It was a night of tough conversations on The Bachelorette.
A lack of one-on-one dates saw 29-year-old Michael Froot pull the plug on his relationship with Lesina Nakhid-Schuster, but the real drama centred around a man she’s spent plenty of time with.
An interaction between Mike Bullot and Lesina came to a dramatic peak with Mike questioning whether the bachelorette was on the show for the right reasons.
“You asked me today, like am I ready for a relationship, but are you?”
While Olympic sailor Mike and Lesina have shared an obvious attraction since Mike entered the house as an intruder four weeks ago, they’ve struggled to connect with each other on a deeper level.
They’ve each admitted they find the other guarded, with Mike admitting, “She is such a tough read at times. Hopefully she drops her guard a bit because you’ve got to give a little to get a little right?”
Mike’s arrival on The Bachelorette turned Lesina’s head.
Mike’s hesitance to open up could partly be because he doesn’t want to divulge too many details about his divorce to celebrity chef Chelsea Winter.
He did however share that he lost faith in marriage after their break-up, admitting, “if you think I’ve got walls now, I had big walls then.”
While he thinks he’s tried to share his insecurities in the hopes of forming a genuine connection with Lesina, Mike questioned whether that effort had been reciprocated.
“I do have feelings for her. Admitting that and sort of opening up that to someone and not getting a lot in return kind of makes me want to throw up my hands a little bit,” he said.
It’s an interesting accusation leveled by Mike, that ‘Question Assassin’ Lesina has spent the season questioning everyone else’s intentions without revealing anything substantial about herself.
“What are you trying to get out of this?” Mike asked.
After a long pause Lesina finally answered, “In my mind I want it to be easy, I know that’s unrealistic.”
For someone desperate for Lesina to tell him what she wants, it didn’t seem like this was the answer Mike wanted to hear.
“I’m not gonna lie about the fact that I do like someone to be super attentive. I do just want someone to be like ‘I really like you’ and then I can be like ‘great I like you too,'” Lesina admitted to the camera.
Mike’s reaction left Lesina with no confusion how he felt about such a prospect.
“I could’ve come here right, and I could’ve treated you like an absolute princess, and I could have said all the right things and answered all the questions in all the right ways, but that would have been for the f!@#ing TV right?” he explained.
“Maybe she’s looking for someone who’s absolutely doting over her. I don’t want a one-sided relationship,” the 35-year-old said.
“I think you probably need to figure out what you want, because you’ve definitely got some very good options out there, who’ll probably say the right things at the right time.”
One person who is confident he’s got Lesina all figured out is the man that’s always at the center of the drama, Aaron McNabb.
“I do not believe that Lesina is the kind of girl that wants to be chasing after a guy, I think she wants someone who is going to put in the effort to show her that he’s ready for her as well,” Aaron suggested.
Last night’s episode ended with Mike heading out for a one-on-one date with Lesina, with no clearer idea about where their relationship stands.
“I woke up this morning feeling pretty confused, very confused. I just could not make sense of a lot of what happened last night, which is incredibly frustrating. I’ve done everything I can to be open with her and I don’t know what she wants. None of that is obvious.
“I don’t know enough about this girl to really know whether she’s here for the right reasons. My gut says perhaps not.”
The Bachelorette New Zealand airs Monday – Tuesday at 7:30pm and Sunday 7pm on TVNZ 2
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