Page 23 of Winging It with You

“Here, let’s do it together…” he says, reaching for the handle as I’m about to start pouring it in.

“I’ve got it,” I snap despite my tenuous grip, but he ignores me, and something about this makes my blood boil. “Wait, don’t…” I choke out, trying to maintain a solid grip on the handle—and my patience—but it’s too late. His hand collides with my slick one, eliminating what little hold I had on the pitcher, and it slips straight through my fingers onto the ground in painful slow motion, the finale a bigclang. There’s an audiblegasp from around the room as Theo and I are left dripping with our fifth and final ingredient.

A random bell goes off, and Dalton’s annoying voice returns booming throughout the room. “And we have a winner!” he shouts. I don’t even have to turn to face his general direction to know who won.

The twins.

I angrily wipe the milk from my eyes with the back of my hand. I am completely soaked. The chilled liquid is sloshing in my shoes and dripping down my neck and I’m certain I swallowed more than a mouthful in shock amid the sudden dairy downpour. What was Theo trying to do, grabbing the pitcher like that? Especially at the finish line.

We werethisclose to being done.

Movement around us ceases as the remaining pairs realize the challenge is over.

“What the hell was that?” I hiss when I turn to face him.

Theo flinches, his facial expression unrecognizable, shifting quickly from stunned to remorseful to entirely confused.

“I’m sorry, I just thought…” His voice trails off, his gaze dropping to the floor. “It was an accident.”

“An accident! Theo, that was just plain careless,” I bark. I’m more confused than anything. Neither one of us hadhelpedthe other like that with any of the other ingredients. “I said I had it and you didn’t listen to me,” I press, realizing this has very little to do with Theo and everything to do with the fact that I’ve spent the last few years being ignored by Clint.

Disregarded.

Belittled.

Like who I am and what I bring to the table were soinsignificant that it was the easiest thing in the world to just wave me off.

“I said I had it,” I repeat, my voice a mere whisper this time.

He opens his mouth to say something but decides against it.

“Uh-oh…sounds like there’s trouble in paradise.”Shit.Dalton’s voice reminds me of where I am and the fact that Arthur has been hovering just out of sight the entire time.

He for sure just got all that on camera.

Great.

Epic Trek? More like Epic Disaster.

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Theo isn’t in our hotelroom when I finally make my way back up there.

Even though I want nothing more than to watch as the remnants of our failed challenge wash down the tub drain, I decide against a quick shower because squashing the tension I created, figuring out a real path forward so that every challenge doesn’t end in one of us scolding the other, is far more important.

It doesn’t take long to find him.

He’s sitting on the side steps of the quaint hotel, a serene patio that stretches out into the wildness of the surrounding Vermont woods. Theo’s leaning back on his hands looking up at the immense northern sky, whose colors are quickly fading from hues of pinks and burnt oranges to deep and endless blues.

I pray the peace offering I thought to grab on my way down will be enough to smooth things over. I may notactuallybe dating Theo…but the last thing I’d want to do is make him feel a sort of way because of my shitty behavior. I’m not myself right now. There’s no sugarcoating that Clint royally fuckedevery part of me that cared about anything, and while I can’t see that side of me going away anytime soon, I have no business being rude to be people who genuinely don’t deserve it.

People like Theo.

Especially because, and I know I have to do a better job of reminding myself of this, heisdoing me a huge favor.

“Can I join you?” I ask, hoping the nerves in my voice aren’t as apparent to him as they are to me.

He looks up, unfazed and seemingly happy about my arrival. A warm and very much undeserved smile spreads across his face. “Of course.”

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