She tore open the envelope and read out loud.
As many of you may know, June is Pride month for the LGBTQ+ community. As such, I would like you to think about creating a tiered wedding cake for a same-sex couple.Could be male, female, nonbinary, trans, whatever you wish. I expect creativity not only in the look of your cake, in its overall appearance, but also in the flavor. I know a lot of competition shows use premade cake, but we don’t do that at the Bennett-Schmidt retreat. You will bake your own. Choose the flavors, the colors, the design. It’s all up to you. Use today to hash out your design, and we will begin putting them all together first thing tomorrow morning.
One more thing…for this project, you will be partnered. This time, we’ll go with roommates. Therefore, teams are as follows: Ava and Regan, Maia and Vienna, Madison and Paige. Assistants will not be on hand to help this time. It’ll just be the two of you.
Impress me.
The two of them stood there staring at the paper in Regan’s hand for a long moment. Then their eyes met, but they continued without words for another moment before Regan finally said, “Wow. Okay, I didn’t really expect that.”
“Which part?” Ava asked with a snort. “The Pride project, that it’s a wedding cake, or the creation of teams?”
“Yes,” Regan said. “All of it.” She had mixed emotions around this project. Of course she did. She was pretty sure Ava did as well, considering how she couldn’t seem to look her in the eye. Regan finally sighed. “Look, I know you’d rather not partner with me. To be honest, the feeling is mutual. So let’s just get through it, okay?”
“I didn’t say I didn’t want to partner with you.” Ava seemed to be going for insulted and added, “Don’t assume you know what I’m thinking, okay?”
“Of course. Sorry. It’s fine. We can manage this. We’re grown-ups. And you can’t get me fired from here, so we should be good.”
Ava poked the inside of her cheek with her tongue but said nothing. Instead, she turned back to her own side of the room and pulled her covers up, making her bed.
Okay. Fine. That’s how we’ll play this.
Regan returned to her own space as well and dug out clothes for going outside. A long time ago, she was a runner, but getting up by three thirty in the morning just to get to work didn’t leave much timefor jogging. By the time she was out of work, she was exhausted, so she’d graduated from running to simply walking. She took her clothes into the bathroom, changed, brushed her teeth, pulled on a black hat with the Sweet Temptations logo embroidered in pink, and was done in mere moments.
In the bedroom, Ava was sitting at her desk with her laptop open. She didn’t look up.
“I’m going for a walk,” Regan said, then immediately wondered why she felt she needed to report her intentions to Ava. She sighed at herself, grabbed her phone, and headed out of the room.
* * *
Ugh. That woman.
Ava had to consciously unclench her jaw so that she wouldn’t get a headache. Stress did that to her, and Regan was giving her some stress, it was true.
She would never say anything, but losing to Regan in air hockey the night before was still niggling at her. She’d expected to win. She hadn’t been prepared for Regan to be that good. Who the hell else under forty was good at air hockey? She stifled a groan of frustration because she didn’t lose well. She knew this about herself, which was the only reason she was able to school her expression afterward and be gracious. Inside, she’d been seething that she’d lost. To Regan, of all people.
Before she could dwell any longer, there was a soft knock on the door. Who in the world was visiting before six in the morning? She crossed the room and opened the door to find Maia and Vienna standing there.
“You guys up?” Maia whispered, craning her neck to look around Ava.
Ava nodded. “Regan went for a walk.”
Maia held up an envelope. It was identical to the one Ava and Regan had received, but with Maia and Vienna’s names on it. “You see this?”
Another nod. “We got one, too.”
“What are you guys gonna make?” Maia asked, and Vienna gave her a light smack.
“You can’t ask them that.”
“Why not?” Maia’s voice held a slight whine. “They have an unfair advantage with Regan being gay.”
“What?” Ava asked. “How?” She didn’t add that she was gay, too, because she was far too curious about this so-called advantage it gave her. “Do you think she’s better at rainbows?”
Vienna rolled her lips in behind Maia, clearly trying not to laugh at her pastry partner.
“What? No. That’s silly. It’s just…” She seemed to fumble for words, then tugged at the ever-present purple bandanna. “I don’t know. It just seems unfair.”
“You’re ridiculous,” Vienna said, her tone good-natured.
