“I see you brought the Christmas bling!” Anu said when the plates with the snowflakes were set in front of us.
“Did you 3-D print this?” I asked.
“Nope. Handmade it. Took forever!”
“It looks so good,” Nick said, turning the plate this way and that to catch the light.
“I was inspired by the Christmas lights,” Holly explained. My heart melted a little bit as she smiled softly at me.
Fiona was next. “Since it’s Christmas, I made a dessert inspired byThe Nutcracker,” she explained.
I inspected the dish.
“Astonishing,” Anu said.
Fiona had made a white chocolate egg and decorated it like a Fabergé egg. She had carefully removed a piece of the shell. Inside was a scene made out of formed sugar, cakes, little mousses, and chocolate that was very reminiscent of a scene fromThe Nutcrackerballet. It had the Eastern European elements.
“The Sugar Plum Fairy scene, if I’m not mistaken,” Anu said. She took a dainty bite. “And you can taste the plum.”
“This chocolate pot de crème is just so smooth and perfect,” Nick gushed. “This is a Michelin-star-level dessert!”
“Thank you so much for this!” Anu said, giving a little bow to Fiona.
“Wow, what a way to end the season, huh,” Nick said. He and Anu looked at each other.
“What?” I snapped. “Both of them had great desserts.”
Anu took a deep breath. “Fiona’s was probably better.”
Dana came over, making a cutting motion to Zane.
“Look,” she said to me, “Fiona needs to win.”
“Why?”
“Everyone knows you’re sleeping with Holly.”
“I’m in a relationship with her,” I insisted.
“Whatever. We can’t have bad press about this. People really dug the romance, but there will be a Christmas bloodbath if they think the contest was rigged because Holly slept with a judge. She can have the fan-favorite award, and Fiona wins. Everyone is happy. No one is lambasted on social media.”
I glowered.
“You and Jack,” Dana said, shaking her head. “If you all weren’t so handsome, I’d never have another Frost brother on this show.”
I dreaded having to tell Holly the news. She handled it very professionally when Anu told Fiona that she’d won. Somehow that made me feel even more like a piece of shit.
Holly hugged Fiona, clearly struggling to hold back tears and smile for her friend.
“You deserved it,” she whispered.
“Thank you, everyone, for another Great Christmas Bake-Off,” Anastasia said, “and everyone have a Merry Christmas!”
I was not having a merry anything if Holly was mad at me. I turned in the microphone then hung around for the postcontest interviews, hoping I didn't miss Holly. I saw her hurrying away after filming was over.
“Wait!” I called out to her.
“I have some stuff to do. I’ll talk to you later,” she said, trying to move around me.
