I look at him, our eyes lined up straight across, and I think, It’s over. I finally did it.
I did something gloriously stupid and joined this show, uprooted my life following the worst failure I could imagine. I met this man, and I just fucked him for fifteen seconds in this cheesy hotel room in a hot tub on a show that will air on national television, and he told me it was me.
What the fuck?
Also, why the fuck not?
“Send Andi home,” I whisper back, caught up in my victory and in my desperate vengeance all at once. “Tonight.”
He kisses the side of my neck in response.
Marcus’s Breakup with Andi [as aired]
[Andi and Marcus sit together in front of a draped wall at a Cuban bar in the River North neighborhood of Chicago. Andi is clearly confused as she’d already had her one-on-one time with Marcus that night and the other girls—much to their chagrin—had been told the night was over after Jac finally returned from her two-hour-long one-on-one time with Marcus.]
Marcus: How are you liking Chicago so far?
Andi: Oh, I love it. I’ve been dying to visit. Is it too much to say I could see myself moving here?
Marcus, with a smile: You think you could handle the winters?
Andi, taking his hand: With the right person.
Marcus, not betraying any hint of nerves: Andi, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking this week. Things are really starting to get serious.
[Andi nods. The shot zooms in on Marcus running his thumb across Andi’s knuckles, massaging her hand.]
Marcus: We’ve had fun together, but I’m just not so sure I see a future with everyone here. And I have to have that, you know? If I don’t see it . . . that’s what this journey is all about.
[Andi nods, clearly confused.]
Andi: I see that with you, Marcus. I wanted to wait, but with the time we’ve spent together today, I don’t think I can. [Andi takes a deep breath.] I love you, Marcus.
[Marcus’s hand stills.]
Marcus: I . . . I just think some relationships have progressed faster than others. We’re running out of time and I think—Andi, I’m sorry, but I don’t think I can get there with you. Do you understand?
[Andi jerks her hand back.]
Andi: But when we talked earlier, you said . . .
[Marcus heaves a heavy sigh].
Marcus: I’m sorry.
[Andi has started crying.]
Andi: I don’t understand. You said you really felt something. What changed? What did I do?
Marcus, still unmoved: I’ve got to follow my heart.
[Andi is openly sobbing now.]
Andi: Wh-what did I d-d-do?
Marcus: Can I walk you out?
13
Say Anything (Else)
Can you believe it about Andi?” Rikki asks me, her pretty face perched on the pillow on the bed across from mine. The remaining nine girls had just spent an hour by the hotel pool discussing Andi’s fate, Kendall staring daggers at me the whole time.
Everyone was pissed I had taken all the time with Marcus on the group date tonight, which obviously hadn’t been my plan. However, the shock of Andi’s surprise exit had driven the conversation when we got back, with the producers asking the remaining girls probing questions about what had happened between Marcus and Andi.
“But,” Elodie asked us, like she was genuinely confused, “hadn’t things seemed so solid between Andi and Marcus all day?”
Elodie was baiting me, and I was smart enough to know it. It wasn’t my fault Andi had talked shit and Marcus had gotten rid of her. Besides, I was still floating on the high of winning.
“It just goes to show you that we can never really know what’s going on in Marcus’s head,” Rikki said gamely.
“What do you think, Jac?” Elodie asked pointedly.
“Marcus is here to find a wife,” I answered, aware of stoking Kendall’s fire. “Andi wasn’t it. He thinks one of the rest of us is. Case closed.”
“What did you do with Marcus for all that time?” Kendall asked me then. “So much time that none of the rest of us got to see him at all.”
Normally, I would’ve bristled. I would’ve pointed out that Charlotte and Henry planned it, not me. I would’ve at least attempted to be the bigger person.
