The World's Most Eligible Bachelor

Week 3: Up All Night

Super long chapter - a lot happens in a day!

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Fortunately, we were able to sleep in the following morning since the cocktail party and its surprise guests kept us up quite late. We were told to order something from room service if we wanted breakfast, and that our day's activities would begin with a late lunch at 1:00 in yet another ballroom located in the hotel. The dress code was "dressy casual," but the Candle Ceremony would be later this evening, so that surely meant a change of clothing some time later in the day.

The show's producers were being pretty tight-lipped about the rest of the agenda for today, but we were all hoping our special guests would be arriving in time for lunch. I was beside myself with excitement to see my dad and Allegra. Ariana was expecting her parents, so I thought that would be awesome as well, to meet some of her family. It did make me curious, though, for the Candle Ceremony since two more women would be eliminated. I supposed it would be comforting to have family there to console them. I just hoped that I wouldn't be one of the women going home, but since Harry had been keeping me at arm's length, I didn't know for sure.

Ariana and I got ready for lunch excitedly. She was truly adorable and I could see why Harry liked her. It was strange, though, because even though I should have considered her my biggest competitor, I didn't. She was actually my closest friend on the show.

We had been told to wait in our rooms until either security or a producer came to escort us to lunch. That heightened the anticipation even more. It was already around 1:20 when Claudia knocked on our door and told us we could follow her to the ballroom where lunch - and hopefully family and friends - were awaiting us.

We arrived at a set of double doors where two doormen, who must have worked for the hotel because I'd never seen them before, opened them upon our arrival. I scanned the room seeing lots of new faces and some the women already reuniting with them. My heart raced as I searched, but my eyes hadn't wandered long when I spied my father with an enormous grin on his face. I ran straight into his arms and let him hug me for a long time. Then I met Allegra's giddy embrace.

The first words out of her mouth were, "Holy fucking shit! Harry Styles? I knew there was a reason I made you do this!"

I laughed at her unbridled excitement. "Yeah, I have to admit it turned out pretty well," I said with a telltale grin on my face. We sat down to wait for our lunch, and I briefly noticed that Harry wasn't in the room yet. "Wait, where's Jason?" I wondered.

"He couldn't make it. So your dad and I hopped a flight together. Convenient, right?" Allegra asked loudly.

"Of course," I said. "Someone to talk your ear off the whole way here, right Dad?"

"Shut up," Allegra said playfully.

"Well, it wasn't a boring flight," my dad pitched in, totally tongue in cheek.