Love At Last

CHAPTER 72

THE TOP TEN

Following the events of everything that has been happening, it’s already been forty-eight hours – two days since we started preparing for next phase of the baking competition. I implored the total indulgence and creativity of every one I worked with – my staffs – to come up with something bigger and better than last time. This time was much more better than the last because I had less to think of as the time ebbed away. We’d been preparing two special cake recipes to blow the judges’ mind off with. The cake wasn’t going to be just any regular cake, it was going to bring ‘heaven’ to whoever had a taste of Its scrumptiousness – the judges inclusive.

One hour to the competition, I wrapped up the day’s recipe preparation, and went home to prepare myself physically in order not to be late for the big day.

“You’re sure you don’t want to eat something?” nana kept nagging while I prepared to leave the house soon.

“Nana please, I want to be there on time for this, please,” I pleaded respectfully. Nana looks at the wall clock.

“What do you mean? It’s barely 11:00 am and this round I know starts by 12!” she exclaimed beaming with wonderment. Nana cared too much about me to let me leave the house on an empty stomach; she was simply the best.

“Nana, how I managed to get to the top ten, I still cannot fathom. But right now, what matters the most is that I’m part of the chosen ones today, and I’m not going to compromise my doing well for this round,” I said. “The two special cake recipes I prepared will definitely earn me that top spot,” I bragged, “so nana please, don’t force me to eat anything right now,” I made my point clear.

“You need strength for this, you know?” nana insisted.

“I already had a bite of everything I prepared earlier today at the shop so I’m okay.”

“If you say so,” she yielded.

Thirty minutes later, I was ready to move to the next venue of the outdoor competition. I went outside my house and boarded a cab to take me to my destination.

While driving, I wound down the window to let the cool breeze in; I felt so excited and nervous at the same time. While looking through the window, I sighted a familiar car – Cayden’s car – from a distance at the other side of the road.

“Please slow down a little,” I urged the driver so as to take a proper look at the G-wagon I caught sight of.

My suspicions were proven to be true, it was indeed Cayden’s car. He was standing outside the car with the strange woman I met at his house the other day, against a street; they looked like they were looking at something so meticulously. “Please you can increase your pace,” I wound up the window and let out a sigh of annoyance. Seeing them together provoked me.

Owing to what I just saw, I felt really annoyed but I had something bigger to achieve so there was no way I was going to allow Cayden and his ‘mistress’ to taint my mood. I rested my head against the chair, closed my eyes and fantasized all the judges giving me near-perfect scores.

“We’re here,” the driver announced on getting to our destination causing me to feel tensed a little bit. ‘We prepared day and night for this, Lily. We can do it,’ I cheered myself on and alighted the vehicle.

I was just in time!

The competition was going very smoothly and before I knew it, it was already time for the tasting – the moment of truth for every contestant. They were a total of seven judges this time, which could leave one a total of seventy points – a complete boost in the scorecard.

“Contestant ‘ten’!” the master of ceremony announced it was my turn to serve the judges my dish. “Mmhh, the appearance of this beautiful dish on your tray is mouth watering,” the MC cheered as I walked to the judges with my dish placed in a rollable tray. This was usually the time that made me the most nervous.

“What dish do you have for us today?” one of the judges asked.Contentt bel0ngs to N0ve/lDrâ/ma.O(r)g!

“This right here is a special cake designed by me…,” I explained.

“It’s a cake?” the woman looked amaze by what she saw. Yes, the dish I had in my tray didn’t really look like a cake.

“Yes it’s a cake,” I confirmed. “This one,” I pointed to the one by the left, “was specially prepared with mashed lemons…” I went on and on, on how the dishes were prepared as I was supposed to do so before the tasting in this round; it was the requirement.

After my brief talk, the judges each had a taste of my artwork. Only a few of them managed to keep a straight face after tasting my food, the rest of them were completely mind blown. It felt so good to finally be the center of it all again, as many of them called my dish the best; I felt on top of the world. After tasting, they all raised their score cards.

“’10’, ’10’, ’10’, ‘9’, ‘9’, ’10’, ’10′”, in my mind, I read the scores each of the seven judges displayed on their card as my mark – a total of sixty-eight points!!!! What I fantasized actually came true.

The crowd cheered me on, but no one did that better than myself. I felt so happy and alive after a long period of brooding. And that was how I managed to boost my scorecard rapidly.

Moments later, the competition came to an end and as usual, we were asked to pack up. While packing up, I kept humming my favorite song to show how excited I was. A number of people walked up to me with congratulatory messages.

“Congratulations”…”congratulations…” “congratulations…” ‘Congratulations’ was the only word I could hear as though I’d actually won the competition. That wasn’t the case though, a few other contestants who got near-perfect scores also received their share of the ‘congratulations’.

Few minutes later, Cayden – who I didn’t expect to see – appeared before me looking all feisty and annoyed. The first thought that came to mind was concerning his mistress’s whereabouts; I didn’t see her around.

“What are you doing here?” I maintained a straight face; I had to force it as I was too excited to do so.

“Seriously, Lily?” he sounded upset. I guessed it was because I refused to tell him of the feat I achieved – securing myself a spot in the top ten.

“What?” I feigned ignorance.

“You really didn’t tell me you had a competition today, even though I came all the way to your shop to ask you about it,” he stressed the ‘all’ dramatically. “Why didn’t you tell me? Don’t you know I’m your biggest fan?”

“When I called to give you the good news, did you take my calls?” I muttered under my breath.

“Pardon?” He obviously didn’t hear what I said. I didn’t said it to be heard by him so I wasn’t going to repeat myself again.

“Lily, from what I heard, this round was for the top ten. You didn’t even tell me you managed to pull it off!”

“How did you know to come here?”

“You really don’t expect me to answer that, do you?” he backfired.

“Look, it’s not important, okay? You have your life to live, just keep doing that.”