“Why are you here, Frederico?” she finally said, throwing another wary look around the room, and while there was something comforting about the fact that she had changed beyond recognition, how much she seemed to care about what everyone thought rubbed his nerves raw. Even at sixteen she had been more self-possessed than most adults he knew; none of the fads and waves of what their school thought was cool had ever seemed to register with her. She had been so brutally focused on what mattered to her that Rico had let being one of the things that did matter become his life.

Of course she’d like to know why he was here. Laying out his hand in front of her without any thought of self-preservation once had taught him well. He never left a play open anymore. “Didn’t you watch the interviews? I’m here to learn how to cook. My career just ended and I need a hobby.” He kept his voice cool, his smile cooler.

Her eyes narrowed. She scoffed without scoffing.

“Why are you here, Ashna?”

Her gaze fell to the wooden chopping board at their station. She adjusted it so it was perfectly aligned with the countertop. “I’m here for the only reason anyone should be here. Not to play games, but to win this competition.” She made another adjustment to the already perfectly aligned board. “But that’s not going to happen if we’re on a team. We can’t be together.”

He had to laugh at that. “Not like I’ve ever heard that from you before.”

Her face flamed again and something other than tired flatness glittered in her eyes for the first time, a small spark of the fire that had defined her, breaking through this new frigid exterior.

He crossed his arms and relaxed his hip into the countertop. “If what you say is what you mean”—another cool smile—“and you do want to win, then I think we’ve got a pretty good start. A record number of viewers are expected to tune in for today’s show and they will be voting. And they already love us together.” What had the journalist from Sports Illustrated said? Ah yes, “You can’t fake this kind of magic.” If only they knew the truth. Ashna Raje could fake pretty much anything.

Was she faking being calm right now, or was this coldness real? “Yes, but I’m not here to win a popularity contest based on some sort of rom-com the public is waiting to see unfold. This is a cooking show. It’s my career, not a hobby, and I want to win based on my talent.”