“I hope Hunter throws him in a lake,” Matt whispered to me.
“Next up, Matt and Merrie,” Anastasia announced. “Please bring your dessert forward.”
As Hensley and Brody took away their cake, Hensley blew Matt a kiss then ran her fingers lightly over his wrist when she passed.
I tried to put on a cheery Christmas face, but it was difficult because I was anxious and confused about what was going on between Matt and his supposed ex.
“We, um—” I cleared my throat and tried to get my bearings. “We made a winter wonderland cake,” I said as Matt cut slices for the judges. “It is decorated with sugar cookies depicting winter scenes to put everyone in the holiday spirit.”
“It is certainly a handsome cake,” Anu said.
“And it’s too bad you didn’t have another couple of hours,” Nick said, taking a bite of one of the cookies, “because I bet the detailing would have been even more outstanding.”
Meg took a bite of the chocolate cake then spit it out immediately. “Man,” she coughed. “That is salty.”
Oh.
No.
NO!
Anu tried a nibble. “Wow, that is very salty. Did you mix up the sugar and the salt?”
I started to panic. When I mixed the cake batter,hadI swapped sugar instead of salt? The last few hours had been a blur. I couldn’t remember anything. But of course, it was possible.
Fuck, Merrie, how could you screw this up? This was your one chance!
“It’s my fault,” Matt said smoothly, giving the judges a winning smile. “I take all the blame. Unfortunately, I’m not much of a baker. I get by on my good looks and my billion-dollar net worth.”
That earned him a laugh from the audience.
“I don’t think that a salty cake will go over well at a Christmas party,” Anu said.
“The other layers taste amazing,” Meg assured me, taking a bite of the orange Creamsicle cake.
“I’m so sorry about the salty cake,” I said, trying not to cry.
“It wasn’tyour fault about the cake,” I said to Matt as we waited for the judges to announce the winner and give everyone time to vote. “I screwed up.”
Matt leaned in to kiss me softly. “I couldn’t let you stand there and take the blame,” he said, resting his forehead against mine.
I sank into the blue depths of his eyes.
Maybe he does love me.If the silver lining in this whole bake-off debacle was that I found the love of my life, then I didn’t care about winning the bake-off.
I gave him a small smile.
He kissed me again.
“We can watch a Christmas movie marathon tonight,” he promised, trying to cheer me up. “I’ll even drink one of those obscene hot chocolates you like that have a literal meal piled on them.”
I grinned at him. But the smile left my face as the judges all assembled at the front of the stage. Anastasia took the envelope Meg offered her.
“The votes are in from our viewers at home, our audience members, and the judges,” she said, opening the envelope. “And the winners of this year’sGreat Christmas Bake-Offare Brody and Hensley! Well done, you two!”
I lost?
“We want to congratulate all the contestants and wish everyone a Merry Christmas.”
