Page 54 of Baking Battles

SARA: Will you let me have Emi on Christmas Eve? I want to go home to my parents, and just sit and eat my own weight in cake and sweets and watch crap. I want Emi with me. Please.

MATTIAS: I don’t know what I am doing yet. Have you talked to your mum about it?

SARA: She wants us all to be there, even you. She asked if you were coming. I don’t mind if you want to come.

MATTIAS: I don’t really want to sit and get evil stares from your family on Christmas Eve. Your sister said she would beat me up if I ever went near her, remember?

SARA: She didn’t mean it. You had left me, and I was pissed off and heartbroken. She’s my sister, it’s her job to threaten to break your balls if you hurt me.

MATTIAS: I’m sorry.

SARA: Stop apologising. It’s starting to piss me off. We broke up, and we divorced, and that was a good thing, because we were no good for each other, but I am so fucking proud of us, because we have come out the other end talking, and I mean, none of my other friends who have separated are even talking to their exes, and here you and I are, and we are talking. We are talking more than we ever did, and I don’t even get angry anymore when I see your name on the screen. That’s progress, babe.

MATTIAS: We are doing good. Thank you for saying that. Can I talk to Christopher and see what his plans are? Would you maybe come here on Christmas morning and we can have a coffee and play with Emi and see if we can just make it special for her? Then you could take her over to your parents in the afternoon in time for the cake and presents? I suppose I need to go and see my parents too, so it could work?

SARA: That could work.

MATTIAS: You know I love you, don’t you?

SARA: I do know. I love you too. I just don’t want to have sex with you anymore.

MATTIAS: I don’t want to have sex with you either. Just for the record.

SARA: Heart Emoji

MATTIAS: We’re good.

SARA: We’re fine.

MATTIAS: Talk later.

* * *

Mattias Strømme gets eliminated.

He gets kicked off, Christopher’s voice still beaming with pride, announcing his departure, whilst Mattias is surrounded in a flurry of hugs and backslaps and whispered words of support, as he expertly manages to produce something that looks like a tear appearing in the corner of his eye, timely caught by the camera. It’s not that his waffles were bad. It’s not that his Fattigman were perhaps a little soggy. It’s not really anything he did, it’s just the way things work, even though the finished episode no doubt will be angled in such a way that he will look like he completely failed, epically and spectacularly at the simple tasks in hand. He has had one job. One small job. He should stand there thinking he has failed, but he just laughs. And he even agrees, when Danijel asks him to film some quick fillers of him dropping a baking tray and pretending to look flustered, running across the studio in a flurry of flour, almost bursting into giggles when Danijel shouts, “Look stressed Mattias. Your place in this competition depends on this!!” Then, Mattias turns around and gives him the finger. He’s already out. He’s gone. And it’s okay.

He will miss this. He never thought he would, but he will. The laughter, the friendships, the people, the lovely lovely people down here on the studio floor. Strangers who turn up and move around each other in a well-rehearsed dance of routines, producing all the footage needed for the people upstairs in editing to wave their magic over. Half of their efforts carelessly ending up on the cutting-room floor as the public marvels at the result. It’s a job. A game. A way of life, and Mattias strangely loves it.

Caroline wraps him up in a hug, squeezes him like she never wants to let him go. “Don’t be a stranger,” she whispers, her voice buried in Mattias’s hair. “Danijel mentioned that the morning show needs a new floor manager. Just to let you know I am more than able. And willing. Should you need me. You know, you can talk to the right people and drop my name in passing, kind of. You know. Wink wink.”

He doesn’t ask about Jacob Slagsvold, having already seen the pictures on Caroline’s Instagram. The two of them are cute, and for once Mattias can happily admit that he enjoys checking up his social media. His own official Baking Battles Instagram is now populated with charming pictures, baked goods, and highly contrived Christmas cheer that he just laughs at, shooting a smile over to the social media girls who wave back at him. He’s already been roped in to go to the TV3 Queer thing next week, and he has said yes. Willingly. They are nice girls, and Christopher has promised to come too, if they are not filming late.

They are taking Emi bowling on Saturday, with Magnus and his son. Where he would have normally dreaded things like that, he is strangely excited at the thought of hanging out with the guy. He’s fun. Loud. Easy.

Mattias walks home in a haze, letting Christopher carry Emi on his shoulders as Mattias pushes the pram through the thick layer of snow coating the pavement. It will probably all melt, then fall again, before Christmas truly takes Oslo under its spell. He reaches out and just lets his gloved hand trail down Christopher’s arm, stopping them there on the pavement.

“What happens now Chris… topher?” He questions, suddenly feeling very small. Unsure of himself. Questioning everything he knows as the man, this man, the man he is starting to adore. Every second making him more and more weak in the knees as Christopher bends down and places a soft kiss on his lips, right there on the busy pavement, whilst Emi squeals with delight at the angle she is at, half falling off Christopher’s shoulders as he jumps around to get her safely back up straight on his shoulders again.

“What happens now? What do you mean?” Christopher questions.

“I won’t be working with you tomorrow, then in a few days filming is finished. What happens now, to us?”

Christopher turns around, stops firmly in the snow and takes one hand off Emi’s legs, so he can adjust Mattias’s beanie. Carefully stroking a strand of hair out of his eye.

“What happens now, is that you and I get to live. We are going to figure out how to live together and laugh together and how to love each other. We are going to make this work, and I am going to love you. That is what is going to happen. “

“That sounds a little like a fairy-tale,” Mattias laughs.

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