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“When he played it, we called him out. He got mad instead of even apologizing. I’ll be honest, that disrespect alone makes me not want to come back for this next time,” Riven said. “He literally told us he wished we’d confess and save us all time, then tried to backtrack and convince us it was all a way to simply discuss it and find out if it were true or not.”
“I’ve had that thought about leaving more than once,” I admitted. “The fact that they just let anyone approach the competitors between rounds is a problem in itself.”
“It doesn’t help that the person you’re talking about is literally a sponsor’s son. After you mentioned him last night, I saw his name on the sponsor’s board in the ballroom,” Riven said.
“I’ve wondered why he was here in the first place. When I told him I wanted to open a bar, he acted like it was a huge insult. He never even bothered to find out why I wanted to do it.”
“Why did you?” El asked, not missing my bitter comment.
“My dad,” I sighed. “My parents were really close. Mom got sick and when she died, dad wasn’t the same. He followed her. There’s merit to mates dying of broken hearts.”
“That’s so sad,” Riven said gently. “I’m sorry.”
“It was really hard. I was barely out of high school when it happened,” I said. Something else Mackenzie and Grace had helped me get through, which made me even worse for allowing the rift between us to form. When this was all over, I owed it to them to try again.
“Did your dad have plans to open a bar?” El prompted gently.
“He had this show he always watched. It was an antique show but related to old pubs and speakeasies. The man was a gentle rabbit and could never have handled the rough patrons we see all the time, but he wanted that hole in the wall bar that the old regulars gather round and swap stories over a bottle of whiskey. We had very different visions on what we wanted to do with the bar, but it became our thing. We’d spend our nights after mom fell asleep making plans. When he was gone, I decided that was what I really wanted to do, too, now. To honor his memory.”
“Plus you were too stubborn for a nine to five,” Zath said. It broke the heavy moment and we both laughed.
“You two are a mess,” Riven muttered. “But that’s definitely a reason I can respect. I’m sorry you lost them so young.”
“Me, too,” I said softly. “But he’d be proud of Soulful Brews.”
“Back to my original point, I still don’t understand why he hated the idea of my dream, yet found his way to this competition,” I said, needing a break from the past.
“He probably found you and set it up on purpose. The whole thing could easily be played off as innocent,” El said.
It was like the curtains were pulled away and I could see everything clearly now. The fact that they were sitting right in the front row of the audience, hell, the fact that they were hereat allwhen it didn’t make sense for them to be coming to something like this together, was a huge red flag.
Lance himself was shocked when we first ran into each other, but now that I was replaying it in my mind, Calvin wasn’t surprised in the least. He mentioned in the elevator he found me but held the information back from Lance. Did he decide now was the right time?
I let out a heavy sigh, rubbing at my temples. “I’m not even surprised. His dad was really great but he cares about his son. I never really found the answer as to why Lance was stupid enough to leave me at the altar, but I don’t want to know, either. That ship has sailed.”
“You can’t be stubborn forever. You’ll regret it if you don’t hear him out,” Zath said softly. I couldn’t even argue. It had been eating me up but there was a part of me that was also afraid to hear it. He might have just changed his mind and the idea of being rejected all over again had my stomach churning.
“Watch me,” I muttered, thankfully saved by the waitress as she came over, passing out our order so I could stuff my face and avoid the hard questions. It was going to be another long day of competitions and avoiding Lance, I’d need to save my energy.
ChapterEleven
Nyla
After Stanley’s meeting I was angry and done with the whole competition, but now that I stood in the ballroom with all the other teams around me, I wanted nothing more than to win.
Even if Zath and I didn’t win, then maybe Riven and El would kick her ass in our stead. At this point, it was no longer us or them, it was us against the bitch who was trying to get us kicked from the competition.
Honestly, I just wanted to know why.
The entire time Stanley was introducing the next round, which was a precision challenge, all I could do was glare at him. The fucking audacity of this board to attack us and single us out was insane, especially because I’d seen the other teams going to get drinks after the last round. Nothing we did outside of this room mattered. Hell, we could all practice together every night and it still wouldn’t matter. The entire encounter almost made me wonder what exactly she had on Stanley for him to act that way and risk his reputation.
“Alright, teams, you have exactly five minutes to pick your drinks, find your ingredients, prep, and then at the one minute mark is when you start to pour. Do not pour before then or you will be disqualified. There is a giant buzzer that will go off when it is time to continue,” he said.
“Okay, that gives us four minutes,” Zath said immediately. He was rubbing his hands together and turning around to face the shelf of ingredients. “Do you know where you want to go from here?”
I didn’t answer right away as I joined him. My gaze roamed over the ingredients. They wanted layers, which was the exact competition we started with during our practice, but I doubted that red, white, and blue was a good choice for this setting. It was just about as basic as they come.
Then I had an idea and knew Zath would love it.
