Chapter 2 - Sleeping Beauty

Lynan soon found himself back at the bubbly idol’s side and gratefully let her lead their conversation.

He began to feel rather shabby the more he looked around; glittering evening dresses and flashy suits adorned everyone else.

The only person who wasn’t dressed so was a good looking man who wore an awesome traditional outfit that Lynan couldn’t remember the name of, but wow.

He was so screwed.

He didn’t stand a chance.

All conversations ceased abruptly, and he looked up to find Yael striding into the room behind another tall, light brown haired man. This one was dressed in a light blue fitting suit and walked with a calm, happy attitude very at odds with Yael’s sombre appearance.

Lynan recognized him as being a very popular TV show host.

“Greetings, ladies and gentlemen. You may remember me from our phone conversations but I am Kosh Solace. I am helping to run this show and will be providing commentary to yourselves and the viewers at home. As you may remember, there are no cell phones allowed at the mansion and little contact with the outside world during your stay.”

“But in an effort to make things more interactive, along with the live streams on our website, you will be receiving specially profiled phones to use during your stay. I will hand these out shortly, but with these, you will have access to the camera, for selfie purposes obviously, a schedule of events, a forum to talk with each other and make requests of the onsite staff. Most exciting of all is a special closed twitter account.”

“This means you can post tweets, have access to see other show participant’s tweets and reply, but you cannot view the outside world’s tweets. The viewers however can see all of these. This show is all about helping Yael here to find love but also to make it a fun, interesting interaction for everyone involved, including our wonderful viewers.”

“That’s all for now. I will make my rounds and hand out the phones over the evening. Otherwise, please take the opportunity to get to know Yael a little better.”

Kosh gave a small bow and left, leaving Yael to be suddenly swamped. Only a few besides Lynan remained sitting, one being the good looking man. He caught Lynan’s gaze and walked over to sit next to him.

“I see we are playing at the same strategy,” the man had a nice voice. He moved with a graceful elegance that Lynan found himself a little envious of.

“Ah, I wouldn’t say that,” Lynan looked over to the mob of people around Yael, the blonde haired manager seemed to be leading the fray. “I just prefer my limbs intact, thanks.”

“You don’t seem like all the others here,” the man said before offering a hand. “Liev Henrich. But please, call me Liev.”

“Lynan Katz,” he returned the handshake politely and sat back in the squishy couch.

They chatted quietly for a bit, Lynan got the feeling he was being weighed up and judged but Liev soon relaxed and that feeling vanished.

It was both a relief and mildly irritating that he had been dismissed once again. Not that he could blame him, to be honest.

The man excused himself after a while and Lynan found himself sitting between Amulet and a model called Stelle with yet another glass of champagne.

He tried to remember all the names but most of them blurred together. He felt sorry for Yael having to remember everyone. It’s not like the man could get away with forgetting anyone’s name.

Placing down his now empty glass on the small coffee table in front of him, Lynan settled back into a recently vacated cushy arm chair and let all the sounds wash over him.

It had been a long stressful day and he was done with all the drama.

Lynan didn’t even realize that he had fallen asleep until he was being gently shaken awake.

He groggily opened his eyes only to be immediately met with intense dark green eyes leaning in far too close. He let out the most unmanly squeak imaginable and flailed in surprise.

Yael pulled back looking somewhat amused.

“Are you okay?”

“Ah, yeah, just a little tired is all,” he sat up, rubbing his eyes and flushed as he realized that everyone was looking at them. “I had a long photo shoot this morning because one of Enamoured’s main photographers had a family emergency. It’s been a long day,” he said in defense.

Yael’s eyebrows rose in slight surprise and he straightened, holding out a hand. Lynan let himself be pulled to his feet.

“You work for Enamoured?”

They moved out from the crowd of people and onto a small private balcony, Lynan still feeling a little disorientated from sleep.

“Ah, no. I’m just a freelance photographer. So, I only work for that brand occasionally.”

“I see. You seem rather worn out, Amulet said you’d been asleep for a while. You’re the last person for me to speak with tonight. I almost didn’t want to wake you.”

“I’ve been up since five am,” Lynan admitted with an embarrassed shrug. “I’m a little tired after the photo shoot and then all the rush and the drama getting here. Must be worse for you though, having to try and remember and process things about twenty different people all in one night.”

Yael hummed and changed the subject, asking about him, his home life, his freelance photography work, and his hobbies.

Lynan got a few of his own questions in before they were interrupted by Kosh popping his head out and beckoning Yael away.

Apparently, it was about time for the final event of the evening and Lynan was glad.

Yawning, he made his way back into the building and squished himself between an amused looking Liev and a slightly worried Amulet.

He waved off a few concerned queries sheepishly and was surprised when Kosh waltzed back into the room and strode over to where they sat. He leaned down and handed over a flashy looking smart phone.

“And the last one is for sleeping beauty,” the man said with a smile.

Lynan blushed and accepted the phone with a mumbled thanks. He got a brief run through on how it all worked and picked a new passcode for it.

The last thing he needed was someone stealing his phone and pranking him.

He imagined the cat fights would begin sooner or later. Overall, the set up on the phones was simple and easy to use and he noticed a few selfies already on their tweet network. 

Along with one of him sound asleep with a ‘sleeping beauty’ tag.

Clearly, he had already made a name for himself and not the best one either.

Further inspection was interrupted by Kosh heading back to the front of the gathering and clapping his hands together for silence.

Yael appeared from the doorway with a single red rose in hand and a collective dreamy sigh took over the room.

Lynan barely refrained from rolling his eyes but he had to admit that Yael did look striking with his tailored suit and perfect rose held carefully between thick fingers.

“This is the first impression rose,” Kosh gestured to the rose with a flourish. “One of you tonight left such a strong impression that our ultimate bachelor would like to take you on the first solo date in two days’ time. There has been a great deal of thought put into this, many of you left very strong impressions tonight.”

Kosh’s eyes flicked across the room and Lynan smothered a snort. He supposed him nearly falling over was not as bad as bringing a chicken or a pony. The poor animals had been removed during the first hour by very resigned looking staffs.

“Yael, if you would?”

The man in question nodded and stepped forward.

“After much deliberation, I would like to award this rose to the one who impressed me with not only a good appearance but also with wit and intellect and a drive that may even match my own…”

The room fell dead silent, it felt as though every single person was holding their breath.

“Liev Henrich.”

The man smirked and gracefully glided across the room to accept the rose.

If looks could kill, Liev would be writhing on the ground in agony but he wore the glares of the others with a satisfied smile and a haughty toss of his hair. Liev stepped back to take his seat again after accepting the rose.

“No doubt you are all tired after such a big day.”

Lynan struggled not to grimace as a few snide glances were cast his way.

“Tomorrow will be a day for settling in; finding your way around the mansion, getting to know your housemates, and of course, Yael himself. If you would please follow our staff, they will see you settled for the night.”

Lynan headed off towards the male wing of the mansion and mentally groaned at the thought of ten people sharing the same sleeping area.

He was pretty sure that nerves would fray very quickly but no doubt that that’s what they were after. Besides, calm situations didn’t make for good reality TV after all.

All he could do was hope that this would all be worth it.