The Last Goodbye

Adam walked into Patrick’s new house, finding Patrick in the kitchen, making himself lunch. “Look at that, ladies and gentlemen. He plays hockey and he can cook. No wonder these girls are lining up to be with you,” Adam joked, and Patrick turned around, rolling his eyes at his friend.

“What are you doing here?” Patrick asked him.

“I just got finished with my bit with the girls,” Adam answered, sticking his finger in the pasta sauce Patrick was making and licking his finger. “Not bad,” he commented.

“What were the girls like?” Patrick asked, shoving Adam away from the stove. He still had another hour or two until he would meet the girls himself.

“Hot,” Adam replied. “Really, really hot.”

“And?” Patrick asked, waiting on him to continue his description of the girls.

“And nothing. That’s it. They’re hot.”

“You’re hopeless,” Patrick rolled his eyes, turning his back on Adam and back around to the sauce, which he took off the stovetop.

“Let me just say you’re a lucky, lucky man with those women out there. Why any of them would want to be with you is beyond me, but whatever. I’ll be there to help them get over you when you crush their dreams of marrying you. But, I’m sure I can make them forget about you very quickly,” Adam smirked.

“What happened to Delaney?” Patrick asked, remembering Adam’s crush on the young producer.

“I’m waiting on her to come around and realize that she wants me,” Adam replied. “But, in the meantime, I’m not going to put my whole life on hold for her. So, these other girls will occupy my time in the meantime,” he shrugged.

“Yes, because I’m sure you sleeping with all the booted off contestants of the show is really going to make Delaney realize she wants you,” Patrick spoke sarcastically.

“I’m glad you see things my way,” Adam smiled, just as Delaney walked into the room. He stared at her for a few seconds, trying to figure out if she had just overheard his and Patrick’s brief conversation about her, but she appeared to have missed it. “What are you doing in here?” he asked her. “I thought you had to do something with the girls.”

“They’re filming the opening sequence right now. I was just coming to tell Pat that it’ll probably be another hour or so, depending on how many times the girls screw up,” she muttered.

“Good,” Patrick replied, sitting down at the kitchen with his bowl of pasta in front of him. “That gives me time to eat,” he replied, and Delaney looked over at him to see what he was eating. “You’re welcome to eat some, if you’d like,” he added, and Adam looked over at him.

“Why didn’t you offer me any?” Adam whined.

“Because you would have eaten it all,” Patrick answered.

“Adam, you can have my share,” Delaney told him. “I’ve got to get back to their filming,” she explained. “I’ll see you later, Adam. And, Pat, I’ll come get you when we’re ready for you,” she said, and Patrick nodded his head, as he stuffed his face full of pasta.

***
Patrick followed Delaney down to the living room to meet the girls for the first time. She motioned for him to sit in the chair, telling him that she was going to get the girls and quickly introduce them all before he filmed the one-on-one segments with them, showing him meeting them for the first time.

Patrick stared at the floor, waiting on the girls to come in. He heard the door open, and he saw Delaney, followed by twenty other girls, file into the room. He stood up as Delaney moved to stand next to him, and the girls stood in two lines. “Okay,” Delaney began. “This is Johanna, Katrina, Raquelle, Crystal, Kristalyn, Brenda, Penny, Shawna, Kori, and Robin,” she read off the list of names that was written on a piece of paper as she pointed to each of the girls. “And, then you have Felicia, Raylene, Cameron, Yvette, Marissa, Juliette, Bethann, Melody, and finally Leah,” she concluded.

Patrick looked from one girl to another, thinking that Adam had been right when he had said that the girls were hot. He smirked, thinking he could get used to this situation he was being placed in. “Okay, you ready to start filming?” Delaney asked, pulling Patrick out of his thoughts.

“Sure, let’s do this,” he said, and Delaney ordered all of the girls except for Johanna out of the living room.

Hours later, Patrick was exhausted as the final girl, Raylene, came into the room to film her piece for the show. Patrick yawned, and Raylene smiled at him. “Long day?” she asked him, and he looked up to see a petite, blonde woman standing in front of him. While she didn’t flaunt herself around like half of the other girls did, Patrick couldn’t deny that she was beyond good looking.

“Just a lot of filming,” Patrick replied, and Raylene nodded her head, not saying anything else. He couldn’t tell if she was nervous being around him or if she was just quiet by nature, but he had to admit that it was a nice change of pace after filming with Crystal who had talked nonstop from the time she had stepped in the room, telling Patrick all about her life, and how she loved hockey, even though she didn’t know the difference between a forward and a defenseman. “So, what do you do for a living?” Patrick asked, wanting to break the silence, as the crew still wasn’t ready to start filming just yet.

Raylene looked up at him, almost as if she was trying to figure out if he was talking to her or not. “I’m a paramedic,” she answered, and Patrick looked at her with surprise. He never would have taken her for a paramedic.

“Are you from around here?” Patrick asked.

“Yeah, I am,” Raylene nodded her head. “I’m from Oak Park,” she said, referring to a suburb to the west of Chicago.

“Oh, cool,” Patrick replied, as Delaney and the crew were finally ready for filming. “Let’s do this,” Patrick said, flashing Raylene a smile. She returned it, and they quickly filmed their bit, with Patrick letting out a sigh of relief as he realized Raylene wasn’t like some of the other girls that needed five takes to get it right. She was doing well as they rolled through the filming.

“That’s it,” Delaney announced. “You’re free to mingle with the girls until eleven, and then you have to do a small interview with me,” she told Patrick. “I’ll see you later,” she said turning on her heel and walking out of the room. Patrick turned around to say something to Raylene, but he was interrupted as the other nineteen girls rushed into the room, with a couple of them pushing Raylene out of the way so they could be closer to him.

“So, Patrick,” a bleach blonde girl, who Patrick believed had told him earlier that her name was Penny, began pulling on Patrick’s hand until he sat down on the couch next to her. Before he could even think, there was immediately a girl on the other side of him and four other girls surrounding him. “Where’s your favorite place to travel to?” she asked him.

“Um, I guess going back home to Buffalo,” he replied, trying to keep his focus on her face, even though it was extremely difficult with the tight t-shirt she was wearing. “What about you?” he asked her, deciding he’d try to keep the conversation alive.

“Anywhere you’re going,” she said with a wink. “You know, I’m a flight attendant. Have you ever wanted to be a part of the Mile High Club?” she asked.

Patrick choked a little bit, shocked at her forwardness. “With you?” he asked, turning his charm on. “Give me the time and place,” he added with a wink of his own before turning around towards the girl on the other side of him. “Leah, right?” he asked the brunette choreographer. He didn’t know why he had remembered her name in particular, but he was happy to have remembered at least one of their names.

“Yeah,” she smiled. “Do you like to dance?” she asked him.

“I’m not a good dancer,” Patrick told her.

“Well, maybe I can teach you,” she told him, leaning in closer to him. “Or, maybe I can give you a private show of your own,” she smirked.

Patrick smiled as he nodded his head. “I like the second option better,” he told her.

For the next hour, he chatted with each of the girls, most of them flirting heavily with him, not that he minded in the least bit. That was what he came on the show for, after all. He still had two girls to go that he needed to talk to, and he found the two of them in the corner talking to each other. He walked up to them, putting an arm around each of them. “Kristalyn and Raylene, just the girls I was looking for,” he said.

Kristalyn began giggling as she looked up at him. “You remembered my name?” she asked.

“Of course I did. Such a beautiful name for a beautiful girl,” he replied, grabbing her hand and kissing it. He could have sworn that he saw Raylene roll her eyes at his line out of the corner of his eye, but he ignored it as he continued to look at Kristalyn. “So, what were you two doing over here? I haven’t seen you all night.”

“You seemed pretty busy over there with the other girls,” Raylene told him, and he looked down into her brown eyes.

“I would have made time for you,” he replied, and he could see her blush ever so slightly. “Besides, I like the girls that don’t follow the crowd,” he added, looking between Raylene and Kristalyn. “So, I know that you’re a paramedic, Raylene, but I don’t know what you do, Kristalyn,” he said, making conversation with the two of them.

“I’m a student,” Kristalyn answered. “I go to Northwestern.”

“Oh, another local girl,” Patrick replied. “You’re from around here, too, right?” he asked Raylene.

“Yeah, Oak Park,” Raylene said.

“That’s right!” Patrick said, remembering that she had told him that earlier in the evening while they were waiting to film their part.

“Oh, really?” Kristalyn asked, turning around to look at Raylene, ignoring Patrick completely. “I grew up there!” she exclaimed, as the two girls began a conversation that didn’t include Patrick. Feeling unwanted, Patrick let the two girls chat as he left to immediately have Robin and Cameron at his sides. He wrapped his arms around the two of them, leading them back to the couch.

A little while later, Delaney came back into the room, announcing that the girls had to go to their wing of the house to their rooms. She quickly told them their rooming assignments, and the girls paired up with their roommate. Patrick could hear an echo of goodbyes as the girls began making their way up the stairs towards their room. He was a little surprised when a couple of the girls came over to him before they left, giving him a kiss, telling him not to forget them. “I could never forget you,” he promised them.

As soon as the girls were out of earshot, Delaney turned around towards Patrick. “Can you even tell me the names of the girls that just kissed you that you promised you could never forget?” she questioned, knowing that Patrick couldn’t.

“Sure…” he trailed off, and Delaney put her hands on her hips, waiting for him to continue. “Jamie and Robin.”

“First, of all, there’s not even a Jamie on this show!” she exclaimed. “And, that was not Robin. That was Katrina and Crystal,” she informed him.

“Close enough,” Patrick mumbled as Delaney shook her head at him.