Page 23 of Holly Jolly Cake Fight
“Candace,” Mike chirped over the loudspeaker. “Can you put your hands in your lap?”
Several people on set, contestants and crew alike, glanced over to see what horrible thing she was doing with her hands, and they were all bewildered by Candace just being Candace.She glanced at Laurin and then Harper on her other side before doing as she was told, still careful to hide her right under her left.
“Great. And can you cross your ankles the other way?”
This elicited a stink-eye from her, but it was focused more at the cosmos than any tangible representation of the director. She followed the command, swapping the cross and the tilt of her knees. The shift caused her whole body to turn slightly toward Laurin and the center of the row, so he guessed it was to get a better angle from her on camera.
“Great, thanks. Greg, don’t hold Laurin’s hand.”
Laurin wasn’t going to say anything, but yeah, that was a little weird for him. He was more used to supporting teammates with high fives and firm pats on the back. Hugs at amazing victories only.
Kate and Jannie gave their intros. Lacey and Dorothy made a big speech about how difficult it had been to decide and how impressed they were with everyone’s cookies. The jabs at the lowest-scoring contestants were gently thrown, which was great because Laurin was worried Greg might start blubbering and then he’d have to take the guy’s hand, for sure.
The hosts started the breakdown of the rankings at the middle, informing Laurin, Mark, Zara, and Patty that they’d all done well, and they may not have presented the best cookies, but they should be proud of what they did create.
Laurin was more than happy with that. He had gone into the challenge expecting to be in the bottom two. He glanced at Candace to see if she would at least have a smug expression of victory on her face, something to acknowledge how much she had helped him, but there was nothing except a sigh and alonging gaze at her nails. Her prickly exterior may have cracked slightly this afternoon, but she was in no way hulled by it.
And what had her outburst before attacking the tree even meant? It wasn’t two consenting adults? Was she really implying that Lucas had sexually harassed her? Assaulted her, even? Laurin wasn’t an idiot or naive about the world. He knew how often men got inappropriate with women. But there was no way that would happen here with all the witnesses and cameras. There would have been plenty of evidence if she’d protested his advances.
“Two of you absolutely outshone the rest,” Dorothy said. “Belle, your mocha chews certainly woke up my taste buds, and the honey gooey bars brought me right back to quiet evenings sipping green tea on my porch. The caramel lattice on your chocolate shortbread was flawlessly elegant.”
“Candace,” Lacey said. “I gotta admit I’ve been hoping for an opportunity to try some of your pastries for ages, and you did not disappoint. That was one of the best uses of alcohol in a sweet I’ve ever experienced. That’s the turtle. Was there alcohol in the strawberry and champagne sandwiches? We debated about that for ages and wrote it off as a mystery — a good one.”
“I suppose it should remain a mystery then,” Candace said quietly.
Everyone else surely took this as a snippy comeback, but Laurin saw her left hand tighten over her right. He doubted she had more of a voice than that whisper.
He covered her hands with his to hide them from the camera. She tensed up but relaxed a moment later. Once Lacey started to talk again, Candace took one hesitant look at Laurin, and he was irrationally pleased with the flush in her cheeks.
“Well, ladies, you put us in a really tough spot.”
“So we based our decision mostly on your presentation.”
Candace went very still.
“You had two very different displays.”
“Yes, one elegant, one whimsical.”
Candace started working hard on her lipstick.
“But in the end, we decided on . . . “
Dorothy exchanged looks before saying in unison, “Congratulations, Belle! You’re this week’s winner!”
Candace snatched her hands away from Laurin and didn’t talk to him for the rest of the night.
The game was rigged. It always had been. The judges got to choose the bottom and top two, but when there was any difficulty deciding the winner or loser, the director decided. Jannie had let that slip to Candace on a mojito-fueled break night, but she’d always figured that anyway.
It hurt to be on this side of it. Like, a lot. Candace had taken second place plenty of times over the years, always gracefully. There needed to be a balance among the veterans to keep the fans coming back. If Perfect Patty won every single candy challenge, the audience would fuss about the show being predictable or stop watching entirely. But Candace needed this win to prove that she was here on merit and her successful run on the show hadn’t been engineered as a favor from the last director.
That was the nicest way to describe it. Social media was far uglier about it. Candace was sure grandmas were signing up for Reddit just to rant about how much of a floozy she was.
There was another long break between episode recordings — the next episode had to be filmed on Saturday, according to Mark. This usually meant one thing, and Candace confirmed it the next day when she borrowed a bike from the camp hosts and pedaled up a particularly grueling trail. When she reached the end of the trail, she found herself overlooking the campground. There was another loop similar to the one the Bake-Off had taken over, and it was now getting Christmas-ified with the same white gunk that coated their loop. Most of the activity was obscured by the pavilion roof, but the trucks parked around it looked more like event organizers than film crew.
A celebration was happening there on Saturday, and the Food2Love Bake-Off was catering. Happened every season.
This was bad news for Candace. The judges would be guests of the event, and they always cared more about what stuff looked like than what it tasted like. The food couldn’t taste bad, of course, but flavor was more of a box to be checked than a range to be graded on when civilians were judging. Unless there was a disaster, Candace was a prime candidate for elimination.
