Jeanine kept asking questions about how much I’d actually remembered from Terrence’s email, like she was trying to prove that I hadn’t even really cheated, and it would have been so easy just to let her, but I couldn’t get past this by going backward.

Then there was Winnie. In her opinion, I’d made something about nothing, and then I’d thrown that something—$100,000 of it—in the trash instead of using it to solve our doughnut supply problem. For weeks afterward, every time she saw me, she’d yell, “You never heard ‘finders keepers, losers weepers’?” She’d only stopped when Josh and I proved to her that our doughnut collective was starting to work.

I flipped on the lights in The Doughnut Stop, then turned on the computer.

My Doughnut Stop email inbox was brimming with new mail. Big surprise.

I took a deep breath, held it, then clicked.

To: [email protected]

From: [email protected]

Subject: Order

Tris,

Can we change that order to 20 mocha cream, same numbers on the others? The mocha was a big hit, and I’m guessing hearing you talk about how you came up with it on Can You Cut It? last night will make it an even bigger one.

Thx,

B

I hated to think about Betsy sitting in her living room with her family eating popcorn watching me talk about how I’d cheated. Luckily, what Betsy cared about more than anything else was her store, so she was going to buy from us even if she thought I was a horrible person.

I wrote her back that we’d adjust her order, noted the change on our order sheet, and opened the next email.

To: [email protected]

From: [email protected]

Subject: Re: Can You Cut It?

I could tell from episode 1 you thought you were better than everybody else but now we all know you’re just a FRAUD.

I quickly hit Trash, then froze. The atole magic was gone.

At least this was an email and not a comment on the website that the whole world could see. Still, way more people watched Can You Cut It? last night than ever looked at our website, and they’d all heard me say what I’d done. And this is what they thought, that I was a fraud. It didn’t matter that I’d tried to make it right.

I selected the page of emails, all from addresses I didn’t recognize, then hovered over the trash.

Could I erase all these emails without reading them? Maybe I deserved to read them?

Click.

To: [email protected]

From: [email protected]

Subject: Recipe?

Can you please send me the recipe for your mocha cream?

Thanks,

Judy Pitzer

Omaha, Nebraska

I exhaled. That wasn’t scary. Maybe there were other emails like that one.

Click.

CHEATER. CHEATER. CHEATER. CHEATER…

Not that one. I dumped it in the trash, then clicked open the next one.

To: [email protected]

From: [email protected]

Subject: Just saying

I stared at the screen. I recognized the symbols as Hebrew. Did they show Can You Cut It? in Israel? And why was the subject line in English?