Page 40 of Holly Jolly Cake Fight
Laurin’s hand brushed against Candace’s while Harper asked him to identify a bird fluttering around in the rafters. Candace’s shoulder leaned into his while she laughed about something Zara had said to her.
She held still while he picked a stray thread out of the pile of her angora sweater. He sighed but let her fuss over the shoulders of his flannel as though it were a tux jacket.
He leaned in very close to her ear to whisper his thanks as Mike called for action over the loudspeaker. Candace blushed brightly as the cameras lit up to signal that they were live. Laurin figured he looked pretty foolish himself, grinning as he was. The Bake-Offs tended to lean toward cheesy in their editing, so this would be screen time, at least.
Kate and Jannie did their usual intro, this time putting a great deal of emphasis on how there were only six contestants left, and how now that two of the initial teams had lost a single member, the teams had been restructured. Everything they said went toward that same thought everyone was having, so the gasps of shock from the contestants felt really fabricated when Kate finally said, “So this is our second team challenge!” and the lights reminding the contestants to react sparked up.
Yep, those old-school APPLAUSE signs were real, and not just for live studio audiences anymore. The signs here were basic, just lights that flashed in a weird alternation between warm and cool light, apparently so that it caught the contestants’ attention without getting picked up by the cameras. Laurin dropped his jaw and flashed the most excessively wide-eyed stare at Candace, who didn’t look nearly as surprised until she glanced at him.
She jumped slightly and then froze in the perfect hold, but the twitch in her shoulders told him the only reason she was so stiff was to hold back laughter.
“We’ve already gotten our trees decorated,” Jannie said, “and we’re slowly building a good stockpile of sweets for both Santa and young love. If you ask me, though, the most important part of Christmas is gathering with family and found family, and that happens at the dinner table.”
She spread her arms wide, and a pair of cameramen surveyed the arrangements laid out, finally giving an answer to everyone’s question of why they went with such horrible decor for this episode. These weren’t just any nightmare-fueled faceless mannequins; these were nightmare-fueled faceless mannequins who were family, having a family dinner.
“This week’s challenge has two parts,” Kate told them. “The first part of the challenge will be to decorate the tables within your cabins to make them worthy of a family feast.”
“The second part,” Jannie announced, “is to serve us all a family feast worthy of your decorations.”
Candace was the one who reached out, grabbing Laurin’s hand and squeezing it firmly enough that he glanced her way. She was looking not at him but at Jannie, and she was radiating excitement.
Laurin considered himself a fair cook and had done his share of holiday meals, everything ranging from quiet meals for immediate family to lavish spreads for extended family, even a few banquets for his teammates, on those unfortunate holidays where they’d had to travel far from home for games and had the choice of dining out at whatever poor restaurant was open on Christmas or fend for themselves.
Seeing Candace’s sublime pleasure at this challenge, though, made him realize that this was absolutely their chance to shine as the strongest team.
They were going to win this, and then there would be only four. That meant only one more challenge before the finale.
They were going to finals together. Candace didn’t have to say a word to Laurin for him to be surer of this than anything else in his life. The sun would rise in the east, and they were a shoo-in for the finale.
Minor miscalculation.
The plan that the producers had gone with was the same as what they’d done on the first challenge: a couple of gift cards and a trip to the store. Candace had to give them credit for how well it worked the first time, and there was the added bonus today that Belle wasn’t with them to complain the entire time about the unwashed masses as though North Georgia was a leper colony.
The miscalculation, however, was in the day. Mike had crowed about how he’d been thinking of the contestants here and how everyone was beginning to miss their families, so wasn’t tomorrow the best day possible for all the contestants to put together extravagant meals for contestants, hosts, judges, and crew? He even demanded, in that affable way of his, that the four eliminated contestants cook as well, just to make sure everyone could get seconds and thirds, although he was polite enough to allow them to decline if they chose.
Only Belle declined, which everyone thought was petty until they got to the Walmart parking lot. That was when they realized Belle was the only smart one of the bunch because Mike had been right. Tomorrow was precisely the day when everyone most wanted a gigantic meal to be shared with this strange family that was forged during filming, only to be smelted afterward and reformed in the next season.
Because tomorrow was Thanksgiving.
Candace had never seen anything like it. She normally didn’t grocery shop at Walmart, and she rarely prepared holiday dinners like this. If she was cooking something nice, it was usually a random Tuesday night just because she thought she deserved it. Her ex hadn’t ever allowed them to have a quiet holiday dinner at home. They either went to some big, highly-publicized event or did nothing at all.
They didn’t have the money for fancy food, he argued. Better to use their money on making them look like they belonged back in her father’s will.
Candace shooed bitter memories away and let Laurin hook his arm around her waist so they took up less space. It really was the only way they could walk next to each other as they cruised the aisles; if they made themselves no wider than the cart they pushed, it worked effectively as a battering ram.
“Do you think it’s always like this the day before Thanksgiving?” she asked as he deftly steered them away from a fight breaking out at a mini-marshmallow display.
Laurin looked around, getting a broader view of the chaos. “Well, it’s also the day before . . . the day before Black Friday, I guess, but Black Friday really is Thanksgiving now.”
“God, could you imagine spending Thanksgiving in a Walmart?” Zara said, popping up out of nowhere beside them and snagging a bag of egg noodles from the shelf.
“It’s gotta be quieter than this,” Candace mused. “It’s Thanksgiving.”
Zara reached across their cart to grab a jar of alfredo sauce. “It’s the biggest sale of the year. I bet it’s just as packed.”
Candace crinkled her nose. “I would never do this.”
The look Laurin gave her was a questioning one. A week ago, Candace would have hissed at him and stormed off for daring to doubt her. Now, she welcomed whatever had him confused.
