Page 46 of The Baking Games

“The audience votes, Sunny.”

“And?”

He smiles slightly. “You really are naive, aren’t you?”

“I guess I am because I don’t know what you’re trying to say.”

“The object of this game is to get to the end, right?”

“Of course.”

“And how do we get to the end?”

“By winning the challenges. I want to take a nap. Can we wrap this up?”

“A nap? What are you? Three years old?”

“No, I’m thirty years old and chained to a big goober who won’t let me take a nap.”

“Listen, I think there’s a way to greatly improve our odds of getting to the end.”

“How?”

“Come on out of there, guys!” the producer yells again. “I heard you flush two minutes ago!”

“Coming!” I yell back.

“She’s going for a second seating!” Rhett yells back. “Extra-long intestines, it seems!”

I slap him. “Stop it!”

“Anyway, as I was saying, I think I have a plan to get us to the end so we can battle it out.”

“Oooh, so conniving. I love it. What’s the idea?”

“We pretend to be in love.”

My heart starts pounding against my chest bone again. I feel like it will pop out and smack Rhett right in his chiseled chest. “Excuse me, what?”

He holds up his free hand. “Look, I know it sounds crazy…”

“Crazy? Um, yeah. It does sound crazy that I would pretend to be in love with my rival. The man who picks on me and annoys me more than most other humans. Well, maybe except Big Thelma…” I say, my voice trailing off as I pit the two of them against each other in my mind.

“Who in the heck is Big Thelma?”

“Never mind. I’ll tell you later while you’re chained to me, and we have nothing else to talk about. Explain yourself, Rhett. This is a crazy, insane, idiotic idea. Are you well?” I reach up and put my hand on his forehead.

“Haha. Very funny. Do you want to win? And open your bakery? And help your sister?”

“Of course I do,” I say softly.

“Then think about it. If we pretend to be in love, or at least heading that way, viewers will eat that up. They’ll vote us through to keep watching.”

“Their votes only count for thirty percent, though.”

“That’s a lot, Sunny. At least it gives us an edge.”

I think for a moment. “No. I can’t. There’s no way anyone would believe us. We can’t stand each other.”

---