The Problem With Burnt Cookies

7. Sour

Maisy

After swimming at the beach, watching people have a good time, and enjoy the glorious sunny day, Maisy decided to read, she hardly got the chance to, and it was the one good universal thing she shared with people, she remembered once she had used to love listening to her dad read her bedtime stories, making those silly voices as he read, but now as an adult she could've made the characters in her book sound like anything she wished, granted audiobooks and digital books were a thing, but she still loved holding a bit of magic in her hands.

Hearing aids were not the beach's friend, being that she lost the first pair she had gotten since getting sick when she was 17, to accidentally getting thrown in a pool at a college party, she avoided taking her hearing aids anywhere near the ocean. But man she missed the sound of the waves, how soothing they were, but she made do, and was grateful for the blessing of live without them most of the time. She checked her watch, time was up and she had to get dressed for this dinner, she hadn't met with the other competitors, nor did she check the name of the list she gotten emailed to her. She stood and headed to the outdoor showers, rinsing off the sand from her hair and body before driving back to the hotel.

When she arrived, she placed the beach towel on a lounge chair in the living room area, and went in search of her teammate. Rhys was nowhere to be seen, and Maisy had hoped he had finally gotten out to get that stick up his butt removed before dinner tonight, she didn't know how much she could bear with his dour expression on his face without stabbing him with a fork to get a reaction out of him. Finding a pretty blue dress she had, she grabbed her other towel, body pouf, and body soap she had bought at Target earlier in the day to use in these weeks. Opening the door, she saw a partially naked Rhys, towel at his hips, shaving his face in the mirror, shock on his face, as he nicked himself with the razor. Letting out a yelp of surprise, she shut the door and waited for him to come out on his own heading to her room. 

Maisy sent a flurry of an apology to his cell phone, and he shook his head ever so slightly, waving it off. 

"I'll put a red tie on the door or something to let you know I'm in there." he texted back. 

"Isn't that college sign for...?" She  sent back smirked as he blushed, and texted her back, "You know what I mean! Go take a shower, we have 20 minutes to be there and I really don't want to be late." 

Maisy rolled her eyes and shot him a withering look, as it was his turn to smirk back at her, Maisy shook her head, and tied her hair back, stepping into the warm spray of water and showering, before drying off, doing her makeup, and donning her dress. Maisy knocked on the door connecting her room to Rhys', before he opened it, wearing slacks and a white shirt, with a tie that matched her blue dress.  

"Ready?" She texted.

"When you are." He told her, as they left the hotel room, and waited for the elevator. 

"You clean up nice." She told him with a smile.

"Thanks." He wrote back, to her dismay, he reverted back to one word answers. 

"So have you been to this restaurant?  I researched it, and they have one in NYC and another here in LA..." 

"Nope. And for Pete's sake, let me drive, I want to get there in one piece." He said. 

She rolled her eyes, but texted, "Who's Pete, why do I have to do this for his sake?  Is he joining us this evening?"  adding a smiley emoji. 

Rhys rolled his eyes as they headed to the lobby and held his hand out to her for the keys, impatient as ever.

"Fine." She texted him, fishing out the keys from her pockets, and placing them in his waiting hand. 

Maisy stormed ahead to the car, as he held the door open for her, shutting it behind him before getting into the drivers seat. He was an ass, but he was a gentleman-ass. They drove quietly, until Rhys decided to play with the radio at the stop light, to his surprise being blasted with music,  the bluetooth connected to Maisy's phone no doubt, before fumbling and finding the volume button to turn it down. 

Rhys waved to Maisy, and pointed to her phone, miming texting. 

"Your music is connected!" he typed.

"Oh! Sorry! Did you want to send me a link to a playlist?" She asked with a wicked grin. 

He shook his head, incredulously, and texted back, "We'll listen to whatever you have on your phone." He said, before putting his cell phone down, and continuing driving. 

To Rhys' surprise, her music taste was new but not halfway bad, not the tunes he usually played, but a lot of rock and indie bands, surprisingly, some metal bands in the mix too. He followed the directions carefully on the gps and got there with five minutes to spare. The valet there opening the door to his car, as well as Maisy's, as they made their way to the restaurant, Rhys giving the seating host their names, noting they were a part of a larger party. 

The restaurant was dimly lit, soft light surrounding fake foliage, the walls and decor mimicking Italy, as they followed the host to the long table outside, secluded from the tables for bigger groups. When they sat down, across from each other, awkwardly waiting for others to arrive. 

Maisy grabbed her pen and mini notebook from her pocket, ready if her translator failed to show up. The waiter brought a basket of breadsticks and set them in front of the two of them. Gods, she was starving... any moment later and she just might eat Rhys, dour look and all. Delving into the breadsticks, she munched on one absently while Rhys looked at her as if she had taken the whole thing and eaten them like some wild animal. 

Maisy smirked, if he wanted insane he'd get it, she thought, and broke one into two, making walrus tusks out of them, as he rolled his eyes a smile breaking through as he looked around for the waiter. "What?" She wrote down, chewing carefully as he shook his head, writing something back. 

"If I'm gonna be around the competition, I'm gonna need some thing to drink. Want anything?" He asked. 

"Gin and Tonic with a twist of lemon." She wrote back. He looked down at her reply, impressed such a small girl could order something other than some fruity drink. 

"What? I can drink..." She wrote with a knowing smile. 

"Okay." He wrote back, as the waiter came back and he ordered their drinks, settling in. After a while, some guests arrived some introducing themselves, and others just up downing their competition. The woman next to Maisy introduced herself in sign, which was sweet of her to try. 

"Hi, My name is Nadine." She signed. 

Maisy signed back, and introduced herself as well as Rhys, before realizing that was all she knew. 

"Sorry my high school ASL only got me so far! Where are you from?" She wrote on her notepad in beautiful handwriting. 

"Seattle. You?" She asked. 

"Vermont. This is Blake, my partner." She motioned to her beau, who was currently engrossed in conversation with someone next to them. 

"So which out of the two of you is the baker?" She asked Maisy. 

"I am. Rhys here just looks cute and holds stuff." She smiled, as Rhys looked at their conversation shaking his head and taking another sip of his amber colored drink.

Maisy and Nadine carried the conversation, talking about their lives at their respective cities, where to get the good stuff in town and of course their enjoyment for baking. Rhys just scanned the room cooly, 22 partners. The odds were staked against them, if he didn't become a team player and fast. 

The interpreter was late, according to one of the producers of the show, looking at Rhys instead of Maisy, who actually needed it, but they said to enjoy the evening and socialize as best they could. 

As the dinner wore on, and the first wave of appetizers flew around, everyone sat at their seats.

The waiter came back with two other people joining them. 

Rhys looked up from his drink, to see a brown haired man, and a woman next to him, arm in arm with him, as Maisy choked down her drink, seeing her ex-boyfriend... and his new girlfriend.