I Said Yes: My Story of Heartbreak, Redemption, and True Love by Emily Maynard Johnson

twenty-four-year-old self had a wonderful group of friends, was going to church, and was overall enjoying life. Five-year-old Ricki was having the time of her life in kindergarten and being close once again to her grandparents.
    Granted, I was lonely. At times I’d feel the ache of not having a companion, a special someone to do life with my little girl and me. I tried not to think about it that much, but whenever I’d hear of someone I knew getting engaged or married, a dash of disappointment would sprinkle right on top of my heartfelt congratulations.
    Apparently, I was more dissatisfied with my single status than I thought. Nikki, who knew me inside and out, was brutally honest with me that day. “Emily, I love you. But I’m tired of hearing you complain about being single,” she admitted, though still being her sweet Southern self. “Look, I had to do something.” I didn’t get how throwing me to the wolves on national TV would be considered an appropriate “something.”
    My reservation aside, the whole thing was pretty funny. While the idea of being considered as a contestant on The Bachelor was ridiculous, what I thought was more ridiculous was actually getting picked out of thousands of girls. There was no way I’d get chosen. Nikki went on her way, and as I spent the next few days continuing to do typical, everyday mom stuff, like driving Ricki to and from school, working, doing laundry, and cleaning, I forgot all about her announcement.
    One day the phone rang. The man on the other line said he was a casting director for The Bachelor . Not taking his introduction seriously, I snickered and said, “I’m not interested, sir,” before he continued.
    I repeated my thanks but no thanks, but before I could hang up, the man said, “Just give me one more minute, Emily. Your friend Nikki, she wrote and told us all about you. Just give me a few more seconds so I can read to you what she had to say.” Once he mentioned Nikki, I finally realized this wasn’t a prank call. And I ended up staying on the line, but only because I was curious about what Nikki had written in her letter.
    As the casting director read a beautifully written letter, in it some of the nicest words that anyone had ever said about me, I started crying. Nikki’s kind thoughts just about blew me away. My emotions got the best of me and the few tears turned into an all-out I-can’t-get-a-word-out crying. I could just imagine this man beaming from ear to ear, thinking, Good grief, this woman’s in tears already? She’s a shoo-in! Though I appreciated Nikki’s complimentary thoughts and was shocked and very flattered that I was even being considered to be on The Bachelor , I still didn’t want to be on the show. And I told that to the casting director.
    But the guy kept calling—and e-mailing. And calling—and e-mailing. He finally convinced me to fly out to Los Angeles for a weekend just to learn more about the opportunity and to get a feel for the process. No strings. Nothing to lose. I was intrigued and agreed, making arrangements for my mom, who wasn’t jumping for joy at my decision, to fly into town so she could spend a few days with Ricki while I was gone.
    When I arrived at LAX less than two weeks after that first phone call, I was picked up by a town car and shuttled to a nondescript hotel. The whole scene was very hush-hush. No one had given me an itinerary or a plan. I didn’t have a clue what was going on. I was assigned a handler from the show whose job was to shuffle me back and forth to different conference rooms around the hotel that weekend. Outside of navigating my way through a maze of hallways escorted by a handler, I had to remain alone in my room. I couldn’t even walk down to the lobby to get a Diet Coke or a bag of chips.
    That afternoon, I had my first interview. Keep in mind I still wasn’t sold on the idea. My only intention up to this point was to gather information. That’s it. What I didn’t know,