The Last Goodbye

Patrick stared at the girls as Adam did his little bit for the camera, telling the girls how the elimination process was going to go tonight. As he looked from one girl to the other, he had to resist the urge to laugh at their various reactions. One girl was twirling her hair around one of her fingers. Another was staring at her nails, her eyes going wide when she realized one was chipped. Another was staring off into space. And, then there was Raylene, who was staring at Adam, listening intently at what he was saying.

After his conversation with her today, he realized that Raylene really wasn’t as bad as he had first thought. He had thought that she hated him, but in reality she was just nervous around him. And, she was different from all the other girls, not obsessed with herself, which gave her even more bonus points. But, at this point, Patrick really couldn’t see himself dating her. She just wasn’t his type, not that he really had a type.

Suddenly, he heard someone announce that it was a commercial break, and he felt himself being moved by Delaney. “Okay, when we go back live, you’ll start off the elimination ceremony,” she told him, and Patrick nodded his head, already knowing what he needed to do. “You’ll announce the first ten girls’ names before we take another commercial break,” she spoke quickly, as they only had forty-five seconds before they went back on-air. “Understand?” she asked as she moved out of the camera’s way.

“I got it,” Patrick assured her, as he turned to look at the twenty girls in front of him. In just a few moments, that number would be cut down to fifteen, and he wasn’t exactly sure how the girls that were getting eliminated were going to handle it.

“We’re back here with Pat and the twenty girls,” Adam said as they got back from commercial break. “Okay, Pat, are you ready to break the news to these girls?” he asked, turning to look at Patrick, who stood next to him.

“Yes,” Patrick nodded, and Adam took a few steps backward as the girls gave Patrick their full attention. He grabbed one of the roses from next to him, ready to give the girls that were staying a flower. “First, I’d like to ask Raylene to stay,” he said, extending the rose out.

Raylene’s mouth dropped a little, surprised to hear her name called first. When Patrick had told her that he was planning on keeping her around for a while, she hadn’t believed him, but he had proven to be truthful. She stepped between Melody and Marissa who were standing in front of her, and she couldn’t help but notice some of the other girls’ shocked expressions that she had been chosen first.

“Of course,” she told Patrick with a smile as she accepted the rose, and he gave her a kiss on the cheek. She then proceeded to move behind him, waiting on him to call the other fourteen girls’ names.

“Next, I’d like to ask Rosie to stay,” he said, grabbing another rose as Rosie started jumping up and down. He gave the rose to her and went to kiss her on the cheek when she suddenly grabbed his face, kissing him fully on the lips.

“I’d love to stay,” she smiled at him, moving to stand next to Raylene.

“Leah, will you stay?” Patrick continued, and Leah quickly made her way up to him, grabbing the rose and nodding her head rapidly. He gave her a kiss on the cheek and she made her way over to Raylene and Rosie.

“Will you stay, Shawna?” Patrick asked, and the tall brunette bounded over to him, enveloping him in a hug.

“Hell yes, I’ll stay!” she exclaimed, as Patrick had to stand on his toes in order to reach her cheek to kiss, as she was nearly eight inches taller than him. He could hear Adam snicker in the background, and as Shawna made her way to the other girls that had already been chosen, Patrick turned around and glared at Adam, who instantly stopped laughing.

Patrick continued calling girl after girl until there were only six left: Johanna, Penny, Katrina, Raquelle, Crystal, and Brenda. “And now,” he said slowly as he picked up the last rose, having been told he needed to make this moment as suspenseful as possible. “I only have one rose left. I just want you all to know that this was an extremely hard decision for me,” Patrick lied. “I’ve only known you for a few days, and to already have to get rid of five of you was hard. But, I’d like to ask Penny to stay,” he said, and Penny smiled brightly, as the other five girls glared at her.

“Yes,” Penny smiled, as Patrick gave her a kiss on the cheek. He looked up to see two of the eliminated girls bawling, while the other three stared at him like they wanted to kill him.

“And, that’s all the time we have for tonight,” Adam spoke to the camera. “Tune in on Thursday to see Pat’s next date with the remaining fifteen women,” he said as the camera turned off, and Adam walked over to the two girls who were crying, putting an arm around each of them.

“Okay, girls, you can go change now, if you’d like,” Delaney told them. “I’ve got to steal Pat anyways so we can do his interview,” she added, seeing that the girls were reluctant to leave Patrick.

“You couldn’t have waited an hour to do this interview?” he questioned as Delaney dragged him away from the girls who were filing out of the room. Delaney looked at him curiously, wondering what he was talking about. “It’s ten. If you waited another hour, the girls would have had to go to their rooms anyway. You’re just taking away my time with the girls,” he explained.

“I’m sorry you’ll be missing one precious hour with your girls,” she said sarcastically. “But, I’d like to get out of here at a decent hour tonight, and if I would have done that, I probably wouldn’t have left until like 12:30 in the morning.”

“Really?” Patrick asked. “You’re planning on having this interview last an hour and a half?”

“I don’t know how long it’s going to take,” she admitted. “But, let’s get started, shall we?” she suggested, sitting down in the chair, while Patrick sat down across from her. Patrick nodded his head, waiting on her first question. “Okay, so you had a date with the girls this week on the beach at Lake Michigan. How was that?” she asked.

“It was pretty good,” Patrick said, remembering back to the date. “I wasn’t too sure about it at first. I was a little skeptical about the whole picnic on the beach thing. I’m just not that kind of guy,” he explained.

“What kind of guy are you?” Delaney asked, and she immediately regretted saying it.

“Getting a little deep here, aren’t you, Delaney?” he asked. “Are you asking for the interview or for your own personal interest?” he inquired, and he saw a blush run into her cheeks.

“I’m sorry,” she apologized. “That wasn’t an appropriate question for this interview,” she admitted. “Let’s continue.”

“I’ll gladly answer the question for you,” Patrick interrupted her.

“No,” Delaney shook her head. “Let’s continue this interview,” she said, and Patrick waited on the next question. “How did the date go? Did you learn anything new about the girls that you didn’t know before?”

“Yeah, I learned a lot about the girls,” Patrick admitted, continuing to answer the question.

An hour later, they were finally ending the interview, much to both Patrick and Delaney’s happiness. “Thanks for the time,” Delaney said professionally as the cameraman left the room. She stood up to leave when Patrick called out her name. “Yeah?” she asked, wondering what he wanted.

“Why don’t you stay here a little bit longer?” he asked.

“Why?” Delaney inquired.

“I want to get to know you better,” Patrick replied. Delaney looked at him skeptically, and he shook his head, laughing. “Calm down, I just want to learn a little bit more about you. I figure I see you every day, and you interview me on a consistent basis, the least you could do is let me learn a little bit about you. I mean, you know everything there is to know about me,” he pointed out.

“That’s because it’s common knowledge,” Delaney argued. “Anyone can put your name into Google and find your entire life’s history,” she told him.

“So, you’ve Googled me before?” Patrick asked with a laugh, and Delaney shut her eyes in embarrassment, confirming Patrick’s accusation. “Sit down,” he insisted. “I’m not going to bite you.”

“Fine,” Delaney sighed, sitting back down in the seat. “What do you want to know?”

“Let’s start from the beginning. Your birthday,” he stated.

Delaney looked at him curiously, and he nodded his head, waiting on her answer. “December 14th,” she answered.

“And, how old are you?” he asked.

“Twenty-six.”

“How many siblings do you have?”

“One.”

“Brother or sister?”

“Brother.”

“Are you going to give me anything besides short, simple answers?” Patrick questioned. “Because this is going to get boring awfully quickly. Here, let me give you an example of how you’re supposed to answer some of these questions. My name is Patrick Timothy Kane, and I was born November 19th, 1988. I’m originally from Buffalo. I have three sisters, Jessica, Erica, and Jacqueline. Growing up, I always wanted to be a car dealer, but I ended up playing hockey,” he told her, causing her to laugh at his small confession about his dream job as a child. “Now, it’s your turn.”

Delaney rolled her eyes before responding. “Fine. My name is Delaney Marie Palmer. I was born on December 14th, 1983 in Minneapolis, but I moved to Wisconsin when I was twelve because my father got transferred there. I have one older brother, Tyler, who’s married and lives in Arizona. Growing up, I wanted to be an astronaut, but I turned out to be a producer of a reality show,” she said. “Happy?” she questioned with a sarcastic smile.

“Very,” Patrick nodded. “You gave me even more information than I expected. You said you were born in Minneapolis and moved to Wisconsin, right?” he asked, and she nodded her head, wondering where he was going with it. “What’s your favorite hockey team?” he asked.

“NHL or college?” she asked.

“Both.”

“College has to be Wisconsin, without a doubt,” she said instantly. “Growing up, I was a Penguins fan,” she told him, and he looked at her curiously. “My dad was originally from Pittsburgh, so he passed on the Pens love to me,” she explained. “But now, I’d have to go with the Blackhawks. Since moving to Chicago, I’ve grown to love you guys.”

“God, you’re like Bur’s perfect girl. Wisconsin and the Blackhawks?” Patrick said with a laugh.

“Don’t even start talking him up,” Delaney warned him. “I’m not going to go out with him.”

“I wasn’t even going to suggest it,” he told her, putting his hands up in defense.

“Yeah, right,” Delaney scoffed, not believing a word her said.

“I wasn’t,” Patrick repeated. “I was actually thinking of a different Blackhawks player you’d be good for,” he muttered under his breath, realizing for the first time that he was slowly falling for Delaney himself. After having heard Adam go on and on about how great Delaney was, he couldn’t help but see how great she was himself.

“What was that?” Delaney asked, not having understood him.

“Nothing,” Patrick said, shaking his head. There was no way he could fall for Delaney. Not only was he on a reality show that she was producing to find a girl for himself, but Delaney was all Adam’s. He couldn’t be falling for the girl his friend had already claimed.