The smile on Rico’s face froze in place, or maybe Ashna was projecting. When Rico was on camera it was hard to tell what was real and what was not.

The monitor played the judging clip from their cooking episode yesterday when the food editor had held up the churro. The churro had been admittedly lame. Or rather, limp. On the screen, it curved down in an arc. In front of them the judge traced an arc with her finger with impressive drama.

That made Rico bless everyone with his full-throated, self-deprecating laugh. The judge fanned herself with her notepad. Ashna pasted a smile on her face as they watched the rest of the footage of the judge holding up the curving churro.

Her mortification had to have shown because Rico leaned close to her ear. “Lighten up. It might not have been a fabulous churro, but it is another fabulous television moment, so they’re going to milk it.”

She realized she was leaning into his whisper and pulled away. Her body retaliated, soaking up the caress of his breath on her earlobes, and sent another ungodly zing through every one of her traitorous internal organs.

DJ threw Ashna and Rico a smile. How had DJ developed this repertoire of smiles for the camera so fast? He held out his mic. “The judges think your churro didn’t . . . ahem . . . quite stand up to the test. What’s your reaction?”

Would they stop with calling that churro names?

Rico was about to open his mouth, but Ashna grabbed the mic from DJ. “I agree that it could have been . . . well, stiffer, but given that this was Frederico’s first time making one, I for one was very impressed. I’ve eaten a few churros in my day, and I don’t think I’ve ever tasted one quite that delicious. Looks aren’t everything.”

The studio audience, which was in complete darkness today, lost its collective mind all over again.

DJ let out a delighted—albeit surprised—laugh. “You’ll be glad to know that you weren’t the only one who thought so. I think you’re going to enjoy this next part.”

The large screen played footage of the judge holding up the curving churro one more time to audience boos and then played clips of social media reacting to it. An endless number of people had an opinion on the matter. Someone had even spelled out their names in churros for an Instagram post.

ASHNA + RICO.

(Inside a churro heart. Groan.)

From behind the cameras, China bounced on her heels and blew Ashna grateful kisses.

Unsurprisingly, the judges’ scores were as lukewarm as their criticism.

As they walked away, Rico’s smile was too arrogant by half. It was the other half of his smile that told Ashna she had made a mistake by taking the mic.