Page 13 of The Baking Games

“Hello, everyone. I am Sophia DuBois, from France. I am twenty-two years old, and I moved to the United States about six months ago.” Her accent is very thick, and I must listen closely to understand her. “I am a graduate of pastry chef school in Paris, and I will warn that I am quite competitive.”

“Yeah, that’s kind of why we’re all here,” Rhett interjects. Man, this guy doesn’t have an unexpressed thought, does he? It’s kind of entertaining.

Dan suddenly points at me. “And you are?”

Like he doesn’t know. TV is weird.

“I’m Savannah Greene. Thirty years old. I live in a suburb of Atlanta and work at a bakery.” Kind of a lie, but whatever. “I attended pastry chef school.” Wow, even my intro sounds dull.

Thankfully, Dan doesn’t pry further. He turns to another man.

“I’m Nate Winston. I’m forty-five, so y’all are all kids to me!” He laughs loudly at his own joke. No one else does. We all look like deer caught in headlights. “Anyway, I come from a whole family of bakers and self-taught chefs. My grandma just loved making cookies…”

“Great! Nice to meet you, Nate,” Dan says, cutting him off. “Sorry, but TV time moves very quickly.” Nate nods and then stares at his shoes for a while.

Dan continues pointing around the room, where we meet Hank Dalton, a fifty-two-year-old construction worker who got hurt and did a virtual pastry chef school. I don’t know how well he will do, but people can surprise you.

Then there’s Bianca Rossi, a twenty-seven-year-old goddess of a woman of Italian-American descent. She specializes in fusing the two cultures and graduated from some fancy culinary school in Italy.

There’s also Tanya Cohen, a thirty-four-year-old single mother who runs her own catering business and is self-taught. She’s a shy, mousy thing. I’m not sure a competition show is for her.

Finally, it all boils down to Rhett. Mr. Congeniality. This ought to be good.

“And you are?” Dan asks expectantly.

“Rhett Jennings.”

“Where are you from?”

“Originally? Boston.”

“I don’t hear an accent,” Dan quips.

Rhett stares at him. “I dropped it.”

“I don’t think you can drop an accent that easily,” Dan says, laughing toward the camera. I don’t know why he’s poking at Rhett. The guy is at least six foot two with shoulders like a pro football player and jaw muscles that twitch when he’s annoyed. I saw that a lot in classes with him. Rhett doesn’t like to lose. In fact, he rarely messed up. If he did, that jaw muscle twitched. I never saw him lose his cool, though.

“Well, I dropped it.”

“Okay then… So, what’s your background?”

“I attended pastry chef school, and then I went to work on yachts with celebrities.”

“Wait. You’re telling me you travel on yachts, making sweet treats for famous people?”

Rhett stares at him once again. Gosh, he could set you on fire with one look. “That’s what I said.”

How did he get on this show? He’s the grumpiest person I’ve ever seen. Part of me wants to hate him, and part of me wants to know what hurt him so bad that he became this way. Babies don’t come out ornery like this. Did he come out of his mother’s womb and just shoot his doctor the bird?

Sadie would say I’m too empathetic, and I take on other people’s junky emotions when I should just focus on myself. She’s probably right, but I will never stop doing it. It’s just who I am.

“That sounds like a very exotic life! Why did you decide to leave that to come on a competition show?”

Rhett sucks in a breath and blows it out slowly. “I like to win.”

Connor lets out a laugh, which causes Rhett to turn his attention in that direction. It’s like watching a nature show on TV. The lion has now noticed the small kitten wandering across the desert. Okay, maybe not a kitten, but I don’t know what would wander across the desert, so let me have my imagery.

Now, see, the lion could play with the kitten. Bat him around a bit. Make him think he might live to see the next day. That’s Rhett Jennings. He’ll play around with you. Make you think you might get the best of him, and then bam! He gobbles you up without missing a beat. Connor should tread lightly. Rhett is not to be played with, lest you want to be eaten by a lion.

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