by M. J. O'Shea
He was about to ask Chase “what next,” the question that had been haunting him for longer than he wanted to admit, when Chase slid a plate across to him.
“Bacon and banana pancakes,” Chase said with a flourish, tossing a floury towel over his shoulder.
Kai took a big bite and hummed in contentment. “’S good,” he mumbled. Then swallowed. “Chase Christiansen,” he said dramatically. “This week you chose to make something wholesome and traditional. It’s the best thing this judge has had in his mouth since your dick.”
Chase snorted with amusement and sat down with his own plate, pink color rising in his cheeks. “You’re an idiot.”
By the time the food was finished and Kai had dealt with the dishes—Chase had cooked, it was only fair—the light had gone completely and they made their way back to bed with full bellies. It was almost different this time, curling up together to go to sleep. Kai held onto Chase, keeping their bodies loosely spooned together.
Whether he liked it or not, this journey was almost over. He just had to figure out how it was going to end for himself, and for Chase, and for the two of them together.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
SOUFFLÉS AT SUNRISE—
THE FINAL CHALLENGE
WELCOME TO the finale of Burned, where our final three chefs battle it out for the number-one spot. They’ve worked hard to get here and all three of them deserve the highest praise, but only one of them can win the ultimate prize and become the champion in the Burned kitchens. At least until next season.
Our final challenge is a simple one, but it won’t be easy. The chefs have to create soufflés, beautiful, light, delectable soufflés. Sounds easy, right? It’s not. They’ll be judged on taste, which of course must be unique and delicious, texture, which has to be perfect to please our judges, and presentation. This is the final. They’d better bake to impress!
Our grand prize winner gets a year of pastry training in Paris, a whole kitchen’s worth of top-of-the-line commercial tools and appliances, and a hundred thousand dollars for his or her own business.
With stakes this big, we ask the one question on everyone’s mind: Do these chefs have what it takes to rise to the top? Or will they get Burned?
“YOU’RE NOT okay with this either, are you?” Chase asked. He felt sick to his stomach every time he thought of the producers casually choosing whom they wanted to win. He was pretty damn sure Polly hadn’t heard any of his and Kai’s talking over the week. If she had, she’d have probably left a long time ago, and she was still there. Unless they threatened her with something if she didn’t finish out the competition. He had no idea. It was insane just how much control they had.
“Of course I’m not fucking okay with it,” Kai grumbled. “I just don’t know what to do other than throw the damn competition. We can’t say anything, of course.”
Chase wanted to. It might sound cheesy as hell, but everything he had been brought up to believe was totally against such a scripted ending. What if Kai’s dessert sucked in the final? Were they still going to make him win? “You’re right. We can’t say anything. We’re not even supposed to know.”
“This sucks.” Kai sighed and clenched his fist.
“I’m sorry. I mean, if you want to win, I understand. I didn’t tell you thinking you’d have to do this.”
“I do want to win. I don’t want to be stuck in someone else’s kitchen forever, but if I win like this, it’ll suck every damn day. Every time I open the doors to my place, I’ll think about the kind of money that bought it, and it won’t make me happy.”
“No,” Chase said. “It won’t.” He agreed with Kai. Kai needed to win the right way or it would fester in him forever. Chase would’ve felt exactly the same way. “And there’s no way in hell I’m going to take it either, so it’s both of us throwing it. Polly wins.”
“So we both screw up so bad they can’t pretend we didn’t?” Kai asked.
“Can you think of anything else?” Chase asked.
“Not really,” Kai muttered. “Of course, Polly won’t be winning fair and square either and we’re not the producers.”
“I know.” It could potentially get them in huge trouble. Of course, how could anyone prove they’d screwed up their recipes on purpose? They probably couldn’t. He hoped. He and Kai had both screwed up before when they’d been trying their hardest. “Are we doing it?”
“Yeah. I think we are. Polly’s been awesome the entire time. She’s been quietly perfect, never flashy. She really does deserve to win. She’s never been on the bottom, and we both have.”
“You’re right.”
“I wish I could say that I should’ve never signed up for this,” Kai muttered. “I mean, I gave up my job and I’m volunteering not to win, but I still don’t have any regrets.”
Chase’s heart thunked a little in his chest. “Yeah, me either.” No matter what happened in the final, with the prizes, with the producers, he was glad he’d met Kai. He’d learned so much about himself and what he wanted, whom he wanted to be with. He wanted to be with Kai. Chase knew they were about to pass their expiration date. He didn’t know what was going to happen after that. It was easier not to think about it.
CHASE COULDN’T believe Kai was really going to do it. Even after everything they’d discussed, this was Kai ultimately showing Chase he saw there was more to life than this damned competition. His actions affected Chase too—he would be lucky if he got second place and not in really big trouble for screwing with the system—but Kai. Man. He could have won. It was a lot of money to give up for integrity. Chase was sure he’d have done the same thing.
They got to the studio early in the morning for their last challenge. It was all decorated for the final three, the other cook stations had disappeared, and the whole place seemed like a ghost town. Just three brand-new extra-large cooking stations for him, Kai, and Polly. He didn’t know what they’d throw at them. It seemed like they’d done just about everything, but he was ready for it anyway. Didn’t matter. Whatever it was, he’d have to screw it up. Then again, screwing up convincingly might be just as hard as actually doing well. Chase hoped for the best. Er, worst.
They went through hair and makeup, and even that seemed really quiet. Polly and Kai and him just looked at each other and exchanged nervous smiles every once in a while, but other than that, just stared.
Chase ran through his ideas of how to screw up his dessert. His didn’t have to be as bad as Kai’s, but he wasn’t going to throw Kai under the bus by making something better. If they were going to do this, he’d go for it. He’d already decided on salt. And some weird color. That could probably be applied to anything they did. Kai had told him he’d add a ton of baking soda if it was a cake, and if it was something else, he might rely on color and weird flavors too. They’d stayed up really late the night before and talked about it all. It had to be bad, but not like obvious bad. Things that other people had done during the competition by accident. Things that could be done under stress. Chase was ready.
“Chefs, are you ready to get your challenge?” Diego said after he did the customary introductions.
Chase and the others nodded. Time to get it over with.
“Okay, this challenge is a simple one, but at the same time, it will be difficult to pull off.” Those ones were the hardest, typically. Simple ingredients, high standards. Chase hoped it wasn’t so simple that he’d have a hard time screwing it up.
“You’ll each have to produce four desserts, or should I say four variations on one type of dessert. The classic soufflé.”
Chase couldn’t help it. He grinned and looked at Kai. Soufflés. So easy to fuck up, so easy to ruin. It was like this challenge was made for them.
“You’ll each have five minutes at the ingredients table, and you’ll get two extra hours to complete this challenge. The judges expect taste, they expect beauty, they expect perfection.”
Or the biggest mess they’ve ever seen, Chase thought with a grin. He didn’t min
d taking third. Just the thought of how much he could screw up a soufflé made him grin. Piece of cake.
“Chefs, prepare yourselves, and go!”
The buzzer went off, and all three of them raced to the ingredients table.
Chase picked things that seemed innocuous: chocolate, fruit, vanilla beans, caramel sauce. He wasn’t going to try anything weird, just really bad variations of classic flavors. He saw Kai going for some more adventurous ingredients. He was interested to see what mess Kai came up with.
They were off to work. Soufflés were tricky at the best of times, so Chase wasn’t too worried. Even if he’d been playing it to win and things weren’t rigged, he doubted he’d have had a chance against the other two. It had never been his strong suit and it still wasn’t going to be. He mixed and beat and baked just like Kai until the very end when the timer counted down to zero.
They brought their soufflés to the judging tables. Chase saw the judges look at his soufflés, worried, and then they looked at Kai’s, lopsided, weird colors, strange smell coming out of them, and made another face. Chase had to keep from grinning. It had worked. Even if the judges pretended like hell that the damn things didn’t taste like a science experiment gone wrong, they looked so bad that there was no denying it. They’d have to refilm the damn thing if they wanted to declare anyone but Polly as the winner.
The judges tasted Polly’s soufflés and made notes. For the final, commentary would come after they’d tasted all three sets of desserts. They looked happy, pleased, impressed. Chase knew that was about to change.
When they got to his soufflés, they gingerly picked up their spoons and went for a taste as Chase explained that soufflés had never been his strength and that he’d gone for classic but strong flavors, just in more adventurous combinations. Basil out and out made a face; Nicolette looked like she wanted to spit it out. Emilio coughed. Their experiences weren’t any better for the second and third soufflés. Chase had done exactly what he’d meant to do.
Their faces grew even more disgusted and worried at Kai’s selections. They were adventurous, Dreya-style, weird, sort of lopsided, one an odd color of burnt beige-orange that didn’t look like anything anyone would eat. He explained that he was inspired by the unconventional ingredients challenge, and he’d wanted to try that again for himself with the final. The judges’ faces said just how unsuccessful that had been. Very.
WHEN THEY were gathered up in front of the judges after the final discussion, Chase and Kai were given quite a few suspicious looks.
“It’s been weeks of hard work, fantastical creations, and ten contestants who have proved they don’t have what it takes to win Burned,” Diego said. Chase watched the judges, who were standing to one side, just behind the camera. Next to them stood Tommy, looking furious.
“The three of you have proved week after week that you are talented chefs,” Diego continued. “But after today’s challenge it’s clear that we have a winner. Congratulations to our Burned champion… Polly.”
Polly slapped her hand over her mouth in shock, then screamed, bouncing up and down on the spot. Chase and Kai both laughed, then moved in to hug her from either side as confetti and streamers fell from the ceiling.
“Congratulations,” Chase murmured, squeezing Polly lightly.
“You deserve this,” Kai said.
Tears were streaming down her cheeks when Polly broke away and went to Diego to claim her trophy and huge prize money check.
“Polly, do you know what you want to use this for?” Diego said. The judges and the producers were all looking around uncomfortably, and it was obvious to everyone that something was wrong. Polly was either oblivious, happy in her victory and happy with the check in her hand, or the best actress ever. The rest of the studio looked super uncomfortable. Chase had to hold in laughter again. It came at the worst times.
“I want to open a French patisserie downtown at home. There isn’t anything sophisticated like that, and I’d love to be able to bring something new to the area.”
“Lovely goal,” Diego said. His face was pinched. “Well, Polly, again we’d like to congratulate you with your win.”
From the look Tommy was shooting the three of them, Chase guessed not everyone extended those congratulations.
“Chase. Kai. I’d like to speak to you,” Tommy said. He gestured toward his office. He waited until they were in the office before he slammed the door and stared at them. “What the hell happened out there today?”
Chase wasn’t the best actor. He knew it. But he cocked his head to the side and managed to look disappointed. “I’m awful at soufflés. Always have been. When I learned that’s what we were making today, I knew I could kiss any hope of winning good-bye. I just tried to make them interesting. It didn’t work.”
Tommy grunted. “Kai?”
“I don’t know what happened to me. I guess I got a little cocky and wanted to show what I could do that was outside of the box.” He made a face. Chase was convinced even though he knew damn well Kai was lying. “By the time I realized my ego was going turn the whole thing into a mess, there wasn’t enough time left to start over and turn it around. I choked.”
“That’s all?”
“What are you talking about?” Kai asked. He frowned. “Is there more?”
“No.” Tommy looked like he wanted to say something else. But he didn’t. He just silently gestured for Chase and Kai to get out of his office.
“WAIT, YOU mean you guys threw it?”
Chase nodded. Kai had been convinced they shouldn’t tell her, but it would be obvious when two people who rarely had things go disastrously wrong did. At once.
“It wasn’t fair. We were trying to make it fair.”
“By cheating?” Polly’s ponytail bounced angrily, her eyes flashed, and her hands curled into fists on her hips. “I didn’t really win, then.”
“Yes, you did.” Kai said. “Polly, you were the best of us. Out of us three, you were never in the bottom two that I remember, you never flubbed a recipe, on purpose or by accident, and you never even lost time in a mini challenge, did you?”
Polly shook her head.
“You just weren’t highlighted, you should’ve won more than once, and you winning the competition is the right thing. I promise.”
“Then why were you going to win?”
Kai shrugged. “It was rigged somehow. I don’t know why they picked me. It seems pretty arbitrary.”
Kai knew it had to do with his glamorous smile and his pretty skin. He’d make an amazing face for the series, someone to splash on their posters and show off at media events. Polly was cute but plain, sweet but normal. It wasn’t a big surprise to learn that they were going to go for the one who looked like a superstar. Probably didn’t do any good to tell Polly that, though. Kai had made the right decision.
“So what now?”
Kai made a face. “You collect your prize, and Chase and I wait to see if they can pin any of this on us and we get in trouble with the producers.”
“You think they know you threw it?”
“Did you know something was wrong?” Kai asked.
Polly snorted. “Kai, your soufflé fell. Nothing you do ever gets ruined.” So she was a good actress. She just hadn’t realized how much they’d screwed things over on purpose.
He grinned. “It was an accident.”
“And Chase. What were those colors?”
Chase chuckled. “Oops?” He shrugged dramatically. “It was an honest mistake. I was rushing.”
Kai smiled. “We gave our excuses to Tommy. They were at least mostly believable. I really don’t think they can do anything about it, and it wasn’t like they could actually admit the thing was rigged. I think we’re at a standoff, and I’m pretty sure Tommy knows that too. We’ll be fine.”
Polly shook her head. “I know I should say thank you to you guys. You’ve just changed my life, you know.”
“Yeah, but you’re a little mad, aren’t you?”
; Polly nodded. “It would’ve been nice to know that I won fair and square. But hell, I guess it felt the same for you.”
“Yeah, to get told that they’ve just decided that’s how it’s going to be, it felt wrong. Chase and I decided they didn’t get to decide.” Kai laughed at his wording.
“They’re probably still going to be hella pissed at you two,” Polly said. “Nobody likes getting their plans messed with.”
“Did you see Tommy’s face when we presented our soufflés?” Chase asked. “I don’t think there’s a degree of pissed to match that color of red.”
Polly and Kai both snickered.
“Luckily they didn’t make us refilm it.”
Chase shuddered. Other than the final award show, they were done. He really didn’t want to go back into that kitchen ever again. The afternoon they’d just had cured him of that for a really long time. Like, forever.
“You guys want dinner?” Polly asked. “You practically handed me thousands of dollars. The least I should do is buy you a pizza or something.”
“I could eat,” Kai said.
“I’m starving,” Chase replied. “It takes a lot of energy to suck that bad.”
“Oh Lord,” Polly laughed. “Requests?”
“Pesto sauce and pineapples?” Kai said.
Chase made a face. “I’m good with extra cheese. And pepperoni.”
“Coming right up,” Polly said. “I’ll go order and grab a shower. It should be here by the time I’m done, okay?”
Chase and Kai nodded. Polly ambled into one of the bathrooms in the huge, empty condo.
“I can’t believe we really pulled it off,” Chase said, stepping up close to Kai and wrapping his arms around Kai’s broad shoulders.
He couldn’t believe the whole thing was pretty much over, that he’d have to go back to his life. He didn’t know how to state the obvious, that he wanted to keep in touch with Kai and somehow make it work between them. Somehow. Sure, it wasn’t more than a four-hour flight, but in the real world, with jobs and budgets, they might as well live in different countries.