Chapter One
Samantha could only stare ahead at the closed curtain of this game show she was about to be a contestant on. What the hell had she gotten herself into?
She was in some stupid apron the show had made for her with "U.S. Cupcake Frosting Champion" emblazoned on it. And yes, she was the one who would be telling the truth. Samantha Sadok was in fact the actual U.S. Cupcake Frosting Champion. It was a title she was proud of, but it was also how she ended up in this mess.
Samantha could still remember standing in the kitchen of the bakery working on some dough for their limited edition honey wheat bread. It was their Bread of the Month and it was selling much better than Georgia thought it would. So there was Georgia, Cora, and Samantha trying to keep up with demand by pulling a late night to get ahead of sales.
They worked efficiently separating the dough as it came out of their industrial bread mixer. Pull it out, separate it, put it in the pan to prove overnight. Pull it out, separate it, pan to prove.
Keeping them company was that Chicago oldies station that Samantha hated now because that's how she ended up here. Georgia had found the cheap radio on the street on trash day and claimed it for the bakery to keep them company on late nights.
"Hey, so here's something cool," the DJ said as Samantha turned to check on the dough in the mixer. "The game show To Tell the Truth is coming to Chicago to look for contestants. So head to Steppenwolf Theatre on Halsted on Tuesday if you have a unique talent and check out the theater's website for details. Alright, back to some great oldies. How about this amazing song from Prince?"
Was Prince ancient enough to be on an oldies station? Whatever. Pull the dough out, separate... separa...
Samantha looked up, wondering why her friends weren't doing anything. They were staring at her instead.
"What?"
"You should do that." Georgia's face started to do that weird thing when she came up with a great idea for a recipe. "You should do that! Oh, Samantha. You need to try out!"
"Try out for what?"
"For what?" Cora replied. "The game show auditions thing at the Steppenwolf."
Samantha's eyes narrowed in confusion. "Why would I do that?"
"You're the U.S. Cupcake Frosting Champion!" Georgia declared. "Could you imagine the publicity you could get for us?"
"Uh, Georgia. Your brother is a hockey player for the Chicago Otters. And Cora, your boyfriend is the same player for the Chicago Otters. Riley Rookwood is our publicity."
Georgia waved a dismissive hand in the air. "He's just hockey publicity. But this could be a big deal! You have to try out."
"You have to," Cora repeated.
And then her friends bugged her and bugged her. It lasted for days. Finally, she just gave in and went to try out for a game show.
Then the show invited her to Los Angeles to be a contestant.
And that's how she ended up standing behind a curtain with two actresses who were going to pretend to be the U.S. Cupcake Frosting Champion. She was the only one who was going to tell the truth.
But there was also a secret that Samantha was hiding. Something she hoped wouldn't get brought up when the curtain opened. Not even her friends knew the truth about him. Her friends who right now were sitting in the audience waiting for her to go out. Georgia and Cora and Riley, one of the stars of the Chicago Otters hockey team.
And also on the other side of the curtain was the boy that Samantha had a crush on when she was in high school in freezing cold Minnesota more than a decade ago. He was now a hockey player for one of the Chicago Otters' biggest rivals. Her friends didn't even know she knew him much less had a crush on him and tutored him in math.
Samantha was about to come face to face with Fletcher Keris for the first time in at least ten years, and it was going to be on a nationally televised game show. Oh, and she was going out there as the U.S. Cupcake Frosting Champion.
This was such a bad idea.
Chapter Two
This was such a good idea.
OK, sure, Fletcher thought it was stupid when his agent pitched this plan to be part of the celebrity panel on a game show. After all, he wasn't some big-name football quarterback or something. He was just an average player at the highest professional level you could reach in hockey. But he was starting to pick up a following with his social media accounts. Fans loved his personality and his behind the scenes video clips about being a professional hockey player. His agent thought it would be a good idea to try and capitalize on that.
And now he was sitting on a celebrity panel trying to figure out which contestants were telling the truth.
There was the guy who taught people how to play air guitar professionally and the spy who cracked some code or something. He wasn't totally paying attention to that one, which is probably why he lost that round.
