Free For the Right Reasons by Sean Lowe Page B

rest of my life, she followed up with, “What do you hope to get out of this experience?”
    Her questions were rapid-fire and ranged from my upbringing to my football career.
    After about thirty minutes, she closed the folder that had been in her lap, stood up, and said, “You did great! Now I want you to meet a couple of my friends.”
    She walked me into another room connected to the room where we’d just interviewed.
    Much to my surprise, about twenty people were sitting in chairs in a semicircle in front of a television. Immediately, I felt my face turn red. I was overwhelmed at the thought that they’d just seen everything.
    “Wow,” I managed to say. “I didn’t realize I had an audience.”
    They all looked at me with big smiles. Well, at least they seemed happy to see me.
    “Please,” Chloe said, motioning to a chair in front of the semicircle. “Have a seat.”
    If I thought the last interview was intense, this was an inquisition. They started throwing questions at me from all over the room.
    “What’s your biggest fear?”
    “What is your biggest strength?”
    “What do you hope to get out of life?”
    I answered all their questions with ease. They made me feel comfortable because they laughed at my jokes. That’s basically all it takes with me.
    “What sort of woman do you typically date?” they asked.
    “Well, I don’t discriminate,” I said, “if that’s what you mean. I’ve dated a woman who is Hispanic, someone who’s mixed-race, a girl from Jordan . . . I judge women based on their values, whether we get along, not their race. After all, opposites attract!”
    “And what kind of values would you say you have?”
    “I’m a man of faith,” I said. Then I added a bit more specificity. “I’m a Christian.”
    When I said the word Christian , I wondered if that would be a strike against me. However, it seemed as though everyone liked what they were hearing. I didn’t know what they were looking for. Most candidates think the show is looking for someone who has all the right answers. I later learned they were actually looking to see if I was personable and whether I would “show up” on television.
    I walked back to my hotel room feeling like I’d just nailed it. I stretched out on the bed, looked at the ceiling, and laughed . What a weird experience . Just then, I was yanked out of my reverie when my phone rang.
    Mom.
    “Hey, do you want to come over for dinner?” she asked.
    I was completely at a loss for words.
    “Everyone’s going to be here,” she said. “So I might need you to pick up some things on the way.”
    “I’m sorry,” I said. “I can’t.”
    “Okay, well, you can come over after church on Sunday if you’d like.”
    “Mom,” I said, realizing that the next words that came out of my mouth would hurt her. “I’m not in town. I’m in Los Angeles.”
    “What?” she said. “Since when? Why? Who are you with?”
    I decided I’d gotten far enough in the casting process that it wasn’t kind to keep her in the dark, so I was completely honest.
    “I’m at a casting call for The Bachelorette .”
    She paused for a couple of seconds, then laughed.
    “No, really,” she said. “What are you doing?”
    “Andrew and Shay submitted an application for me,” I said, believing it might be a good idea to lay a little blame on them. “I didn’t even know about it.”
    “Why would you want to go on a trashy television show like that?” she asked. Then she added, “Does Dad know?”
    Slowly, Mom began to understand the situation. For months, everyone in the family knew this was a possibility, and we’d kept it only from her. I could tell she was upset by the tone in her voice and the way she clipped her sentences.
    “I’m sorry, Mom,” I said, realizing how hurtful this must be for her. “I honestly didn’t think I’d get this far, and I didn’t want you to get upset for no reason.”
    She ended the conversation by faking her normal “mom voice”