The Bachelor, David Dower [uplifting books for women .txt] 📗

the door, opened it, and walked towards Zach’s room.

For a long moment, she just stood there, arguing with herself. Taking up her courage, she held up her hand in a fist to knock. She stopped, changed her mind and took the knob. With the last remaining courage, she turned it and swung the door open.

And wished she didn’t.

There, lying on the bed, was Hanna, her hair rumpled, dressed in…well, nothing but the white sheet of cloth around her.

And there, standing by the bed was Zach, his shirt half open, his face shocked.

“Jules!” he cried out.

Julianne held up her hand, “Save it, Zach.” And then she turned away to walk back to her room with a surprisingly big amount of tears pooling in her eyes. Chapter 14

Zach was in panic now. He honestly didn’t know how Hanna entered his room before he did.

“Get out,” he told her through clenched teeth, his voice cold.

“Zach, come on…” Hanna purred, pushing the only covering she had aside.

In normal circumstances, he would have jumped on the bed, but he was just furious and in a great deal of panic to even consider some chemical response at seeing her gorgeous body naked on the bed. “Get out, Hanna,” he said stonily.

“Zach, I know you want this…”

“Fine, enjoy yourself,” he snapped and walked out the door. He almost ran to Julianne’s door and when he reached it, he knocked. “Jules.” No answer. “Jules.”

“Go away, Zach. I’m sleeping.”

“No, you’re not. Open the door and let me explain.” He knocked once again. “Jules.”

He stepped back in alarm as the door suddenly swung open. “What? You don’t have to explain anything,” Julianne’s voice was as blank as her face.

“I swear I didn’t know she was there, Jules.”

“Yeah, right. I don’t really care,” she started to close the door again and he stopped it by one hand.

“Jules, come on, you know I was with you not five minutes ago.”

“And when you didn’t get what you want, you jumped right to the next one. I get it. You don’t really need to explain, Zachary,” she pushed the door close as she said, “and forget about that talk tomorrow.”

“Jules!” he cried out as the door finally shut at his face.

“Zach, what are you doing?” Hanna was standing beside him now fully dressed. She eyed him suspiciously then looked at Julianne’s door. “Was it Julianne who came in earlier?”

“What?”

“Was it Julianne? Why are you outside her door?” her eyes were getting really angry now.

“No, it was not Julianne. Go back to your room,” he started walking around her.

“I’m sure I heard you say her name earlier in the room…”

“You are drunk. You were imagining things. No one came in.”

She suddenly appeared lost. “No one?”

“Yes, so go back. And Hanna, don’t do that again,” he warned.

Her face colored and she nodded.

Zach couldn’t let her or the other girls know about his interest towards Julianne. It would make things difficult for her. But he also had to explain himself.

He slammed his door closed and groaned in frustration.

How could things turn out this way?

 *****

Zach was sulking the next day. Julianne wasn’t even looking at him and she was avoiding everyone that even the camera men noticed and were wise to avoid her.

And every time Zach saw Hanna, he wanted to strangle her. He wanted to drag her towards Jules and order her to tell her nothing happened. He couldn’t do that though and he knew that. Hanna herself was avoiding him, her face flushing every time her eyes met his. At least she felt shame at what she did, he thought.

The only person who didn’t have any idea—apart from the crew and Liam who already went home after breakfast—was Tanya, and she was regarding them with a curious look.

“Did something happen that I don’t know?” he heard her ask Hanna.

He was sure Hanna would never tell a soul. She would never tell anyone that she was rejected the other night. “Nothing,” was her response.

As the girls went up to gather their things, Zach took the chance to talk to Julianne again.

“Before you say ‘get out’, I want you to know that nothing happened with Hanna last night,” Zach said in haste, barging in her room. Julianne looked up from her task of arranging her bag, her face unreadable. “Jules, you have to believe me. I didn’t know she was in my room!” he explained with his hands, wanting to shake her, to get her to reveal any reaction. Anger, frustration, bitterness, or if it was possible, relief, that she was feeling something. “Jules, I’m telling you the truth,” his voice was getting desperate.

If Liam was around and witness what was happening, he would be laughing his ass out by now.

“You don’t need to explain anything to me, Zach,” was Julianne’s deadpan response and she continued folding her clothes.

“I want you to know I did not plan anything like that. Well, I did, but I wanted it to be with you. She just…I don’t know how, but she just appeared on my bed like that.”

“And you just happen to be half naked as well. Right,” Julianne scoffed.

“I was getting ready to sleep and I didn’t see her, honest to God, I didn’t! When I turned on the lights, she was there and then you came in,” he explained hurriedly. “Jules, tell me you believe me.”

 *****

He looked at her inquiringly and his eyes were telling her that her answer was very crucial. She had a long time to think last night and mind you, she thought of every possible reason she could think of. And his excuse was one of the things she considered.

Julianne sighed and looked at him, “I believe you,” and then she held up a hand to stop him when he made a move towards her, “but I’ve had enough. Just…spare me.”

Zach stood frozen, his smile wavering. “What do you mean?”

“It means I don’t want anything to do with you, Zach,” she answered. “Look, I get it. This is your world,” she spread her hands in the air. “Things like last night happens every time for you like a...like an everyday birthday party. I can’t handle that. I’ll be leaving after the top four and I don’t think I want complications.”

“I don’t know what you mean…”

“What I mean is…just spare me with the little games. I don’t want what happened last night between us to happen again. It will only make things complicated, so don’t think you have something to answer for. Don’t think that you have a responsibility to explain what happens to you every time because I don’t want that. This is a show meant to entertain other people and I don’t think I can mix myself into it. I can’t separate my emotion from what is happening in this show anymore,” she finished.

A very long silence reigned between them that she could even hear the ticking of her watch. Zach’s face appeared to be confused for a moment and then he frowned. “Jules, are you telling me you like me?”

His statement made her jaw drop. “What? Where the hell did you get that?”

“You said you can’t separate your emotion from what is happening in this show anymore. It says you were really affected by what you thought was happening between me and Hanna last night, which means you have feelings for me.” That stupid grin of his broke out on his face again. “You like me.”

He totally nailed it. She couldn’t believe he would have caught that part of her speech, dissected it, and finally came up to the exact conclusion. “You’re overanalyzing things, Zachary,” she said.

“No, Jules, you like me!” he was almost jumping on his feet.

“Of course not.”

“Then stay. Stay until the end,” he said without hearing her.

“What do you mean?”

“Stay until the show is finished.”

She looked at him, “No, we had a deal, Zach. I’m only after top four. Which means you will let me go home when you choose the top three,” she reminded him. “So please, don’t make this any more complicated for me. I have more important things to think about than…” she trailed off.

“Than what?”

“Nothing,” she snapped and closed her bag. “Let’s go back to the island. I don’t like this place anymore,” she announced and walked to the door.

 *****

Jules cursed herself for not handling the situation earlier as she had planned. She could have convinced him they were not going to work but somehow, she said something wrong and now Zach was looking at her with amusement.

They just climbed on the boat and were on their way to the island. Hanna and Tanya were talking to themselves, whispering something that seemed so important. Whatever it was, Julianne got the feeling that it was not really good.

No one said a word the moment they got out of the boat and jumped back to sand. Hanna and Tanya, to Julianne’s great surprise were too eager to go back to the cabin that they did not even linger beside Zach which gave him the opportunity to talk to her again.

The cameras were still rolling and he was careful with his words when he said, “I’ll see you soon, Jules. We really need to talk.”

“Yeah,” she answered for the sake of the camera and walked off ahead of him.

When she entered the cabin, everyone were huddled together, their heads merged as Tanya chatted on. And then they stopped when they sensed her presence. Only Pauline jumped up and greeted her.

“Julianne! How was it?” she asked.

“It was…okay,” she shrugged. “What are they talking about now?” she asked when Pauline came near her.

Pauline looked back, turned to her, and pulled her towards the stairs by hand. They went to their room and her friend said, “They were talking about you,” as soon as the door closed.

“What about me?”

“Hanna said you planned to go into Zach’s room last night but then she was already there doing…you know,” she cringed.

Julianne gaped. What a bitch!

I bet she won’t like it when I tell everyone the truth…she thought.

But she wouldn’t do that. What for? All of them—including Pauline—were fighting for Zach’s attention and she was not willing to stoop down their level and join the game. She was here for a different reason. She would not do anything because of Zach.

She didn’t know if she could convince herself of it all the time though.

 *****

She couldn’t sleep that night. She never saw Zach after they arrived at the island, but it was him that was running around her mind all day. That passionate moment they shared last night was eating inside her and she couldn’t get the picture—and the feeling—out of her system. While the girls were having their late night dinner, she crept out the back door and went to her tree. Yes, it was her tree now.

Julianne couldn’t believe that a lot of things happened to her here that she never imagined. She had really thought that she could go back home that first Rose Ceremony. Who would have thought that Zach would be stupid and naïve to even pick her?

As soon as the lights came out inside the cabin, she got up and came in. It was nearly midnight, she noted, and she decided to sleep off whatever she was thinking. Pauline was already asleep and she crept slowly