Easy. I was giving Merrie all the snowmen. The other stickers I randomly assigned to the other pictures then tossed the form at Anastasia.
“That was fast.”
“I’m a billionaire. I’m decisive.”
The other contestants didn’t take all that long to decide. Brody, the flannel cheater, took the longest.
“I don’t want to dash anyone’s dreams,” he said, handing Anastasia his form.
A producer added Brody’s sticker selections to the total and whispered to Anastasia.
“It looks like we have a clear winner,” she announced.
I looked over at the hopefuls. Merrie didn’t have on a coat, and she was jumping up and down to stay warm, hands tucked around her.
Some people were weak and couldn’t handle the cold. Even Brody, I noticed smugly, had put his shirt on. Not me. I could sit out in the cold all night.
“The person with the most votes is Janet with her peppermint bark dump cake.”
Seriously? That cake looked like a toxic waste dump. Janet had created a slurry from a boxed brownie mix, a blueberry muffin mix, and stale crushed candy canes with some boxed milk and stuffed it in the oven. The smell had been terrible, and the cake had tasted even worse.
“The person with the largest negative score,” Anastasia continued, “is Merrie Ellis.”
I smirked and looked at her to see her reaction. Merrie was devastated. She saw me watching and seemed to wilt.
I frowned. While I had my reasons for giving her all the negative points, compared to the rest of small-town amateur hour, she had technically had the best dessert by default.
“I made sure to give her the worst score,” a girl whispered to her friend. “Cut down on the competition.”
“Because it’s Christmas,” Anastasia said, “we want labels only on presents and don’t want to call anyone the best or the worst. Therefore, both of these bakers will be participating in the bake-off! See you at the next event, ladies!”
“What the hell? No. No way.” I was not going to be in a bake-off with Merrie.
I wasn’t the only one protesting.
“That’s not fair!” the girls complained to the producers.
I glanced back over to Merrie.
Her eyes met mine, and she mouthed,I’m going to end you.
7
Merrie
“Ican’t believe you went through!” Olivia was giddy as we walked back through the snow to my shop.
I was ecstatic.
“Maybe this is it. Maybe this is my big break. I’ll fall in love with Brody, save my shop, and have a happy Christmas ever after!”
Olivia wrinkled her nose. “I’m sorry, his name is Brody?”
“Could be worse,” I said, opening the door to my shop.
I unwound my scarf from my neck, letting the warmth and the smell of hand-carved wood, cookies, and the Christmas tree wash over me. My phone chimed with a notification from the TradeMe app.
I swiped to dismiss it.
