"Why are you being so stubborn? And what happened? How did you burn your whole hand?" I demanded.
"I was using your piping gun to make caramel snowflakes, and it broke," she retorted.
"My products don't break," I snapped. I couldn't believe it. "Let me see it! I'll take it to the engineers."
"It’s fine," she said, not looking me in the eye.
"Give it to me," I ordered.
She sighed unhappily.
"Would you bring me the broken equipment?" I asked one of the production assistants.
She scurried off and returned with a box. The piping gun was in several pieces, and it looked like it had failed under pressure.
"This was not supposed to happen, Chloe. I'm so sorry. I'm going to figure out what went wrong," I promised.
"Just leave it alone, please," she hissed.
I looked at her incredulously. "You were hurt with something I made. No, I will not just leave it alone."
"Do you want to hang out tonight?" she asked me.
I held out a hand to caress her face. "I have a dinner meeting scheduled with Liam," I explained. We liked to touch base about the company without being in the office. It was a way to bounce ideas off each other.
"But I can cancel," I told her. "Liam will understand."
"No!" she said loudly, then lowered her voice. "You're not skipping out on a business meeting because of me. I’m not coming to your apartment."
"But—" I tried to protest.
"La la la, I can't hear you," she said, turning away to go complete the postproduction interviews.
* * *
"Dude,"Liam said after I scowled through the first round of drinks. "I know Christmas is a bad time for you, but you seem extra angry."
I handed him the box containing the broken piper. Liam whistled.
"Is this one of ours? It looks like it was run over by a truck."
"It happened at the bake-off. It burned Chloe's hand."
"Chloe?" he said in concern. "This is not good."
"Don't worry, she didn't post about it on Instagram, thankfully. We would be in deep trouble."
"Do you think she's going to sue?"
"No," I said emphatically, but then I wondered. Would she? I didn't know her that well. No, I knew her. It would be within her right to sue, but I knew she wouldn't. If she was angry at the device ruining her chances at winning the bake-off, she would just kick me to the curb.
I cursed under my breath. "My product could have cost Chloe her baking career. We were lucky her hand wasn't maimed."
"Did she go to a doctor?" Liam asked. "We should pay her medical bills."
"She didn't want to go," I told him. "Her hand just looked red. It wasn't blistered or anything. I'll keep an eye on it."
My friend smirked. "Look at you, keeping an eye on things. Does everyone know you're dating a contestant?"
