Page 22 of The Best Trick

Then it was time to “flavor” the cheeses, which meant we were tasting each cheese as well as evaluating the odor, body, and texture of it, while participating in the sad transformation of nouns into verbs.

We cleansed our palates with crackers, apples, and soda between each round.

I had to admit, this was an excellent group of cheeses. Any one of them deserved a medal, but a few definitely stood out. When all the scores were finally tallied up, I was pleased to see that we all more or less agreed which cheeses were at the top of the cheese heap.

We wrote the final scores on flags and stuck them to their respective blocks of cheese.

With ceremonious solemnity, Cal opened a manila envelope and pulled out the key that showed which of the cheesemakers corresponded to which of the numbers. Cheers went up when he announced the five finalists, though there were also some very long faces.

I really felt for the makers who didn't get into the final round. A blue ribbon from a festival like this could get you onto store shelves and restaurant cheese trays.

There was a two-hour break between judging rounds.

Odin was still on the sheep side of things. I was glad he was gathering intel, but still!

I headed out the gate to the grassy parking area where the porta potties were for a preventative pee break. The guys had gone in search of manly food. Because apparently cheese and crackers is girl food. Fine with me. Please go ahead and leave all of the cheese and crackers to the girls!

The line at the porta potties was insane, but I got through it only to discover that the line to get back into the main showing area was even more insane. People were excited about fancy cheeses, and I could hardly blame them.

Of course, there were perks to being a judge, including the staff entrance I’d noticed earlier. I left the long line and headed behind the shady bleachers to use my badge to get in the staff entrance. That's when I heard the voice calling out to me—“Miss Newsome! Miss Newsome!”

I spun around to see a middle-aged man in a sweater vest barreling toward me with great determination. He had a lantern jaw and swept-back hair, slightly graying at the temples. “You heading back to the goat cheddar table?” he asked—or more, demanded.

Iwasheading back, but I didn't want to tell him. I didn't want anything to do with him. I didn’t like how he was creepily beelining toward me.

My mind spun, remembering how Zeus and Odin had seemed overly focused on the rearview mirror this week. Even Thor had seemed weirdly cautious, like he was hiding something. Had they seen signs of ZOX? Was this creepy guy a part of ZOX? Was he planning on using me to get to my guys?

Also, we were basically alone in the empty back-of-festival area, alone in the gloomy expanse between the people entrance and the special staff entrance.

I gave him a tight smile, mumbled something, and turned to walk off at a fast clip, hoping he wouldn't catch up to me.

“Hold up!” he commanded. “A moment of your time!”

I didn’t hold up, but he overtook me all the same, literally racing around to stop in front of me, blocking me.

“Quick question,” he said. “Do you have any favorites? In the goat cheddar competition?”

I frowned. “Excuse me?”

“Which are your favorites?” he asked.

“You’ll find out during the last round of judging,” I said. “Now if you'll excuse me.” I sidestepped him and made a beeline for the staff entrance, which was still too far away. My knees were trembling.

This was all wrong.

Again he came in front of me, this time extending his arms out to his sides, really blocking me. “No favorites?” he asked in his demanding way.

“I'm not at liberty to discuss this any further,” I said.

Right then, he grabbed my lab coat-clad arm.

I tried to wrest my arm from his iron grip. “Let me go!”

He didn’t. “Let’s cut to the chase—I have an offer you can’t refuse.”

Alarm shot through me. In our world,an offer you can’t refusemeant,do this thing or I’ll kill you.Naturally I was thinking ZOX at this point. “Forget it,” I said

“You haven’t heard my offer,” the man said.

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