Page 52 of Playing With My Heart Strings

She hands us a bag filled with tomatoes and the change.

“Wait, okay, so if we’re going to make a recipe from my family, we have to make one from yours, too. It’s only fair,” Valerie declares as we continue walking through the market.

“My mom makes this incredible strawberry shortcake,” I reminisce.

“We can make my recipe as a late brunch and yours can be dessert later. I’m always up for a good shortcake. And I love strawberries.” She looks like she’s stuck in a daydream, and it would be impossible for me to say no to anything she asks at this moment.

We shop for all the ingredients we’ll need for our cooking venture later this afternoon then head toward the gardens.

“There’s something I’ve been meaning to discuss with you.” I don’t want to ruin the fun we’re having, but the topic of Aspen still needs to be addressed.

“Yeah, what’s up?” She looks up at me, taking her attention away from the flowers she was inspecting.

“I don’t want to put a damper on our date, because I’ve really had an incredible time with you so far, but I’ve been trying toget to the bottom of this for a couple weeks now and I want to hear everyone’s perspective,” I lead into the conversation, but she beats me to it.

“Oh, this is about Aspen, isn’t it?” Her voice has a tinge of disappointment to it, like she was hoping to talk about anything and anyone but Aspen.

I nod. “It is.”

She sighs, looking down at the flowers, and starts rolling a petal between her fingers. “I’m guessing you’ve talked to mostly everyone, so you’ve probably heard a lot of what’s going on?” She waits for me to nod before continuing. “There’s been some...tension…between Aspen and Baylor. Aspen’s gone on about how she’s here to win and not here to make friends and that if Baylor was here for the right intentions that she wouldn’t be trying to make friends either. It’s messy, to say the least. I try to stay out of all of it, but there are only five of us here and we’re always together, so it’s difficult. Aspen’s also got it in her head that the producers have something to do with Baylor being here.

“I mean, I know she’s here because the viewers chose her to be here. And the producers would have had to make an executive decision to bring someone on who didn’t audition, but other than that, I’m not really seeing a connection between production and Baylor being a contestant. At least from my interactions with her, she seems genuine. She’s always been kind to me and the other girls, aside from Aspen, but I can’t exactly blame her. If my character was being called into question, I probably wouldn’t be friendly either.”

I don’t interrupt, letting her get all of her thoughts out before asking any questions or making any remarks. “I appreciate you being so open about this.”

She shrugs, like it doesn’t affect her, but I know it has to in some ways. It doesn’t feel great to be bringing up other drama during our time together, and I hope I can make it up to herlater. But I’m one step closer to getting closure on the situation. A relief, considering we’re already halfway through this process.

“Hey, let’s not let this affect the rest of our day, yeah?” I lightly kiss her forehead to try to reassure her and show her that I’m still present, or at least as present as I can be with Baylor still in the back corners of my mind. “Pick out some flowers, I want to buy them for you.” It’s probably a shitty way of making it up to her, using more money to save this date, but it’s the only thing I can think of doing.

“You don’t have to do that for me.” I can tell Valerie is trying to be polite, but a traitorous blush creeps into her cheeks.

“Pick out your favorites. Come on, now.” I nudge her playfully with my elbow as she smiles and starts to walk around the greenhouse, scoping out all the florals. A few minutes later, she has a pretty bouquet of lilies, white roses, lavender, and daisies.

“Thank you for all of this, Dusty. I had a really fun time.” Valerie leans her head into my shoulder as we walk toward the street where the car is waiting to take us back to the house.

“The day’s not over yet. We still have to try out these recipes.”

19

baylor

Take My Life Into My Own Hands

The producers bringus back to the house later in the evening. Breakfast was uneventful, without any drama, a small stroke of luck I’m grateful for. Part of me hopes that because there are only five of us left, and Dusty has begun asking questions about Aspen’s feud with me, she’ll give up on whatever plan she has to get me eliminated and tone it down a bit.

While Valerie and Dusty were on their date, we all talked about our families and careers outside of the show. Well,theytalked about their careers outside of the show. Katherine’s a pediatric nurse, Sage works in a legal office, and Aspen…

Now that I think about it, Aspen didn’t talk about her job, either.

“Hey,” I whisper to Sage. “Do you know what Aspen actually does for work?”

She stares blankly at me. “I…I don’t know? I think she does something related to music?”

I hum, thoughts whirling through my brain before muttering. “If she works in music, why hasn’t she been signed to a label?”

“That’s a great question,” Sage muses. “I’m curious now, too.”

Maybe Daniella can do some digging for me, I think. It’s risky, but any information I can use is information I want.

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