Chocolate? Not after I’d made the mousse.

Then it came to me. Mocha! Chef JJ was always sending people to get her coffee. No way she wasn’t a mocha fan.

Mocha peekaboo cupcakes. Killer.

I ran to the pantry and got everything I needed for the cake: eggs, butter, sugar, buttermilk, vanilla, flour, baking powder, and salt. I’d make the cream while the cupcakes were baking.

I whizzed through making the batter and didn’t look up even once to see what Keya was doing. In no time, I was sliding the cupcake tin into the oven.

50:28…50:27…

I ran back to the pantry and searched the shelves for instant decaf coffee. That’s what I used to give The Doughnut Stop’s chocolate cream a little kick. I figured for mocha cream, I’d just increase the coffee.

Where was it? My eyes raced along the shelves a second time.

No instant coffee at all, but there was ground coffee so I grabbed that and everything else I needed for the cream, including shredded coconut that I saw and suddenly knew would add the perfect flavor and crunch, toasted and sprinkled on top.

I ran back to my station, praying there was a coffee maker there that I’d just missed. I’d never actually used a coffee maker, but I’d watched my parents make coffee every day of my life. It wasn’t rocket science. I could figure it out.

After a thorough and completely useless search of the cabinet, I flipped the HELP sign over the back of the sink like Randy had told us to do.

A few minutes later, Chef JJ and Dieter were standing at my station. “My best guess?” Chef JJ said to Dieter. “Tristan here is wasting valuable time with whatever this is.”

“Tick-tock,” Dieter sang.

“I need a coffee maker.”

“‘Need’ is a funny word,” Chef JJ said.

“See, I’m ma—”

“Forget it. Make something else,” she said and walked off.

What was I thinking? Of course she wasn’t going to help. I could have said I didn’t have any spoons and she would have told me to cup my hands and start stirring.

46:02…46:01…

Forget Chef JJ and whatever fancy coffee machine she was holding hostage. I didn’t need either. I was making coffee, not building a rocket launcher. Making coffee without a coffee machine wasn’t impossible. I didn’t need a coffee maker. People made coffee for centuries before coffee makers, right?

Just like the Tea King said, my solution didn’t need to be pretty or fancy. I just had to make it work.

I could do that. The only must-haves were water and ground coffee and…

I ran to the pantry. No filters.

But what are filters? Just paper, right? I could totally Swiss-Family-Robinson filters.

I ran back to my station, filled a pot with water, and put it on a burner on high. While I waited for the water to boil, I tore off a ribbon of paper towels and folded them into a large square. I twisted the square into a cone and tried to picture myself filling it with coffee.