Bellamy's Redemption

“I want you. To not have a pillow fight.”

“Then come home.”

“I will soon.”

“Right. I’m hanging up now.”

“Don’t go,” I said. But he was gone. He’d hung up on me. I guess you could say this was the turning point.

Chapter 26

“Oh my gosh. It was so hard climbing the Eiffel Tower in this robe. I think all of France saw my undies,” said Deb. She had just returned from her date with Bellamy. A sparkling purple comb was holding up one side of her hair. The rest of her hair was a snarled mass of windblown tangles. She was beaming and looked love-glazed.

“Did you wear some kind of a harness in case you fell?” asked Klassie. She was back, wearing a neck brace but otherwise unscathed.

“Oh sure. Yep. They put us in some harness thingies. It was like wearing a big diaper attached to a big wire. Not very romantic if you ask me. When we were at the top we yelled ‘Viva France!’ at the top of our lungs. It was so cool. The producers told us to do that, but they told us to make it look like it was a spontaneous decision. I thought that was pretty darn smart of them. Bellamy and I are getting really serious. I told him that I want to have five kids and he said he wants to have five kids too. I hope you guys don’t mind me gushing about him. I’m just so excited I can’t shut up.”

“Five kids?” asked Klassie.

“Or more,” said Deb. “I wouldn’t mind having twenty kids. I thought about it and if we had a couple sets of twins, it would be very doable.”

“How would having twins make it more doable? You’d still have twenty kids to take care of,” said Klassie.

“So I wouldn’t have to have babies for twenty years straight. If I had some twins, I could have babies for maybe just ten or fifteen years straight, and we’d be child-free and ready to travel before we were too old to enjoy it. This trip is making me realize I want to travel the world! With Bellamy! Gosh you guys, I hope all my talking about Bellamy and how much I love him and how I’m going to marry him isn’t making you guys mad at me. I’m just so crazy about him. Anyway, back to our family plans, I’ve got it all worked out. Except where we’re going to live. I want to be close to my family, but Bellamy wants to be close to his family too. I’m not sure how we’re going to handle that.”

“What did you do after you climbed the Eiffel Tower?” asked Alanna. To my shock, she’d sent the hockey player home and was holding out for Bellamy.

“We had a fancy French meal at a teensy little bistro table that was set up on a balcony overlooking the city. It was so pretty! There was a man playing a fancy instrument and then fireworks went off. Did you see them? They were for us.”

“I guess we missed it,” said Alanna.

“Oh. Too bad! They were pretty. Lots of hearts exploding out of other hearts. Those are my favorite. I’m starting to wonder how I’m going to handle it if I have to go home. Every day is so full of exciting stuff. I can’t imagine having to go back alone to Duluth without Bellamy. I would die of a broken heart. What do you guys think? Isn’t it exciting being on this show?”

I shrugged. I had been bleaching my teeth for forty-five minutes to avoid having to speak. The whitening strips were French and very, very minty. They made my gums burn. I was a little afraid to remove them for fear my teeth might have completely eroded. The upside was that I could blame my tears on them.

I couldn’t get my argument with Pete out of my mind. Somehow I’d been able to sneak back to the room undetected, but if I wasn’t careful, my emotions were going to give me away.

“No kidding,” said Klassie. “I woke up in Paris, fell off a balcony, got taken away in an ambulance…”

“A French, foreign ambulance,” Deb interjected.

“We didn’t think you’d be back,” Alanna added, accusingly.

“Yeah, okay,” said Klassie, “but I’m fine, so here I am. Anyhow, as I was saying, I’ve had a crazy day too. Not as crazy as Vanessa though, I guess.”

“Is she really gone?” asked Deb.

“Yes,” Alanna said smugly.

“Wow. That’s insane! And she’s engaged now? I can’t believe it. Did you see the guy?” asked Deb.

I nodded.

“He was so ordinary that it made me want to cry,” said Alanna.

“I wonder why just you three got put to the test,” said Deb. “They didn’t have any exes lined up for me or Klassie. Don’t you think that’s kind of strange?”

“I know,” said Alanna. “Why would they have ever questioned my loyalty towards Bellamy? Honestly, I feel like they were trying to set me up for failure. But I proved them wrong. So did you, Emma.”