JULIA: [Laughing.] That’s incredible. Who’s your favorite former lead?
DREW: Call it recency bias if you will, but it’s gotta be Shailene. And I think Keonte would agree.
JULIA: Shailene is a great pick. Her season was so juicy. I’ll have to have Keonte on sometime.
DREW: He’d love that.
JULIA: So, I always like to get a man’s perspective on this stuff. What are you thinking so far of Marcus’s girls?
DREW: Seems like there’s a lot of good girls to pick from. I was really digging Aliana and Andi the accountant.
JULIA: Ohmygod, Aliana was so great! I loved that little joke she told about the pineapple, and it was really sweet to see her with her daughter.
DREW: She’s got a great story for sure.
JULIA: Right. So far, I’m very confused about Marcus’s taste in women. And I want to circle back to Marcus in general and the controversy surrounding him after we talk about the girls. It really puts an interesting spin on the season.
DREW: I have to say, I was so shocked at him sending Bonnie home. They set her up as someone with an interesting backstory who might be around all season.
JULIA: Totally agree! Maybe they’ll bring her back for 1 in the sun and let her get messy drunk in Mexico. She’s only right around the corner in Texas, so seems like a good fit.
DREW: She still might not get as messy drunk as Rikki. She spent at least half the night locked in the bathroom, didn’t she?
JULIA: Yeah. I couldn’t believe Marcus kept her! I thought she was toast after that. I actually ended up feeling a little warmer toward Jac than some of the people online did last night when she was trying to coax Rikki out of the bathroom. Seems like there might actually be some good there.
DREW: If it is, it’s buried very deep down. She was so nasty about some of the girls throughout the night, wasn’t she? And that comment about not thinking about them at all was brutal.
JULIA: Totally, it was a step too far. The season preview didn’t exactly show her in a positive light either.
JULIA: And Drew, I don’t know if you know this about me, but I go deep on the 1 research, and Jac is suspiciously silent on social media. Nothing about the show so far. It makes me think there’s some real shit to come for her.
DREW: It’s cool that she’s an author—had there ever been an actual published author on the show before?
JULIA: Not that I can remember.
DREW: Have you picked up any of her books?
JULIA: I have one in my Amazon cart right now. Just need to pull the trigger. I’m so curious as to what kind of writer she is based on her persona on the show.
DREW: What are they called again? Fair Play?
JULIA: And End of the Line. It looks like there was supposed to be a third that never came out.
DREW: Sounds kind of Hallmark-y. Not really Jac’s thing.
JULIA: The reviews made it seem a little darker than that. Like maybe there’s some edge. But still, romance, yeah.
DREW: Well, she has her eye on the ball when it comes to that, I guess. There’s definitely chemistry between her and Marcus.
JULIA: One hundred percent. Maybe the mean girl act was just some first week jitters and she’ll chill some as the season goes on? Though the previews didn’t exactly look like it would play out that way.
DREW: [Sighs.] I sure hope so. Not sure I can stomach another winner like season 26.
JULIA: I guess only time will tell. In the meantime, maybe we’ll get some insight into that calculating mind of hers from her oeuvre.
DREW: [Laughs.] You’ll have to let me know.
JULIA: In Jac’s defense, every season needs a good bitch.
DREW: That is so true. That’s why the last male 1 was so boring. The guys just can’t carry it themselves—no offense, Marcus.
3
Flavor of the Weak
Before the sun comes up, the elimination ceremony begins.
It’s long and we’re all wrung completely dry. I’m pretty sure I committed a cardinal sin earlier by joking to a drunk Rikki that I thought it was minorly embarrassing that Bonnie was bragging about being runner-up Miss Texas. I hope that part doesn’t air (it does, and I still kind of think I was right). In a moment of weakness, standing on the risers waiting for Marcus to begin calling girls’ names, I can’t stop my eyes from traveling over to where he—Henry—is standing, referring back and forth to a clipboard he has his assistant holding to his phone, where he is either texting or typing notes. Nothing about him looks as tired as I feel.
He glances over at me, feeling me watching him, and I quickly look away, back to where Marcus is standing with Brendan and Becca, who only seem to appear when a camera is nearby.
“Ladies,” Becca says, “Marcus will be inviting those of you he wants to spend more time with to move into the house. If you do not receive an invitation to next week, your journey ends here tonight.”
“It was wonderful to meet you all tonight,” Marcus says diplomatically. “I can’t thank you enough for traveling all this way to try and find love with me, and if I can’t offer you an invitation tonight, I hope we can still leave as friends.”
I try to keep my face neutral.
Marcus hands out invitations to twenty girls, eliminating five. I count and end up getting mine fifth: “Jac, I’d love for you to stay another week.” The invites are over the top, written in formal font that says “Marcus Bellamy invites you to move into the 1 mansion.” Then at the end of the ceremony, Marcus looks the unchosen few dead in the eye and says, “Insert name here, you are not the one.”
