“Ah, they don’t need those.”
A hiss sounded from behind us. “There are children here.”
The mom was at it again, scolding us for our discussion, which was very PG, might I add.
We both ignored her.
“Do it anyway,” I told him with no small amount of amusement. “I want a bow tie.”
Sasha took the small red frosting and gave me a bow tie and himself what looked like a Hawaiian lei.
I rolled my eyes, leaned over mini-Sasha with him, and gently pressed the tiny, colorful chocolate candies to his lei. “There. Now you're colorful.”
“Aww. Thanks, babe.”
I rolled my eyes. “Seriously, Sasha?”
“Absolutely.” He nodded. “Tell me to stop if you want me to.”
I met his eyes, which were soft and kind, but held a bit of challenge. If I told him to, he would let it go. That much was obvious. But did I want him to?
“Well, you’ll have to give me your number. I don’t let just anyone call me babe.” I was aiming for casual, and I think I achieved it.
Sasha grinned. “Definitely. Once we get all the sticky off ourselves.” He held up his arms, peppered with dabs of frosting and red glitter.
The announcer came back through the speakers then.
“And that is it, everyone! Everyone’s gingerbread houses look so beautiful. You can take your pictures now while we come around and get everyone’s information and pictures. Once that is done, you can take yours home, and we will call the winner next Saturday!”
Sasha and I clapped politely along with the other pairs.
“We don’t really need to enter, do we?” Sasha leaned in. “I wouldn’t actually want to take a kid’s win.”
I shook my head. “Agreed. Let’s go wash up while they’re going around. Then they won’t have our information anyway since there was no one here during the rounds.”
Sasha nodded. “Good idea. I’ll just let Angie know I’m slipping out for a sec.”
I moved first, stepping out into the aisle and waving at Zoe as I passed their table and Sasha stopped to talk to them. I reached Mariah and Reece’s table, where Mariah was smirking at me.
“We’ll be right back,” I told her. “We’re going to go wash up.”
“Right. Of course you are,” she drawled, glancing pointedly between Sasha and me. “Have fun.”
I shot her a look, but I felt myself blush anyway. “Not like that. We already got scolded like five times by the lady behind us.”
“Sounds like a lot of pent-up sexual tension then.”
She even had the nerve to look innocent.
“It’s not like that,” I insisted.
“Oh, it’s exactly like that,” Sasha argued, coming up behind me and grabbing my hand. “Come on. Off we go. We'll be right back,” he told Mariah and Reece.
“Take your time!” Mariah called behind us as Sasha pulled me out of the large room and down a hallway, following the bathroom signs.
They were single-toilet family bathrooms, so we went in together and let the door shut behind us. We didn’t bother to lock it since we were just washing our hands—and in Sasha’s case, both arms.
“Did you seriously have to encourage her like that?” I complained, pushing my sleeves up and moving my hands under the water.
