11. Alice

ALICE

“ H e’s even better in person, eh?”

I startle at the question, nearly spilling my wine.

“Sorry.” Brent chuckles, bumping his shoulder into mine. “Didn’t mean to scare you. But you know I’m right.”

Unbidden, my eyes flicker toward the now empty seat at the judge’s table.

He’s not wrong. Michael is even hotter in person, but the fact that Brent caught me looking is mortifying. Though it’s still not as bad as a second ago when Michael himself caught me.

I sigh and slump in my seat. “You’re right.”

Brent laughs, clinking his wineglass against mine. “No harm in looking, darling.”

With Brent’s words rattling around in my brain, I sip the rest of my wine and excuse myself the moment the first person gets up to leave.

I know it’s an all-expenses-paid weekend, but I rarely drink, and there’s no way I can get through tomorrow if I’m hungover. And even though most of the people are friendly, I don’t feel super comfortable with strangers, so the solitude of my room sounds perfect.

Walking out into the lobby, I wave at Pamela when she waves at me, then I hurry my way onto the elevator.

The doors are sliding shut behind me when my purse starts to vibrate with a call.

Smiling, I pull my phone out, not surprised to see it’s a FaceTime call.

The elevator’s empty, so I answer. “Hey, Suzy.”

“Alice!” My cousin, Suzy, and her sister, Sam, cram their faces together to fit on screen. “You were on TV!”

I shake my head, their energy making me feel a little lighter about the stressful day. “Crazy, right?”

“Crazy awesome!” Sam shouts, causing Suzy to wince.

“Chill, woman.” Suzy rubs her ear as she leans closer to the phone. “Where are you?”

The elevator doors open to reveal my floor, punctuating her question. “Almost to my room.”

“Ooo, give us a tour.”

I know they’re just wasting time until I’m behind closed doors to ask me the real questions, but I gladly take the reprieve. Moving slowly, I give them an elaborate tour of the hallway, the door to my room, a detailed viewing of my suite…

When I have nothing left to show them, I drop down onto the bed and squeeze my eyes shut. “Okay, tell me how bad it was.”

Suzy scoffs, “Bad? It wasn’t bad at all.”

I crack one eye open. “I tripped standing still. How is that not bad?”

They both cackle in response, and I groan, “See?!”

Sam shakes her head. “It was hilarious, but it was also cute as hell.”

“Cute? Really?” I lift a brow, skeptical.

“Really,” Suzy answers. “And when you licked that frosting off your finger…” She fans her face. “I could feel the sexual tension from across the city.”

I bolt upright. “Sexual tension? What do you mean?!”

“She means…” Sam smirks. “The off-the-charts, goo-goo eyes you and Chef Mike were throwing at each other.”

“But—What—I—” I fall back, slapping a hand over my eyes. “Oh my god, this is so bad!”

“What, why?”

“Because,” I whine. “If you can tell that I like Michael, then other people watching the show can probably tell too.”

“And that would be bad because…?”

I keep my eyes covered. “Because I’m going to look like a pathetic, love-sick loser, and everyone will either pity me or hate me.”

“Alice.” Suzy’s using her stern voice, so I part my fingers to peek out at her.

“What?”

She rolls her eyes. “Did you not hear the part about you two making goo-goo eyes at each other ?”

Sam nods. “Big time. That man has the hots for you.” Then she purses her lips. “So, you’re right, most women will probably hate you. But not because they think you’re pathetic. They’ll hate you because they’ll want to be you.”

I drop my hand away from my face completely. “What are you talking about?”

Sam taps the screen. “Is this on? Can you hear us?”

“I can hear you talking nonsense! I don’t know what you think you saw, but he was not looking at me like”—I wave my hand around—“ that . I mean, he said my cake was good.”

My cousins fan their faces. “What a sweet talker.”

I groan. “Shut up. You know that’s a compliment coming from him.”

“I know what you’d rather have… coming from him.”

“Oh my god, you guys are the worst!” I laugh despite myself. “I gotta go.”

“Yeah, yeah. Go get your beauty sleep.” Suzy blows me a kiss.

“And wear that green skirt tomorrow!” Sam grins.

“Fine.” I roll my eyes. “Love you.”

They chorus their love back to me as I end the call.

I wonder what they meant by all that sexual tension talk. He can’t possibly…

My fingers twitch to search for today’s episode, but I really don’t want to see myself on camera. Or at least not until the whole thing is done. If I watch it now, I’ll for sure hate the way I look on screen, and then I’ll be self-conscious about it for the rest of the weekend. So, no watching.

Dropping my phone onto the bed, I decide my best plan of action is going to sleep. I can’t make any bad decisions if I’m asleep.