Will You Accept This Rose?

8. The Lie Detector

Lucy woke up with the biggest smile on her face, because she had fallen asleep in Tim's flannel that he had gifted to her the day before, so when she opened her eyes and whiffed his scent, she felt giddy. Not only could she smell him, but she would get to see him, too. Group dates were not ideal, still it was an opportunity to spend more time with him, and given the show's setup, her options were limited. She went to the kitchen for John's typical morning briefing where he announced the group date would occur in two hours and listed which contestants were asked to attend.

Despite waiting for her name to be called, John did not say it.

All of the women in the room slowly turned to Lucy, and she was absolutely surprised. Because she was not invited on the group date, she was going to be on the second one on one date of the week.

She was getting a one on one date with Tim. Finally. Though she wanted to start a little victory dance, Lucy decided to wait until the house was mostly empty to celebrate. Chaos befell the house as so many women started getting ready for the date, but for once she did not have be part of the madness and could sit in her bedroom where she could read quietly instead. The day had not been going to plan, but it was even better...until someone knocked on her door. "Come in."

"Hey, Lucy," Rachel said meekly and tip toed into the bedroom. She scanned the space and found her sitting cross legged on the top bunk.

"Rachel, hi," Lucy was surprised that she was the one to visit her.

"I wanted to talk to you about Tim."

"Sure. What about him?"

"How do you get him to open up?"

"I-I don't know. We just talk." Of course, there was also a physical aspect to their relationship, but the emotional connection lead to the intensity they experienced when they touched.

"You just talk? That's it? He clearly likes you. I saw how he kissed you at the rose ceremony, and now you're going on a one one date. You have a real connection, and I want that with him, too, but he doesn't tell me anything."

"Have you tried talking to him about his sister? From everything he's told me, most of his best childhood memories are with her, oh, and he loves talking about the Rams or baseball."

"Wow," she fidgeted with her hands. "You seem to know a lot about him. Some of the other girls have said they have trouble getting him to talk to them, too, but I guess you're special."

Tim had called her special before, so her heart thumped hearing the word again, but Lucy would not let her face reveal that. "Listen, Tim may be a little rough around the edges, but I can tell he cares about you, and I'm not one of the fake women around here that's just going to pretend to be happy about that. I like him, too, and it's hard to share him."

"It is hard to share him, but I really don't want us to become enemies over him. That feels..."

"Childish?" Lucy supplied.

"Exactly."

"Agreed," she smiled.

"Great, well, that was really all I wanted to say, and I'll leave you to read." Rachel waved and left the bedroom feeling lighter for having made an ally in the mansion.

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On group dates, the contestants travel to and from the date location without Tim, so Lucy did not at all expect to hear a flurry of chatty women rushing through the front door and see headlights shining out of her bedroom window at the back of the mansion. Still, she clamored out of bed and was grateful that all the other contestants would be too distracted filming their confessionals and getting ready for bed to notice her sneaking away...but her movements towards the fence were stopped by Noah.