The Bachelor

Chapter 11

Julianne woke up with the worst headache she ever experienced. Everything was a blur, and she was even surprised when she learned that she was still in the same white bikini top from last night. Hell, she couldn’t even remember last night.

“Hey,” Pauline beamed at her through the mirror. Her friend was already up, ironing her blond tresses. “Hangover?”

She just groaned and closed her eyes once again. “What happened?” she asked.

“You were drunk I guess,” her friend answered. “But I don’t really know what happened to you. You were gone for some time but thank God you came back before I really got worried. I don’t want to go into the woods looking for you if you went missing as well.”

“I can’t remember what I did last night,” she murmured with a moan.

“Well, you came in really drunk, but you were smiling like crazy. I tucked you in and you went to sleep,” Pauline explained what she could.

“Thanks,” she muttered, frowning. But what happened in between? The last thing she remembered was the cool water from the beach and Zach and Pauline. After that was a blur. “My head is killing me,” she groaned.

“Want me to get you something?” Pauline asked with concern.

“I’ll be fine,” she answered in a whisper and fell back to deep slumber, her consciousness ebbing away to dreamland.

Zach was in a good mood that morning. He woke up early and excitedly, thinking about his plan, rerunning it around his head, and then grinning once more when he was sure it would work. He showered casually and enjoyed his breakfast alone. He wanted to execute his plan well, so he didn’t dare come out to join the ladies. He would have to wait and be patient if he wanted to have the old Julianne back.

He was grinning from ear to ear as he walked out of this cabin door, jumping down the steps with excitement, and then he froze, his feet rooted on the hot morning sand. His boyish grin completely disappeared into a dark shadowed frown as he tried to focus his eyes beyond, outside the girls’ cabin. Zach clenched his jaw, slowly moving towards the sight that caused his mood to turn a full 360. The anger he felt was out of bounds but he didn’t realize that just yet. His feet ground the sand with his purposeful stride.

Julianne spotted him first, her first instinct was to get up and rush inside the cabin, but second instinct came in just as instantly and she smiled and waved with her hand. She had a personality to keep up anyway.

Jack Carter paused from talking when he saw her waving, turned his head and sighed. “You’re liking him,” he muttered under his breath, only for her to hear.

“Of course not,” she said, her smile wavering when she noted Zach’s sour face. It couldn’t be the sun, she thought. “I’m doing this so he’ll go away,” she whispered.

Jack’s face lit up and he nodded, “The crew has been talking about the different attention he has been giving you and I think I understand why,” he looked at her before standing up.

“Yeah, right,” she groaned and followed, digging her hands inside her shorts pockets.

“I’ll see you around,” Jack nodded his head once and started walking, meeting Zach halfway. Julianne craned her head to the right to see what was going on when Jack stopped just a few feet away from Zach. They appeared to be discussing something, and then the two of them looked back at her, their expressions unreadable because of the sun. She saw Jack nod and then he was off once again to the direction of one camera man.