“Good evening. Welcome to what I hope will be the first of many Heart Celebrations for you. I guess that everyone here has a pretty good idea of how this works.” Some nervous laughter. “If you hear your name, please step forward to accept a heart pin. Genesis has her First Sight Heart.” There was low murmuring and rumbling from some of the other competitors, who were apparently just as jealous as I was. “Which means she doesn’t have to worry tonight. If you don’t hear your name, you will be going home immediately.”
It would have been more fun if Harris would have just been honest with us. Like if he’d said, “Good evening, ladies. Dante will choose one lucky woman out of twenty-five, whom he will ultimately drop like a hotcake and embarrass in the national press once this is all over. Hope you enjoy your fifteen minutes of fame, because everyone will forget who you are the second you get sent home.”
Instead he finished up with a “Good luck to everyone, and here’s Dante.”
You’d think I’d be used to him, but I was struck all over again when he came out and smiled at us. “First, I would like to thank all of you for being here tonight. I know that many of you have sacrificed to do this, and I am so flattered and grateful. I’m glad to have had the chance to meet all of you, and it has been an amazing night. I’m sad that I have to let any of you go. I wish I could keep you all.”
A few anxious laughs, and lots of twitching and fidgeting. An obviously drunk girl behind me kept swaying back and forth, sighing and singing to herself softly. I hoped she could keep it together until the cameras turned off. For Taylor’s sake, if nothing else.
“But Harris tells me I can’t, and since I am hoping to find my future wife, this is a necessary evil.”
He picked up one of the heart pins and held it. A couple of months ago I’d sent him some full seasons of the show because he’d never seen it before. He’d obviously studied them well. He stood there, staring at us, increasing the suspense. Even my heart was pounding in anticipation, and I knew I was going home. I could only imagine how the other women felt.
“Emily.”
Emily stepped forward with a smug look on her face, brushing past the front row. She walked up to Dante.
“Emily, will you accept this piece of my heart?”
“I will,” she said and hugged him.
One down, only seventeen more to go.
A parade of Ashleys, Lisas, and Tiffanys went up to accept their pins and pieces of Dante’s heart. This represented my worst fears—Dante sharing himself with everyone here, unable to commit to just one woman—and it was all I could do to not cackle inappropriately.
Harris reemerged to remind us that Dante held the last pin in his hand, and that six women would be going home. I heard someone on my right start to whisper, “Please, please, please,” as we waited.
“Lemon.”
Was someone else here named Lemon?
I stayed in my spot. Sometimes they called the wrong names. He could have been looking at me and meant someone else. Total accident. I’d let him recover.
“Lemon?” he said again, looking right at me.
My mouth dropped open. We had a deal. I was supposed to be getting out of this madness.
“Me?” I said, again giving him the chance to fix his very obvious screwup.
He smiled, and I knew it was no mistake. “Yes, you.”
Red-hot anger boiled up inside me and I set my jaw, ready to let him have it. I was fixing to have a hissy fit with a tail on it. Then I saw Taylor out of the corner of my eye, her hands over her face. I reminded myself that this was live. Matthew was off somewhere watching. I couldn’t let her get fired. Sisters before killing misters who made promises and then broke them.
I stalked over to him, trying very hard not to glare. “Lemon, will you accept this piece of my heart?”
“Sure,” I said, smiling falsely and as sweetly as I could. He handed me the pin, and I didn’t hug him. I went back over to my spot. He looked a little uneasy at the expression on my face.
Like he knew I was planning on giving him a Krav Maga crotch kick later.
Harris wore an appropriately sorrowful expression. “Ladies, I am sorry for those who did not receive a piece of Dante’s heart. This means you will be going home tonight. Please take this opportunity to say good-bye.”