Page 119 of My Irresistible Enemy

“I mean, it wasn’talla lie.” I gave a sheepish grin to the camera Em was operating.

“Except it kind of was,” Nolan said from where he sat next to me on the swing.

It was Monday morning, and instead of filming the final competition episode, the story producers were filming interview segments with the remaining bakers. Nolan and I had opted to do ours together, out on the Wisteria’s front porch.

“Who’s telling this story, me or you?” I asked, poking him in the side.

“I thought we both were,” he said. “You know, since we’re both on camera and everything.”

“Yeah, but you’re supposed to be the silent, glower-y one,” I said. “You’re going to confuse everyone at home if you change it up on them now.”

Nolan looked back at the camera. “You can see that the part where we bicker all the time because I’m right and he’s wrong wasn’t a lie, at least.”

“Thus proving my point! Except for the me being wrong part. That’s a blatant falsehood.”

I poked him again, and he grabbed my hand, then laced our fingers together and brought them to rest on his thigh.

“I’m keeping you in finger jail until I’m sure you can be trusted.”

“Ooh, kinky.”

“Ifwe could get back to the matter at hand,” Nora said, pulling our attention back to her. “You were saying, you came up with this idea to pretend you liked each other because…?”

“Because of me, really,” I said. “Nolan went along with it because he’s a nicer person than I deserve, but if people are going to get mad about it, they should blame me, not him.” I squeezed his hand. “Basically, I realized there was a good chance I was going to get sent home early, unless I could find a reason to convince people to keep me around.”

“You seemed to be doing well in the early rounds of voting,” Nora pointed out.

“Yeah, but I couldn’t bake. I still can’t. Not without lots of help, anyway. The writing was pretty much on the wall. But I thought, well, maybe if I could convince viewers that I was head-over-heels for Nolan, they’d feel bad enough to let me stay.”

“So you tricked them?” Nora arched an eyebrow.

I took a deep breath, then nodded. The whole point of these wrap-up interviews was to help explain what had happened this season—why there wouldn’t be a traditional finale, why Tanner had suddenly disappeared from the show, and why all the contestants were being given a small settlement from the network in exchange for agreeing not to sue, though I supposed we weren’t supposed to say that last part out loud.

The network didn’t want to get into too much detail about the events of the past few days, and for the time being, Nolan and I were willing to go along with that. But they did want a narrative from us, a way to tie our story up with a neat little bow. And there was no way to explain how we’d ended up together without explaining how it had all started.

“I did,” I said, exhaling. “I know it was wrong. I knew it was wrong at the time. And I regret lying to people. I really am sorry. The only explanation I can offer is that I was just really, really scared and desperate, and didn’t want to get sent home. I know that’s not an excuse. But I guess I just…didn’t want to be a failure at yet another thing, you know? Anyone who’s watched the show knows I suck at baking, but the fact of the matter is, I suck at a lot of things. And I don’t even mean that in an innuendo-y way. I just mean like, I’m not that smart, I don’t have a good head for numbers, I never went to college. My parents and I—” I broke off, swallowing around a lump that rose in my throat out of nowhere. “I guess I just wanted to pretend I was good at something, for once. Wanted to prove I wasn’t totally incompetent. But I’m sorry I tried to do that by lying.”

“Hey,” Nolan said, tugging my hand to get my attention.

I looked at him in confusion. He just smiled at me. A small, private smile that made me forget about the camera that was four feet from my face, made me forget about everything except for him, and me, andus.

“I love you,” he said, his voice so soft I wasn’t sure the microphones would pick it up. But it didn’t matter. He wasn’t saying it for them.

He brought his free hand to my cheek and kissed me on the forehead before turning back to the camera.

“Aiden’s being generous,” he said, “making it sound like this was all his idea, but it wasn’t. It was a two-part decision, and anyone who’s hurt or mad should blame me too.” He looked at Nora. “And while I wish we hadn’t lied about it, I don’t regret doing it. Because if we hadn’t pretended to like each other, I wouldn’t have met the love of my life. Wouldn’t have realized he was standing in front of me the whole time.”

“Making jokes about cream fillings,” I couldn’t help adding. “It does still baffle me that I didn’t win you over with that alone.”

“Well, those were just hypothetical cream fillings,” Nolan said. “You can’t expect anyone to be won over by theory on its own. But once I’d gotten some firsthand, practical experience filling you with—”

“AndI think we’re going to edit that bit out in post,” Nora interrupted before he could go any further. “This istechnicallystill a family-friendly show. Even with the debacle it turned into.” She glanced down at the notebook in her hand, checking something off a list, then looked back at Nolan. “So, Aiden’s explained why he created this whole charade. What made you willing to go along with it?”

“It’s simple.” Nolan shrugged. “I wanted to stay on the show.”

“And you didn’t think that would happen any other way? Your early bakes were pretty successful.”

“Yeah, but nobodylikedme. The judges said that time and time again—there was only so much intervention they could do if people weren’t going to vote for me.”

---