-TO BE TAKEN DOWN-
Katy Thomas is best known for her booming bakery shop, Katy Cakes, that has desserts as sweet as she.
Her new neighbor, Gage Rivers, is best known for being bitter and closed off from others.
The only thing they really have in com...
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It was here.
For days, all I could think about was making it to the final round and in less than an hour, it was about to become my reality. There was no turning back now. We have our passes, we signed the papers, we went through the debriefing, it was official. All that was left was getting mentally prepared for either total victory, or extreme loss.
I didn't want to think about the latter being an option, but naturally, that's all I could think about. As much as I tried to stay positive, for some reason I couldn't stay there long. Maybe it was because I was borderline sleep deprived and my nerves were on edge. With everything that has happened in the past twenty-four hours, it was amazing that I was even still standing. Gage knew this too. He tried to distract me from all of this earlier when he took me to see the rest of the competition. And although I will admit the barbecue section was phenomenal, especially the Memphis barbecue, it couldn't erase my nerves completely.
I have told Gage over and over that we will win this and everything will be fine, but that was before I was staring at the finish line. Now, with it being in reach, I started to lose my grip on my confidence. Because now, it finally hit me that losing it all was a very real possibility. And not just the money. I wasn't ready to risk it. I wasn't ready to risk Gage. I could try and pretend that this was just another competition, but it wasn't.
This wasn't a competition for money. This was a competition for Gage's life.
Not to mention if we fail Violet will become—I didn't even want to think about it. I honestly didn't want to think about any of it, but how could I not? I could spend the entire day with Gage, smiling and having a good time when all I could think about was the possibility of failure. My mind was cruel and pretended like we had already lost. It began to travel down a dark path, wondering about all sorts of horrid things. How many more times I could hold Gage's hand? When will be the last time I could kiss him in the morning? How would it feel sleeping in an empty bed every night? What would I do if I could no longer feel him anymore?
He had a whole life ahead of him, but what if that doesn't happen? What if he isn't able to do the things he wanted? What if the items on his list were all for nothing? What if he . . . never becomes a father?
I tried to push away such negative thoughts, but they soon become real questions. It all boiled down to this: Could I survive the consequences of failing all of this?
I looked up to see Gage slipping on his shoes near the doorway. There was nothing special about this little action, but he doesn't have to be doing anything special for me to be entranced by him. Because I am, in every single way, entranced by this man. And to even think that stolen moments such as these could be taken away permanently . . .
That's why I stopped feeling guilty for wanting to defeat the other competitors. I may not know their reason for joining this competition, but I could guarantee that it was not nearly as serious as my reasoning. Even if we don't win first place, anything would be better than nothing. As long as there was some way to help Gage.
