Page 131 of Sugar & Shadows

“Too late.”

“I can’t be responsible for what I say when I’m pregnant and hungry.”

I beamed at her. “You think I’m pretty.”

“I also think you’re an emotionally volatile man-child with an uncontrolled jealous streak, but you don’t seem to be hearing that.”

Chapter 33

Sabrina

“Finally,” Harper moaned when I opened the door. The TAP team was already assembled in our meeting room; this place got more crowded by the day.

Post-it notes multiplied like bacteria across the walls, arranged between maps and photos, and social analytics were being projected onto the screen. I’d made the mistake of giving Harper my credit card, and she’d ordered cases of energy drinks and sour gummy worms. Though she’d tried to talk my mom into storing them in the break room, she’d lost that battle, so we had to weave around them when we entered and exited this glorified closet.

My mom had baked muffins, and every one of the ladies was snacking on one. The room was buzzing with excitement as our momentum continued to build and optimism seemed to be spreading through town.

“The comment section is in love with you idiots,” Harper said.

I shucked my coat and draped it over the back of my chair. “What are you talking about?”

“Look at these metrics.” She projected some kind of graph onto the screen.

“The pregnancy reveal boosted live stream engagement by 400 percent.” She bounced in her chair. “Women ages twenty-five to forty-four are deeply invested in your relationship. I’m thinking we should add speed dating to our next festival plan. Meet Your Maple Man.”

“Gabe and I don’t have a relationship,” I said.

My mother snorted.

I glared at her.

“The algo disagrees,” Harper said. “How do you feel about live streaming the birth?”

I turned my glare on her, a glare that had previously made an appeals court judge pee his pants. But she was unfazed, flipping through screenshots of memes and social media posts without an ounce of concern. Dammit. I’d trained her too well.

“This one has forty thousand shares,” she said as one image appeared. “This other one got reposted by VermontTok.”

I frowned. “VermontTok? Is that a thing?”

She rolled her eyes. “People,” she said, scanning the room, “do you know what this means?”

“That they both need a lot of therapy?” Nina deadpanned.

“We have narrative momentum.” She did a little shimmy in her seat.

Marigold put her muffin down. “She’s talking like a Bond villain again.”

“The audience split is fascinating.” Harper pointed at yet another chart that made no sense to me. “Women want emotional resolution.”

“A proposal,” Marigold interjected.

I covered my face with both hands.

“And the men are mostly concerned about Mayor Gabe’s safety.”

“Understandable,” Nina added.

Head dropped back, I groaned. “Can we please stop talking about this?”