Will You Accept This Rose?

1. Challenge

The other women in the limousine with Lucy Chen were all stunning. They had introduced themselves, but Lucy was unable to really focus; the way her heart was racing was blurring her vision. While other women were chatting amongst themselves and fawning over the pictures of the man they were about to meet, Lucy looked out the window and counted her breaths in an attempt to calm down, but then THE mansion came into view.

The prolific Bachelor Mansion. The backdrop for the reality show: "The Bachelor".

It seemed surreal after watching every previous season of the show to look at the Bachelor Mansion in person as an actual contestant. She smoothed her shaky, sweaty hands down her sparkly gold dress as her heartbeat was such a loud thud, thud, thud in her ears that she did not hear that she was being spoken to until someone knocked their knee into hers. "What?" Lucy asked.

"You're turn," Angela Lopez, a Producer, said from her seat in the limo beside her. "Go out there and meet Tim."

"Oh," Lucy breathed, and she stepped out of the limo with her whole body trembling. It was really happening. She was really about to meet THE Bachelor named Timothy Bradford of the Bradford family, who are the founders and owners of a luxury car company. Perhaps it was optimistic, but she was looking for love. Not a billionaire. Not fame. The kind of love she had always yearned for and could never find. The kind of love the show promised to the winners. Of course, for there to be love, there had to be a start, and Lucy had rehearsed how she wanted their first meeting to go, but they locked eyes, and all she could manage to say was, "Hi."

"Hello," Tim replied plainly as he studied her face. He had watched her from the moment she emerged from the limo. She was beautiful, but so were the other twelve women he had met before her. Her nervousness was clear in how her eyes were wide, but it was obvious that she was trying to conceal it. "What's your name?" Tim asked to make conversation.

"I'm Lucy."

"Good to meet you. I'm Tim." He reached out to shake her hand, which was awkward, but he was struggling to talk to so many different women and could hardly keep most of their names straight. Lucy, however, was a name he was certain he would remember.

"Nice to meet you, too. I'm ready to share this experience with you." She realized she was still holding onto his hand, but she did not at all mind.

"Okay." He was struggling to make sense of the overwhelming onslaught of women approaching and introducing themselves to him, but Tim knew that he was intrigued by Lucy, and that was more than he could say for most of the women he had met that night. Could part of his intrigue have to do with her full figure filling out her gold gown? Yes, but when given the opportunity, he liked to appreciate the beauty of women starting with his eyes and if possible, other parts of his body later on.

"I'll see you inside," she said and stepped down the stone path into the Bachelor Mansion. Lucy immediately started internally kicking herself, because his facial expression did not show kindness, or interest, or any of the hallmarks usually found at the beginning of meeting someone special. His face was cold, his eyes were hard set, and there was not even a hint of a smile on his lips. There seemed to be a high chance that she was going to be eliminated before the end of the night.

As the host of "The Bachelor", John Nolan was responsible for ensuring that the female contestants were aware of the process of the reality show, so as they walked in, he had an entire speech prepared to brief them. When Lucy came up to him flashing a kind smile, he felt at ease as he started with his usual spiel, "Hello, and welcome to Bachelor Mansion. I hope you'll be staying with us for a while. Thirty of you will be welcomed here tonight with all of you trying to build a relationship with Tim and see if he's the love of your life. A rose ceremony will be held tonight, and then every week after that where Tim will ask the women he has the strongest connection with to stay. He will ask if you will accept a rose, which is a token of his growing affection for you, and by accepting, you agree to stay for another week and continue to explore your relationship with him. In the first seven weeks, there will be three dates per week: a group date and two one on ones. The group dates will be multiple women spending the day with Tim, and a one on one date is one woman alone with Tim for the day. Whether you go on a date with him by yourself or with a group, you will see Tim at the end of the week for a cocktail party before each rose ceremony when you can talk to him again. It's going to be an exciting ten weeks, and by the end of the journey, you and Tim could be engaged and in love."