Page 37 of Building Romance
“Oh, uh, sure,” she says. I always get the distinct feeling that she feels like she’s my babysitter, and to be fair, for a long time, she basically was.
“Great. Thanks, Dana,” I state as I disconnect. The last thing I need is for her to tell my brothers’ assistants and then they tell my brothers and pretty soon the entire family knows I’ll be playing a baking assistant on television. This is not going as planned.
I sit down and look around. I did bring one pair of khakis and a polo shirt. I guess that will have to do for this morning.
I get dressed and walk out into the hallway. It’s quiet. Too quiet. I knock on the door. Still no answer. I open the door and peek inside.
“Camryn?” I ask. I hear a sniffle and I walk into the room to find her sitting on a bed holding…well, I’m not entirely sure. It’s a small telephone-shaped thing.
She looks up and wipes a tear from her cheek.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” I ask. I rush over to her, kneeling so we are face to face.
“It’s missing,” she manages after a moment, pointing to the item in her right hand.
“What’s missing?” I ask, looking around as if something will magically appear.
She lets out a shaky breath. “My grandmother’s saltshaker,” she explains as she holds up the item in her hand. I can now see it’s a pepper shaker. There must be a set.
I look around the room. “Did you forget to pack it?”
She shakes her head. “It’s what I was looking for the other night when you came by the apartment,” she explains, wiping another stray tear. “It’s like…my lucky charm. I was using it to bake a cake when I got the news that my small business loan was accepted. I had it when I got accepted to the culinary program at my college. I had it when I got my apartment lease signed. I’ve had it for all these milestones. It’s…like she’s here with me.”
More tears fall and it breaks my heart. I wipe one away from her cheek with the back of my finger and she blushes.
“I’m sorry. I know this is crazy. I’m being crazy.” She takes a steadying breath and sets the pepper shaker down on the mattress. Standing, she brushes invisible lint away from her pants. “Let’s go. I need to get things set up and walk you through what Amber was going to do.”
Shit. I nearly forgot about that. Suddenly, I’m nervous and I’m never nervous. I watch as Camryn walks into her bathroom and puts on some makeup and then stares at herself for a long moment.
I see a resilience in her. She’s putting on a literal mask in the form of makeup. She’s much stronger than I gave her credit.
“Let’s go,” she says. I follow her out of her room. Part of me wants to discuss last night’s kiss. Another part of me wants to talk more about this missing saltshaker. But I decide, for now, that we need to concentrate on getting our station set up for this competition.
“Great. You’re here. That’s your station,” Felicity says excitedly as we walk into the makeshift tent filled with four baking stations. There are several cameras set up for filming and the space is abuzz with activity. Camryn and I greet our competitors who are also filing in and starting to sort out their spaces.
We get to ours and Camryn stands in the middle of it with her hands on her hips. She reaches into her pocket as if to look for something and then gives a small shake of her head and pulls her hand free. I furrow my brows in confusion but don’t have time to think more about it as she begins to go over our setup with me.
“Are you paying attention?” she asks as she points to a stack of muffin tins. I nod.
She rolls her eyes and repeats something about where I’ll be standing as we make the cupcakes. The reality of what we are about to do settles over me as she walks me through the process for each of our baked goods. I’ve seen it all in her kitchen at the café, but this feels different.
When she finishes, she looks around us and then up at me. “You ready?” she asks.
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” I mutter as I stand at my workstation, hands on the counter, as I survey the other teams. My brothers will never let me live this down. And, of course, it has to be televised.
I’m surprised when she places her hand on mine. I look down at where her fingers touch mine. Her skin is smooth and warm and something about it reassures me. My gaze finds hers.
“We got this,” she whispers, giving me a hopeful smile. I can’t help but return it. She’s not wrong. I may not be a baker, but I’ve been in enough of our kitchens over the years to know some things about baking. Dad made each of us do an internship at a store when we were in college. And then there’s Camryn. She’s amazing. She moves around a kitchen as if she was made to operate one. But there’s something more to it. It’s not just her professionalism and baking skills. She loves it. She comes alive when she’s in the kitchen. A small part of me is looking forward to this competition because I’m going to get to see her in her element and I think I’ll be witnessing true genius at work. It’s no longer about being rivals. Not for now at least.
“That was fun,” Camryn says as we finish cleaning our station. Today was a practice day. We got to run through our first recipe. There was some filming done. Cam is a natural on camera. She acted as if she was a regular on a cooking show. The next two days will be filming the first episode which means we will have our cookie competition. Then we have a day to reset and then a press day where they also bring in ticketed members of the public to try the different cookies. We get a day off and then we start on the next round of the competition. The last few days are an open house of sorts where the public gets to try all of our baked goods. And then the finale will be judged for the television production.
“It was,” I say.
She bumps my hip. “Don’t look so surprised,” she laughs as she tosses a towel down on the counter.
I chuckle. “Fine. I was a little surprised. I didn’t think this would be fun,” I admit. “And I didn’t know you’d be such a natural on camera, Hollywood,” I add, giving her hip a playful bump.
She shrugs. “It was fun.”
