Nadim still came straight to Reena’s apartment every day after work to kiss her with knee-weakening intensity, before retreating to his place to change clothes. They ate dinner together every night and cooked together several times. And each night was spent together in his bed. Reena swore she’d lost three pounds thanks to bedroom exertions alone, and her skin had never been clearer. In fact, she’d wondered what she’d been thinking when she’d decided that celibacy was a good idea—her body and her mind were just kinder to her when she was sexually satiated.

But, of course, she and Nadim didn’t talk. Not really. Not about the past, or the future. Amira’s voice in her ear was persistent in reminding her that all this was wrong. It was wrong to spend so much time with him without ever talking about their future. It was wrong to sleep with him every night without knowing how he really felt about her.

It was wrong to be in love with him without ever telling him. If she was in love, that is. She honestly didn’t know.

But if Reena was good at anything, it was ignoring the voices in her head that told her the path she was on was covered with snakes that would bite her in the ass one day.

Late Thursday night they were in bed when a Google Alert told her the standings after the farm-to-table round were live. The video had gone up Monday morning, and there had been three days of voting. She opened the page right away.

Nadim leaned over her, practically blocking her view of the phone in her hand. “What does it say? Are we getting an all-expenses-paid trip to Toronto this weekend?”

“Did you forget we live in Toronto?”

“Shush. We’d still be getting a night in a posh hotel downtown. Did we make it? I want that FoodTV studio tour!” He tried grabbing the phone out of her hand.

She swatted him away. “You’re like a toddler sometimes.”

“Half hour ago, you said I was all the man you wanted.” He crowded up against her, deliberately pressing his hardening penis against her leg.

Yum.

“If you had faster Wi-Fi, this conversation wouldn’t be happening and we’d already know if we made it to the next round,” she said.

He looked at her with that mischievous grin that was too damn appealing. “You’re right,” he said, plucking her phone out of her hand. “Which leads me to wonder if this time waiting for it to load would be better spent.” He tossed the phone to the other side of the bed and lowered his lips to hers.

It was a good while before Reena managed to actually check the standings. But she wasn’t complaining. And she certainly wasn’t complaining when she saw they were in second place, only a dozen votes below the Jeffs. They were moving on to the semifinals.

Marley dressed Reena simply for the studio, a pink T-shirt and long yellow pleated skirt with platform sneakers. Thankfully, it was still unseasonably warm for late September, and the skies were a perfect blue again. Ideal picnic weather. Reena had been a complete ball of nerves leading up to the day, but Nadim’s firm hand on the small of her back gave her the strength she needed as they walked into the low-rise TV studio downtown. After checking in at security, they were led to an outdoor courtyard space behind the building. A handsome man dressed completely in black and wearing an audio headset greeted them.