The 60th Win

So yea, here i am, engaged to the one person i thought i would hate forever, its funny how things change let me tell you about it. It all started at the Annual Rum and Sugar baking contest, obviously i'm a shoe in for the win i've been baking since i was ten, but there's one little problem... and his name is Jackson. I don't know where to begin expect for that we've been rivals since high school, and not just in baking, academics, sports you name it, it was always a competition. Jackson Evander Smith, Born October 1st, Me? Lucia Grace Arnold Born on November 1st, even our birthdays are a competition. I started baking after my grandma Judy, she taught me everything i know, like how to bake the perfect pie, and the perfect batch of cookies. I was entered in my first baking competition at fourteen, i won ofcourse with grandmas famous copycat apple pie cookies. Now i thought the second competition at fifteen would be another trophy, but that's when i first met Jackson. When he was crowned the winner i was furious, we came to an agreement that he could have any halloween baking contest and i could have thanksgiving, its like our birthright. We decided that valentines, would be mine and easter would be his, but the Rum and Sugar Annual christmas baking championship would be up for grabs. I can't begin to tell you how many times we have tied, actually about 32 times in total. See it's been about four years and were out of high school now, we both travel around too different baking competitions all over the states, it's always a pleasure when we find ourselves at the same one. Currently were tied both at 59 wins however that all changed this year when we both returned for the Rum and Sugar in our hometown. He won last year and i won the year before, so this year i planned on bringing my best recipe yet, see there's three rounds in the older division, a cookie round, a sweet casserole round, and ofcourse the last round, the only rule is it must be made from rum and sugar. So this year i packed my baking sheets and pans and headed to the competition recipes in hand. For the cookie round, i planned on making pumpkin pie cookies with sweet filling, And for the casserole sweet potato of course just like every year it wins everytime, and for the last round, well that's a secret. However when i got to the contest there was a major issue, there was so many contestants that they had to make teams of two, you can probably guess how that went... Long story short when they announced me and Jackson as partners my heart dropped, there was no way i was working with my greatest enemy of all time. After me and Jackson both complained to the judges they gave us a ultimatum, work with each other or come back next year, neither of us would back out and give the other one the win, so partners it was. We decided that just this once we would team up and and after we won we would be tied at 60 little did i know how sweet that big win would actually be. The reason why i had never change my casserole is because casseroles are just not Jacksons things, i knew i would win that category as always, so i let him have his apple cinnamon cookies and we would stick to my casserole, for the main dish however we created something new. The competition has a prep period of about three weeks, we tested recipes after recipe until we finally found the one. We decided on a giant chocolate cream puff with candy cane filling, and it was amazing. I thought working with Jackson would be tough, and yes we did argue but we learned that we were so similar, he had learned his baking talents from his late grandpa, and he had always loved baking to honor him just like i did for my grandma. Over the span of the three weeks we could feel eachother getting closer, we hated it, but loved it at the same time, i refused to admit my feelings in fear of rejection and humiliation, but i knew he felt it too. When the day of the competition came it was sweet, and stressful, we were up at five am getting everything moved into our panel. When the first round started everything went to plan, just perfect the judges we amazed by the cookes, pure delight. However in the second round Jackson was so determined to make the casserole, my big mistake was letting him do it. He left it in too long and it burned the top it tasted fine but didn't look so good. With five minutes left on the clock we were panicking like never before, however i had a brilliant idea i sprinkled caramel on the top and scorched it like a creme brulee, right as the timer ended i knew we had this in the bag. The judges didn't seem too notice our mistake, they even thought it was creative, that was the first time id made eye contact with Jackson, and it was magical, i was shocked and in denial. Three long hours later me and Jackson our frosting red and white onto our creme puff, it was perfect but i was still worried, a new team had come this year and there layered cake looked amazing. When it came too tasting me and Jackson were sweating with nervousness, but they seemed to like our dessert just as much. Me and Jackson hasn't really talked about our feelings toward each other this whole time, i wasn't sure of his intentions until judging when they crowned us the winner, we burst with joy, and feeling i thought we would never both share at once. He kissed me, it was like a scene out of a hallmark movie, ever since then we have been inseparable, he proposed on our six month anniversary, i guess you could say it's out lucky number. We decided to open a bakery named 60th street sweets and we are getting married next fall, I always knew we would share a tie, never one like this though. It was the greatest win of my life and know every one after it will be shared with the love of my life.