The Final Rose

Chapter Twenty-Two: Exit

"Wash your face," Lee told me. "The selection ceremony will be starting soon."

I didn't have the heart or the energy to tell her it was no use. Regardless of what I looked like, Jacob was going to send me home.

I pulled myself off the bathroom floor and trudged to the sink and vanity mirror. I didn't recognize the woman staring back at me. My eyes were bloodshot. The makeup Brittany had so meticulously applied streaked down my face. The careful curls that had framed my face were tussled and had lost their shape.

Lee stood behind me. Her serious visage appeared just above my right shoulder. "We can fix it," she promised, reading my silent lament.

She reached across my body to turn on the faucet. "Now wash," she repeated her instructions.

I leaned over the sink and scrubbed away the makeup, scrubbed away the tears. I scrubbed away the confusion from the past few days and the ugly person it had turned me into that night.

Lee handed me more toilet paper, and I patted my face dry.

"You've never needed makeup anyway," she gently approved.

I could only offer her a weak smile in response. I didn't trust myself to speak.

"Lemme see," she urged.

I turned to her scrutinizing stare and awaited her approval. She removed a few bobby pins from her own hair and bound back some of my more troublesome locks. With me in high heels, she had to stand on her tiptoes to reach my head. She steadied herself with a soft hand on my hip. I held my breath while she worked, affected by her proximity and mindful I'd recently vomited up a fifth of whiskey.

Lee took a step back to admire her handiwork. "Not bad," she decided.

I exhaled deeply. "I guess we should get back out there."

Her smile was wistful. "I suppose so."

"Thank you, Lee," I said quietly, suddenly awkward and shy around the woman who'd witnessed me at my lowest moment. I turned to leave the bathroom, but paused at her insistence.

"Noko, wait."

The use of the unsolicited nickname made me want to cry out.

"Yes?" My watery voice wavered on the syllable.

Lee reached into the cleavage of her deep, plunging gown. I cleared my throat and waited while she fished out a small foil-wrapped cylinder.

"Breath mints," she explained, offering me one.

I couldn't help laughing. "That's some trick."

Her smile grew. "One of my grandmother's tricks."

+ + +

We slipped back into the ballroom without anyone remarking on our prolonged absence. Everyone else was probably too concerned about Jacob's whereabouts and their own continued presence on the show to notice we'd been gone.

I grabbed myself a glass of white soda from the bar to settle my stomach just as the host made the announcement that it was time for the selection ceremony. We filed into yet another part of the resort, this time a large, open veranda that overlooked the ocean. Along the horizon, the sun was just beginning to set, filling the sky with a watercolor masterpiece of pinks, purples, and oranges.

I kicked off my high heels rather than risk falling up or down the risers. My dress wasn't long enough to cover up my feet, but I didn't care. I took my place in the middle of the bleachers and waited for the ten other women to fill in around me.