Author's Note: Written for the prompt: elimination was a close call between the two of us and you feel so bad about still being in the competition that you invite me out to dinner… failure has never felt this rewarding - Gadge SVP. #TeamNadiya
So when the final of The Great British Bake Off was due to air, I asked for GBBO prompts as you do!
Gale had never really expected to last this long, so getting knocked out in the semi-finals wasn't as devastating as he thought it might be. He was mainly just proud that he had made it this far into The Hunger Games, which was fiercely competitive across the whole of Panem.
In fact, District 12 had never even had two competitors make it through to the filming stages before and their only victor in the history of the baking show was Peeta Mellark, contestant-turned-judge, so he and Madge Undersee making it this far was pretty ground breaking.
But if the guilty looks she kept flashing him were any indication, she thought he was angry with her pipping him to that final spot. He couldn't exactly blame her. He hadn't been the nicest to her when they'd both made it onto the show. He'd assumed she'd gotten there because of her friendship with Peeta Mellark and hadn't been exactly shy in telling her so. She'd been so mad that she'd upended a bowl of cake batter over his head during their final practice before filming started.
As the cameras stopped rolling and they all started to exit the tent, Madge fell into step with him.
"I'm so sorry, Gale," she said, biting her lip. "I really thought you would get through." He shrugged his shoulders a little but before he could say anything, she continued, "It totally should've been me who was eliminated. My technical was a disaster. How can I make this up to you? Let me take you out for dinner tonight, please?"
He'd been about to reassure her that he wasn't upset at all, but the prospect of dinner with Madge was more than a little tempting. He might have started off angry and resentful towards her in the competition, but she was a talented baker, obviously there on her own merit, and she was incredibly pretty to boot. He'd spent more time than he liked to admit imagining what it would be like to kiss her.
"Dinner sounds great," he said, giving her the slow smile that he knew flustered people. He wasn't blind to his good looks or above using them when it benefitted him. And he wanted to fluster Madge Undersee.
She blinked at little at the onslaught of his charm – he had never turned it her way before she smiled back at him. "Perfect. It's a date then."
Her eyes widen in horror at her words and she said hastily, "Not a date date. I didn't mean an actual date."
"Why? Am I not good enough to date now that I've been eliminated?" he asked seriously.
"Oh God, no! I didn't mean that, no! I just-" she trailed off and glared at him. "You're messing with me, aren't you?"
He grinned then. "I couldn't resist."
"Jerk!" she said, nudging him in the chest with her shoulder.
Gale slid his arm around her waist. "So is it a date?"
"If you want it to be," she said, turning her face up to look at him, an anxious gleam in her eyes.
He dropped a kiss on the tip of nose and said, "Definitely a date then."
