago. It took a little while to get over it, but I’ve been dating for the past few months and just haven’t found anyone.” He pauses meaningfully. “Until now.”

It’s a perfect answer. He’s willing to commit, and he took that commitment seriously, but enough time has passed for him to move on.

“Was it a serious relationship? How long were you together?”

He nods. “We were together for almost two years. There was some talk of marriage, but we didn’t get that far.”

I want to ask him what happened, but I can see it wasn’t a pleasant breakup for him. I don’t want to take him to a painful place while we’re being filmed, even though Natalie would probably want me to probe.

“Anything you’d like to know about me?” I ask to change the subject.

He chuckles. “I’m going to sound like a stalker, but once I found out who was going to be on the show, I researched you online.”

I tilt my head and shrug, not surprised.

“The more I looked at your social sites, the more I felt like we were meant to be together. Once I met you, I knew it was destiny. We grew up far away from one another, but I believe fate brought us together.”

I have to glance away, because the look in Marcus’s eyes is so intense. I’ve never had someone say such nice things to me. Have I been missing out on this kind of treatment all along while I chased after bad boys?

Before I can respond, Natalie appears. “We’re good here. It’s time for the next event.”

It’s a frustratingly abrupt end to our conversation, but I suppose production has to stay on schedule. I’m a tiny bit glad for the interruption, because I’m not sure how to respond to Marcus, or if I even should.

14

A good match

Back on the main lawn, Marcus is instructed to line up with the other men. Blake moves to the center of the lineup to introduce the next event.

“As we’ve seen, Olivia has shared kisses with a few of the men already, but who might she say is the best kisser? And how would her feelings about a kiss change if she didn’t know who she was kissing?”

Oh boy. I’ve seen them do this competition before. As a viewer, it’s one of my favorite things, but as the blindfolded participant, I suddenly have butterflies in my tummy.

My next thought after the wave of nerves is that I’ll finally get to kiss Xavier. The problem is that I may not know it’s him I’m kissing, but I feel like I’ll be able to tell.

Right before I’m blindfolded, I take another look at the ten men in front of me, though it’s no use memorizing their order; I know the show will mix them up.

Blake takes my hand and leads me over to the men. “Ready to go, Olivia? You may know how this works. After the kiss, you’ll give it a number rating so we can find out whose kiss you liked best.”

Watching this on TV, I never quite realized how awkward it is to go blindly into a kiss. Not knowing which way to tilt my head, I bump noses with the first man before finding his lips. He doesn’t really kiss me back, and in fact he laughs quietly as soon as I pull away.

“How was that?” Blake asks from somewhere nearby.

“I’ll have to give it a six,” I say, “due to lack of participation.” It really wasn’t much of a kiss at all, but it feels mean to give too low a number.

“I’m sorry,” says a laughing voice. “I wasn’t ready.”

“No talking, guys.” The reminder comes from Natalie’s voice. I wish the men could talk, because that would really help clue me in.

The next kiss goes better. No fireworks, but it’s smooth and solid, and I give it an eight. If I had to guess, I’d say it was Berk.

Starting to get more comfortable, I reach out to find the next man’s face. My fingers encounter the stiff, trim hairs of a neatly groomed beard, which helps me narrow down the options of who I’m about to kiss. The facial hair feels thicker and longer than the trim hair on Xavier’s face looks. I bring my mouth to the mystery man’s, and as I explore, I become certain that this is Samuel.

I’ve watched his mouth when he talked and wondered what it would be like to kiss him. I can now confirm that it’s very, very good. Feeling emboldened by my blindfold, I let my hands slide down to his shoulders and across the muscles of his upper back.