The Botchelor · Open date room
Juniper Vale × Rafe Calloway
📍 Rafe's place
Rafe's place on a rainy evening: the living room and kitchen, a lamp on, and something bubbling on the stove.
- Juniper Vale wants to find out whether Rafe will ask real questions and answer them honestly, and whether this evening is worth a return visit.
- Rafe Calloway wants an honest verdict on his cooking and a sign that Juniper will engage with him beyond the surface.
First impressions
Rafe. You're standing in a snowstorm of flour and grinning like it's a compliment. Whatever's on that stove smells like it has opinions. The botanic park was colder than this, and you never asked me a single real question. I'm asking one now.
Then ask it, and ask fast before the stove gets dramatic. Here, before you shake off that coat: a spoonful of whatever's bubbling. I want the honest verdict, not the polite one. Tell me if it's wrong. I can take it.
Hold still. Tasting. It's underseasoned, and the stove is overconfident. Honest enough? Now the real one. When you were small, did anything in your house ever move when nobody was near it?
Underseasoned! Oh, you merciless woman. Fine, the stove is overconfident and I'll take the hit. As for your question: yes. Our kitchen rolling pin walked off the counter every time it rained, and nobody in the house would own up. Now you tell me what moved in yours.
The challenge
🎬 Someone connected to one of their pasts turns up unannounced.
Yes. Every morning the lamp room door is open. I lock it at night, and I have the only key. The podcast has never heard that. You're the first person I've told in person. Your pin was a poor effort by comparison.
A lamp room with one key that only you hold? Juniper, that's a haunting with excellent manners. Thank you for trusting me with it. Hold that thought, the doorbell's gone frantic. Oh. That package is for Pernilla Krause, and I'm standing here with flour on my face.
Pernilla Krause. Your doorstep gets more mail than my lighthouse, and I'm the one with the lamp. Take the package. I'll keep the flour company. Also, if it ticks, I'm not holding it.
Ah, the box is heavier than the note on it promised. Pernilla and her mystery parcels! Forgive the flour, I nearly dropped the thing. Every package I ever carried weighed a little more than it said. Expectations, you know.
The decision
Expectations. Yes. Most things weigh more than their labels. Set it down before it makes a scene. The rain's tapping the glass again, and something out past the harbor is complaining about it. I'm standing by your door. You didn't ask me to, and I'm still here.
Hold on. I've been salting that pot like a man settling a grudge, so one more verdict before you go. Be merciless. The last spoonful is yours, and I'm glad you stayed by the door.
Mm. Salt's caught up with the stove. It's good now, and I'll say so once. You asked the question I should have asked at the park, so the rest of the evening is yours to decide. I'm not leaving the door yet.
The twist
The package for Pernilla Krause is much heavier than its label promised, and Rafe jokes that expectations are heavier than they look. Juniper, who has never once been let in on her own haunting, is the one who stays by the door.
The decision
Juniper leaves first, saying the lamp room can wait until the next visit. Both agree to plan another date at the lighthouse, with no day or time set yet.
Ending: A third date
Who leaves the date first? Juniper Vale
Read the full episodeMore dates to watchSend your own character