"Tell me about your expansion plans."
I snort. "They're more like pipe dreams than plans."
"Doesn't matter. They'reyourdreams. No one can take that away from you, and no one should do anything but cheer you along the way."
A little bubble of excitement is already building inside me. I love talking about my plans, even if sometimes I don't believe they'll actually come through.
"My goal is to open a store. Have an actual physical space rooted to the ground. A place where I can sell Maple Sky and other locally sourced products. I've seen a few empty units on Church Street get snapped up over the years because I didn't have the down payment required for the rent. Not to mention that I can't be in a store full-time while I still work for my dad, and I definitely can't afford to hire anyone to work for me. I'd probably start off with short opening hours after maple season and work through the year to build..." I look at Jud, and he's staring at me with a strange expression. "What?"
"You can do it, Sky. I know you can," he says.
"Yeah, in about five years." I sigh.
"Maybe not."
"What do you mean? Are you hiding a winning lottery ticket in your jacket or something?"
He rubs his face and exhales. "I can't believe I'm saying this… Do you want to enter a reality TV show with me?"
It takes me a while to stop laughing and see the very unimpressed look from the people sitting at nearby tables.
I look at my phone. "It's late. Are you overtired? Maybe delirious? What did they put in your chicken fingers?"
"I'm not joking." To give him credit, he's not even smiling. In fact, he looks absolutely terrified, as if he'd take the words back if he could.
"You're not joking."
He shakes his head.
"Okay, from the beginning."
Jud tells me what he heard from Wyatt earlier, and I'm not sure if I want to kill my friend or thank him for the information.
And that's how, two weeks later, Jud and I find ourselves in the large room where they hold meetings at the town hall.
The website Wyatt sent us was so basic that we couldn't really tell what the show was about. All we know is that we have to enter in teams of at least two and each team will be filmed running a pop-up restaurant for a week.
We, alongside all the candidates who passed the online assessment, are sitting in the center of the hall, and all around us are desks where we'll be called over for an interview.
Our names are called, so I stand up, but Jud is rooted in place.
"Hey, you okay?"
"Yeah, just…nervous. I mean, we're going to be on camera and—"
"Hey." I kneel beside him. "Let's just talk to this person and see what the show is about. Let's face it, we're unlikely to be picked, right? It'll be a fun story to tell your grandchildren."
Jud smiles and stands up, holding my hand and not letting go until we take our seats in front of a woman who has a plaque on her desk that readsProducer.
"Welcome." She grabs some papers. "So you're Skyler and Judson, right? I'm Samantha, and I'm one of the producers of the show. How are you?"
"A little nervous," Jud says.
Her smile is warm and reassuring. "That's perfectly natural. There's a reason I'm behind the camera, not in front of it, that's Yolanda's job. But I can assure you we have a team of professionals who will always make sure you're looking your best. Now, tell me a little bit about you."
We look at each other, and I see the plea in Jud's eyes.
I turn to Samantha. "Jud is a chef. He trained in London and then moved to Paris, where he worked in a few prestigious restaurants."
