2.7. Messing up

There was something I needed to do. More like there was someone I needed to take revenge on. Unfortunately, that person didn't try to speak to me once, to my biggest disappointment. He spent the whole week looking at me from afar, though. It was extremely annoying but at least that meant that my plan wasn't a complete failure. I just needed to make the first step. Which was fairly easy.

The next challenge was in duo.

And with the system, I could access the participants list and change the groups. I needed to be in the same team as him to eliminate him. That bastard destroyed the original's career just because he could fuck his brother in exchange. And now, just as I had predicted, he'd rather have me.

Of course he would, I'm way more attractive than that shitty brother of mine. Luckily, the duos are announced at the beginning of the weekend so the contestants can accustom themselves with the other and already start to work and find ideas together two days before the challenge.

On the screen in the living room, the groups of two were displayed. I smirked inwardly. Greg seemed quite happy to be paired with me and that made me laugh even more. He's clearly not ready for what I'm about to do. The thing is, there will be two teams eliminated during this test and between those, only two contestants have a chance to be saved. What's more, only one person in the pair can be saved.

Which means, if we're eliminated, he'll have to fight against me —and he clearly have no chance to win.

Greg walked towards me with a shy smile.

"Hey, did you see? We were put in the same team. Let's work well together, yeah?"

I smiled too —not shyly, though.

"Yeah, I saw! I'm sure we're going to be a good match!"

He beamed and nodded excitedly. Haha... I'm going to make you regret ever laying your eyes on me, you disgusting pig.

So we started working on the kitchen for the weekend. The more we talked, the more we spent time together, the closer he was from me. Until he was slightly too close. Gosh, his breath felt like a moist wind at the sea — I almost could feel the scent of fish too. Or maybe it wasn't my imagination.

I nearly felt sorry for Dany.

Nearly.

I used all my patience and mental strength not to beat him up. I thought that after a life time with Amory, I became more used to people's touch —at least to other's proximity— but seems like he was just an exception. Or maybe it's just that this kind of people disgust me, whether it's mentally or physically. Since I can bear some people's closeness, other than my husband's.

Obviously, I made sure that the cameras caught every of his gestures and every of my uncomfortable faces. Hell, I want the viewers to take my side when I'll lose on purpose. Since it's already well known that I'm a great cook —not to sound full of myself— it'll be obvious that I sabotaged the dish so if I look like the victim, they'll feel like it was justified and I'll be able to get away with it.

And Monday came, along with the challenge.

"What will be asked of you today, is a complete service of one entry, one main dish and one dessert. You don't have a theme to follow or anything else, you just need to make so that every dish goes with the others. I want a complete harmony of tastes."

Greg turned his head to look at me, with a smile and a thumb up. I nodded at him with a forced grin. Damn, I can't wait to have him out of my sight.

"Are you ready?... Start!"

As we were cooking and he was clinging to me, I felt an angry stare piercing on my back. Of course Nova would be mad, the other bastard had his hand on just above my ass. I was totally uneasy but at the same time, I was delighted —and glad— that Nova seemed jealous. At least, that meant that he might have already caught some kind of feelings for me.

After the show, I think I'll stay for a bit in this world — I want to spend more time with my love as there is no guaranty my guesses about the system and his identity are right. I hope they are, though.

"Angel? Are you okay?"

I snapped back to reality and realised that I was lost in my thoughts, abandoning the meat that was grilling on the grill and started to burn. Well, I was planning on failing this dish on purpose but looks like I don't even have to try to mess up.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I'm fine."

He looked at the steak and passed his hands on his hair in exasperation.

"Oh, shit. It's overcooked! What are we going to do?"

I blinked, acting lost and bitting my lips in guilt.

"I'm sorry. How much time is there left? I'll redo it right away."

I glanced at the clock on the wall. He did the same and almost slammed his head on the table in despair. There was less than half an hour left and the meat necessitated 30 minutes on the grill to cook. Yes, it's a lot but took ingredients that were difficult to cook in purpose so it would be easier to fail the recipe.

"Fuck! Damn it! We don't have time to start again. I'm fucked... We'll go to the eliminations and then, I'm sure to lose against you... Shit..."

As he was lamenting, I was struggling to maintain a sad guilty face. That was quite hilarious, to be honest.

For the rest of the time, he was unable to do a single thing without doing a mess as he was too stressed about losing. In the end, the food we presented to the judges seemed so gross that they were frowning, not daring to even taste it. They raised their heads to look at me in wonder. They were wondering how I was able to fail my dish to this point when I had proved I was able to serve 5 stars dishes.

"What? How? Why?"

Chef Anthony was unable to say a single sentence. The food critic signed.

"Well, you used to do better. I have to admit, I'm quite disappointed."

Nova stayed silent, staring blankly at his plate, deep in thoughts. He brought it to his nose and smelled with a grimace painted on his face. He put it back on the table with a sigh and took a knife to cut the meat. To try to cut the meat. it was so overcooked that it was as hard as a brick. He gave up with a heavier sigh and looked back at me.

But instead of scolding me, he smiled and started to laugh slightly.

"Pfft. What the hell. I don't even want to eat that. I even think it's not eatable, unless you want to die with a cancer."

This time, I couldn't hold back a giggle. Looking into his smiling eyes, I could tell that he knew I was somehow responsible for this, but not because I'm lame at cooking, obviously.

" I'm sorry, but unfortunately you'll have to go to the elimination challenge."

I smiled and nodded. I knew that those words, which Nova had probably never said in his entire life, were meant only for me.

"I understand and... thank you."

I turned around without sparing a glance to Greg, who was half angry, half dejected. I laughed inwardly. I won't stop until his career is destroyed, and that begin with kicking him out of this competition.

Pretty easy.