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Roslyn

Mate Match Transcript: S24 E11 INTERVIEW 5

Contestant: Roslyn|Producer: Sella

S: So, Ros, tell us how you’re feeling about the Choosing ceremony coming up in just a couple of days.

R: I’m… well, I guess I’m feeling… I don’t know, to be honest.

S: How are you and Zan preparing for it?

R: We’re preparing for it by… I guess we’re both… I… I don’t…

S: It’s alright, take your time if you need to think about it.

R: Sorry. Can we move on to another question?

S: … Sure, Ros, anything you need.

The last few days on the Mate Match beach happen at warp-speed.

Once Zan and I had our big moment for the cameras during our date, we’re mostly off the hook from production.

Besides a few brief interludes—a quick cruise over the water, shots of us at breakfast and lounging around the beach in the afternoon—we’re left mostly to our own devices.

And I’m so damn grateful for that.

Five days after our date, four days after the disaster with Savvie in the village, we’ve made it all the way to the very last day of filming on the Mate Match beach.

It’s another beautiful day.

In fact, every day has been beautiful. Like adding insult to injury, we’ve been having the most fantastic, perfect weather to wrap up our time here.

It’s annoying as hell.

I’d rather it be storming.

I’d rather be holed up in bed in the bungalow, buried under the covers, hiding away and counting down the hours until I leave here.

But we’ve still got a performance to put on, and I still need to make good on my end of this bargain to get Zan back to his life.

No matter the fact that my heart is still broken. No matter that I’m still somewhere outside my body, watching everything play out like I’m one of those billions of viewers, just here for the spectacle of it all.

I can’t think about it too much or I’ll crack. I can’t let it all the way in.

Not now. Not yet.

“I’m going to take a quick dip,” Zan says from beside me.

We’re sprawled out on a couple of loungers. Shaded from the late afternoon sun by a wide umbrella, I glance over at him and nod, trying not to stare as he rises gracefully and heads toward the water.

God, it’s one more thing I can’t think about.

How beautiful he is, how much I’m going to miss this view.

But, as he strides through the sand toward the water, I’m powerless to look away. I’m powerless to keep my eyes from roving over every inch of muscle and every ripple of his armor, committing the sight to memory so I can keep it with me when I go.

Tomorrow.

We’re leaving tomorrow.

We just have to get through the Choosing, the final gauntlet Mate Match puts its contestants through.

We’ll stand up on that platform, and no matter which of us Geeno prompts to speak first, we’ve already decided what we’re going to say.

It’s been amazing, but it’s not going to work out. We care for each other, but we’re not leaving here together.

We’ll both be the bigger person. We’ll be respectful, calm, collected. We’ve got it all planned out. One last assignment on this successful mission.

And then we’ll both be off to the lives we’ve got waiting for us.

Zan, back to the Aux. Back to his mission to protect all those kids who’ve got no one to look out for them, to make sure they’ve got someone in their corner like he never had anyone in his.

And me. Back to Severin. Back to…

My mind blanks. A deep, endless void where my future should be.

Instead of letting it consume me, my eyes find Zan in the water. He’s in up to his waist, and I watch as he dives under the crest of a wave and swims a few meters before popping back up. He gives his damp hair a shake, sending droplets flying, and a restless urge moves through me.

I wonder what it feels like—that crisp, clear, endlessly blue water.

A prickle of warning runs over my back, my shoulder, but I shake it off.

Does it even matter?

Why should I give a single shit about my scars after everything that’s happened, after how fundamentally the fabric of my universe has changed these last few weeks?

In comparison, this is nothing.

Fuck it.

I want to feel the warmth of the Eritin sun on my skin and the cool wash of ocean water on more than just my toes.

I want to stop hiding.

Stripping my dress off to leave me in just my bathing suit, I walk to the water’s edge. Cameras circle and, like he’s got eyes in the back of his head, Zan turns to see me wading in toward him.

It only takes a few swift strides for him to reach me in the waist-deep water.

Zan catches me to him, turning me first in his arms so my back is pressed to his chest, then spinning us both so he gives the beach nothing but a view of his wide shoulders and back. The waves crest around us, breaking softly on the shore, and I close my eyes to savor the kiss of the afternoon sun.

“Ros,” he murmurs. “Is everything alright? Do you need me to—”

“Fine,” I whisper, turning my head to lay my cheek against his chest. “Everything is fine.”

After nuzzling there for a moment, I step out of his embrace and take his hand, pulling him in deeper. He follows, though the concern doesn’t leave his eyes.

I splash him.

Hard enough to send a cascade of droplets over his chest, his face, catching in the salt-curled strands of his black hair. It startles all that concern right out of him, narrows his eyes in playful pursuit. He lunges for me, catching me around the waist and tossing me over his shoulder, drawing a shriek of laughter from me when he dives forward and dunks us both.

I come up laughing and sputtering, shrieking again as we play like kids in the waves. Dunking and splashing, water flying around us. Trading kisses in the midst of it all just because we can.

And when we’re both panting, calling a truce to our little battle, Zan scoops me up again and swims us out into deeper water. He keeps me close—my legs around his waist, his strong arms banded around me—as he leans back in the water and tips his face to the sky. I drag my lips over the stretch of firm, muscular throat it exposes, less a kiss than an excuse to taste the warm salt of his skin.

We stay like that until the sun dips down behind the distant mountains, casting the beach in lengthening shadows. Until the afternoon deepens to evening and the very first stars shine faintly in the sky.

Only then do we leave the water, hand in hand, returning to the beach for our last night on Eritin II.