Chapter 5

“Finally, my turn to have you alone,” Cynthia said with a bit of a growl in her voice.

Drake liked the zest that Cynthia had for everything she did, but he was pretty sure he was going to let her go. Of course, he wanted to give her a chance to talk so she didn’t feel like he had made his decision lightly. But Drake was on a roll, and he felt like he was getting closer and closer to his final woman.

“I’m glad we get a few minutes alone. It feels like the tension is getting pretty intense out there.”

“Yeah, I think poor Robert needs a raise. Every time one of the women makes a snarky comment, he’s coming to the rescue and trying to calm things down.”

“Robert’s a good man indeed.”

There was an awkward silence as Drake and Cynthia sat in the living room. Cynthia was quieter than usual, and Drake felt like he didn’t have much he wanted to say. He knew he had to give her some of his time, though, so he turned to the business world. Drake knew he could always talk about business.

“I bet your employees are eager to have you back. Do you think they managed alright without you?”

“Yeah, I’m sure everything went fine.”

“Do you have assistants or vice presidents that take over when you’re gone?”

“I’ve got department heads, and they manage very well. My partner is there, and he’s excellent at running things. I could take a month off if I wanted to.”

“Wow, I don’t think I could take a month off every year,” Drake said as he admired her business set-up. “I need to do a better job of preparing everyone to run things when I want time off. This week has shown me that for sure.”

Cynthia started to move closer to Drake, and he knew exactly what she was up to. Drake couldn’t let her take things there, though. The spark between them wasn’t nearly as strong as it was between him and a couple of the other women. Drake needed to let Cynthia go.

“I’ve really enjoyed getting to know you,” Cynthia said as she stood up, straddled Drake and sat back down.

“I’ve enjoyed getting to know you, too.”

“I’ll always remember our day together.”

Cynthia leaned in and kissed Drake. He couldn’t exactly pull away without being rude, but his heart wasn’t in it at all. Drake didn’t want to lead Cynthia on, and he finally pulled his lips away from hers. The look in her eyes said she knew exactly what was going on.

“Will you grab my things with me?” Cynthia said softly.

There were no tears in her eyes. She was much tougher than that. Cynthia didn’t need a man. Sure, she wanted one, but she wouldn’t lose sleep over losing Drake. It had been a wonderful experience, and she felt like her hard shell had cracked just a little bit. Perhaps when she finally met the man of her dreams, she wouldn’t be so tough around him and would be more willing to give in and show her softer side.

“I’ll always remember our day together. Getting to know you was very special to me.”

“Thanks, Drake. Whoever you choose is a really lucky girl. Who is it?”

Drake had to smile at the inquisitive nature of Cynthia. She was already wondering who had beaten her out in the contest for Drake. The problem was, even Drake didn’t know who he was going to choose.

“I’m narrowing it down in my mind. It’s difficult. I care about you all. There isn’t a right or wrong thing that anyone has done, I just want to find the woman that will fit best in with my life.”

“Best of luck to you, Drake. I think your wife is probably among these women, and I hope I get an invite to the wedding.”

“Well, I don’t know about a wedding. But I do think there’s a woman here for me.”

Drake grabbed Cynthia’s bags for her and walked with her back downstairs, where they were met by Scarlett. As he looked at her standing at the bottom of the stairs, his head flipped around like there was a frog jumping around in it.

Scarlett was wearing a beautiful white sundress with her hair left down. The brown curls wrapped around her ample breasts and Scarlett looked like she was right out of a magazine or something.

“Hey, Samantha is back, and we are going for a walk. Just didn’t want you to worry that I had taken off again.”

“Is everything alright?” Drake asked.

“Yep, just bored and thought it would be something to keep my mind busy.”

“Okay, I’ll come out and talk with Allison in a minute; could you let her know before you guys leave?”

“Sure.”

Scarlett made her way back to the backyard and Drake followed Cynthia out to the front of the house. Cynthia didn’t want a hug, or a kiss good-bye. She climbed into the car and waved at Drake as it quickly pulled away. There didn’t seem to be any love lost between Cynthia and Drake, she looked ready to move on without a worry in the world.

“See you later,” Scarlett said as she and Samantha walked right past Drake and out to the sidewalk in front of the house.

“Enjoy your walk,” Drake hollered after them.

He half expected some sort of snide comment from Samantha, but she didn’t even turn to look at him. There was some serious girl talk about to happen, and Drake suspected some of it was going to be about him. Then he chuckled to himself thinking maybe they were just going to make out.

After everything that had gone on throughout the week, Drake was surprised Allison hadn’t been more on his mind. She lived right there in Los Angeles, had a kick-ass body, and was sweet as could be to him. She worked with children who had disabilities, even! On paper, Allison was the perfect woman. Drake just wasn’t sure if she was the perfect woman for him.

His next pairing was going to be Allison against Scarlett. Things were starting to get real for him now. With only four women left in the house, Drake was making progress on his goal of picking one of the women. He knew that there would be such tremendous relief after he finally finished out the day. It was practically the main purpose he kept moving forward. The tension he was feeling was very uncomfortable, and he needed it to go away.

Allison, Lauren, and Victoria sat out by the pool and looked like they were in the midst of a very deep conversation. Instead of walking straight out to them, Drake watched them through the glass window. He felt proud that he had been given the chance to get to know the three women sitting out there. If he hadn’t come up with the strange idea of having seven women come stay at his home, he never would have met the women that he did.

It made him think about life and chances and how people actually connected with each other. What would have happened to him if he had never actually met these women? Would he have wondered around single for years and years to come?

Drake assumed he was going to find the woman he would stay with out of the group he had, but there was still the possibility that whomever Drake picked wouldn’t be the right match for him either. Then what would he do?

Drake had to laugh at the philosophical dilemma that was playing out in his mind. He had never worried so much about his love life in all of his adult years. Maybe it was the concentrated effort of having all the women in his house at once? Or perhaps Drake was just feeling like he was getting old and needed to start making some changes, but he did want a woman in his life and hoped that whomever he picked would be the one that matched with him in the long term.

It would be nice not to have to date any more. Sure, Drake knew that even once he found his match, he would still go out on dates with them. But he wouldn’t miss the dating scene at all. There was a constant feeling of what might be around the next corner. No one ever wanted to be happy with the person that was in front of them; instead, they pushed good people off to the side while they felt out the market to see who else might be single and looking.

Drake would be more than happy to be out of the dating scene for good. Well, that was assuming he ever actually picked his final date out of the women in the house. He took a deep breath and walked out to the patio so he could pull Allison aside and talk with her.

He really had no idea if she was going to be the one he picked or not. Their date had been a hilarious comedy of events with paparazzi, gay lovers, and a charity event. It wasn’t possible that Drake would soon forget that evening with Allison.

The day was certainly starting to wear on Drake, though; he caught himself yawning as he thought about the rest of the afternoon. Certainly, things would get better when he was able to finally make his decision, but Drake couldn’t see that far ahead. For the moment, he needed to just sit down with Allison and see if things were still clicking.