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The tent’s been set up like an episode of a baking show—five cooking stations, each one the spitting image of the one before it.
“Are you ready to hear about tonight’s challenge?”
“Yeah,” Callie and Jeff reply before looking at each other with heart eyes.
Give me a break. They can’t be in love after one day. It’s impossible. Illogical.
I mean, the only reason they could be looking at each other like that is if they slept together.
I do a double take. Did they sleep together?
I study the two. They stand like personal space doesn’t exist and keep eyeing each other coyly.
Oh, they did it, all right—and from the looks they’re throwing each other, it must’ve been the best sex of their lives.
How . . . interesting.
I’m not jealous. I mean, I’m not. No way. I’m not here to be jealous. I’m here to lose and go home. End of story.
Mina’s voice snaps me back to attention. “Since you’re in the early stages of getting to know one another, we decided it would be fun if you had a teamwork challenge, and that challenge will be to bake couples’ cookies. I know you’re wondering what those are. Voilà!”
She pulls a cloth off of a table and there, piled onto a plate, are two cookies that look like they’ve been fused together—one half yellow and the other white.
“I know what you’re thinking,” she says. “This is a standard black-and-white cookie—but it’s not. One half of the cookie represents the sun, the other side, the moon, and they’re two different flavors. You’ll make the cookies and then cut and ice them together to form this. Remember, this challenge will showcase how you work together as a couple.”
Her gaze washes over us as she lets her words sink in. “Now, let’s talk about scoring. There will be times when the scoring will change from this format—but I’ll tell y’all that up front, before the challenge starts.”
She winks like she’s letting us in on a secret. “We do love our monkey wrenches, so be prepared for changes. But for today, the winning team will be awarded fifty points. The team in second place will earn forty, then thirty, and so on, until all the points are distributed. There’s also a bonus—the team who wins will also be rewarded with an afternoon at the county fair, where you might get the chance to be stuck on the Ferris wheel for a few minutes!”
She giggles as if that’s really going to happen.
No, thank you.
Everyone claps but me. When Mina’s sharp attention turns my way, I give a half-hearted applause.
“You will have two hours to bake your couples’ cookies. On your marks . . . get set . . . go!”
Rhett turns on the tablet at our station. It immediately flares to life, and there, front and center, is the cookie recipe.
“Two hours to make these, huh,” he says. “I’m gonna admit something to you right now, Cristina.”
A shiver shimmies down my spine at the sound of my name, once again, rumbling out of him. How does Rhett manage to make my name sound so sexy?
It’s irritating.
Not even a velvety voice will shake my resolve to lose. “What’s your confession?”
“I’ve never baked in my entire life.”
A laugh escapes me. “You’re kidding, right? You don’t know how to make a grilled cheese?”
“Oh, I know how to do that. I’ve just never done the whole cookies-muffin-cake thing.”
“Well, lucky for you, I’m an expert.”
“Is that right?”
A smile twitches his mouth, and all of a sudden, I’m whisked back in time to how open he was last night when he sleepwalked, then to this morning when he was horrified about what had happened. He was vulnerable, honest.
