Page 56 of The Baking Games

"I guess my lungs aren’t as healthy as I thought they were. I've got a touch of asthma."

"Oh, I didn't know that," I say. "I'm sorry. Do you not want to do any more of this? It's totally fine if you can't do this."

"No, it's okay. I exercise regularly. Well, at least when I have time, but I don't do a lot of cardio, and I can certainly tell,” she says, holding a hand to her chest. "Maybe we could just take a little break?”

"Of course." I see her rubbing her arms, and I can visibly see the goosebumps. "Are you cold?" I ask her as we walk over to sit on the outdoor sofa in the corner of the courtyard.

It's a big sectional piece that fits many people, and most of the contestants sit out there all day chatting, some of them smoking.

"Just a bit. It's fine."

"No, it’s not,” I say, stopping. I turn my jacket inside out and slide one sleeve across the chain and onto her shoulders. "Here, let me help you," I say, pulling her arm into the other sleeve. She looks at me and smiles.

"Wow, that was quite a smooth move, Rhett Jennings," she says, laughing. “Have you been chained to women before?”

"Listen, I might be a jerk a lot of the time, but I'm never going to let a woman feel cold while I wear a jacket."

“Careful. You might just ruin my image of you as the evil villain.”

I stifle a smile. Why do I feel like this woman sees me? I can’t put my finger on it, but I feel more myself when she’s around.

We sit down on the sofa and lean back, our arms pulled apart by the chain. "I like it out here when it's a little bit darker. During the day, you've got the bright sunshine, and in the evening, they've got these lights on that are like being on a baseball diamond for a night game."

"Yeah, it is kind of nice out here without such bright lights, and you can see the stars," she says, looking up. Even though some light obscures our view, we can still see the black night sky overhead. It's a clear night, and there's a smattering of twinkling stars above us.

"Do you like to stargaze?" I ask.

"I don't ever really get much of a chance to do that. I go to work so early in the morning that I'm exhausted by early evening. So, there’s not much reason to go out and stare at the stars. Besides, I think that's kind of a thing couples do, and I didn't have the type of boyfriend who would've been interested in stargazing."

"Yeah, I can see that," I say, grunting. "Connor doesn't seem like the type to do anything overly romantic."

"Believe it or not, he was pretty romantic initially, but I think it was just a fake-out to get me to date him. I turned him down the first few times he asked me out, and he didn't like that at all."

I laugh. "I wish I could have been there for that. I would love to see you turn Connor down."

She giggles and then looks back up at the stars. "It really is beautiful tonight. I remember once in high school, I went out with this guy, and he wanted to impress me on our first date. So we went out to a fancy dinner, and then he took me out to the golf course in the neighborhood where he lived. I certainly had never even been on a golf course. I didn't grow up that way. My mom barely could afford a one-bedroom apartment in the seediest part of town. Anyway, he had a blanket, and we went out on the golf course, laid down, and looked up at the stars."

"And did you enjoy that?" I ask, smiling over at her.

"I did. He was the biggest nerd in our high school, and nobody else would go out with him, but his parents were rich, so he had everything at his disposal. I only went out with him one time. He talked the entire time about mathematical equations and explained every star in the sky and all of the constellations."

I chuckle. "That sounds super romantic."

"Yeah, it really wasn't," she says, looking over at me. "But I learned a lot about stars that night. Like, I know that one over there is the Big Dipper. I'm sure everybody knows that. And I think that up there isn't really a star. I think that's actually Jupiter or Saturn, or… maybe I don't remember as much as I thought I did."

I laugh out loud. Savannah is actually pretty funny if you give her a chance. "Yeah, I don't think you should teach astronomy classes anytime soon."

"Oh, yeah? Well, maybe you should teach me something about stars. What do you know?"

"They're twinkly," I say. Savannah laughs loudly.

"You know, this hasn't been so bad."

"What hasn't?" I ask.

"Being chained to you. Honestly, I thought it would be a nightmare of epic proportions."

"Yeah, I thought the same thing about you, but I think we've done very well in not murdering each other… yet."

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