1 Ch. 1: Cakes

*Brendon x Jessie*

There was something about both Brendon and Jessie that made everyone stop and take notice whenever they passed by. Brendon Moore was a guy with short dark hair, standing a little over 6 feet with a remarkable aura around him. Ever since he could remember, he was always the most eye-catching person in the room. Not particularly handsome, but eye-catching. It wasn't something he was happy about though. Everywhere he went, he had eyes following him. He hated it for so long until he finally learnt to ignore everything around him and focus on what was ahead. And ahead was Jessie Gray. Jessie was, well in every sense of the word - beautiful. She had raven shoulder length curly hair and a round, symmetrical face. Unlike Brendon, Jessie was a pure old fashioned beauty. She was breathtaking when she walked, more so when she stopped to talk and smile. But if there was one word that perfectly defined her, it wouldn't be 'beautiful', it would rather be 'simple'. That was what led Brendon to fall for her in the first place exactly like it happened in movies - popular guy falling for the simple girl. Except in this case, even the girl was popular, she was just too down to earth to realize it herself.

Brendon and Jessie had known each other since junior high. They went to high school together and eventually dated all the way through college. When they graduated and both settled with proper jobs, Brendon realized that he had barely known anyone since junior high except for Jessie of course. He had always had just this one friend. Jessie. And yet he had never felt alone all this time. No matter what, she was always there for him. So with days of pondering, he finally decided to pop the question. To his delight, it was a resounding YES. But little did he know that planning a wedding was going to be harder than popping the question itself.

"What about this one?" Jessie asked as she pointed to one of the cakes from the cake brochure. Jessie and Brendon were out cake hunting for the wedding. Although it hardly mattered to Jessie how the cake would look like, Brendon insisted on getting a cake that everyone would remember. But so far, they hadn't found what they were looking for.

"Not one cake is good around here!" Brendon exclaimed in frustration, turning down the 28th cake from the fifth shop of the day.

There was one important detail about Brendon which is worth mentioning though. Even though he was this calm, composed and level headed guy most of the time, there were times when his frustration level reached the peak, resulting into him saying whatever came to his mind at that moment.

That was one of those moments. Brendon had had enough of those cakes. Even though he made sure to visit only the top cake making shops, he was still with nothing.

"So many cakes and yet each and every one of them the highest quality of shit available" he lashed out. The manager of the shop did not take Brendon's words kindly and that resulted in them getting kicked out of the shop.

As soon as Brendon's head cooled off, he realized how rude it was, but it was too late. The wedding he had been planning so reverently was in 10 days, and he was still without a cake. If his best friend and to-be best man Robbie was there, he would have said that the cake was the most important part of the wedding, more so than the bride herself. How Robbie came to such conclusions no one knew. But he was right about one thing, cake was indeed important.

Seeing him distressed, Jessie held his hand and looked into his eyes.

"We will find the perfect cake for you and me" she said and she tried to calm him down. That was when it caught her eye. This small cake shop, standing on the other side of the road. They had almost been to all the top cake shops around. Maybe it was time to change things up a bit.

"Let's go check that shop out" Jessie said pointing to the small shop as she started walking towards it.

Reluctantly, Brendon followed.

*Claude x Riley*

Claude was in love. Agreed, he had been in love loads of times. He loved each and every cake he made, but this was different. This was the love he had never felt before. This time it was for a girl. Claude was never the kind to attract much romantic attention. He didn't need to though. He always had this passion for making cakes that he inherited from his father and after his father passed on the shop to him, he had woken up everyday vowing to make better cakes than he did the last day. His father had always taught him to value internal beauty more than anything superficial. And he had taken that to heart. He never yearned for love when he saw everybody around him falling in love and getting married. He still didn't. But he couldn't help but fall for everything about her. More importantly, the way she treated him.

As soon as the clock struck 12, he started stealing glances at the door more and more frequently. When he heard the door open, he looked up at the door, his eyes filled with joy. But it wasn't who he was expecting. Instead in came the most perfect looking couple he had ever laid his eyes on. They were both gorgeous in their own right.

"Umm.. Do you sell wedding cakes as well?" the raven haired beauty asked him, her eyes for some reason, filled with hope.

"Yes we do madam. We sell every type of wedding cake here. You can take a look at our brochure" Claude said as he pulled the brochure out of the desk and handed it to the lady.

As the couple went through each of the cakes, he could see that they were not satisfied. He had never had an unsatisfied customer before. He wasn't going to leave them unsatisfied either.

"We bake custom cakes as well. You can tell me exactly what you want, and I would make sure you get a cake that everyone will remember" claimed Claude. He looked at them with eyes filled with determination. Even though they didn't completely seem satisfied, Claude showed them a diary. It was his personal diary that he kept to draw sketches of cakes whenever a great idea struck him. Those were his personal collection. They were close to him. As the couple went through the diary as well, they suddenly stopped at a particular entry. The guy looked up at him with eyes filled with thankfulness. He turned the diary at Claude, pointed at an entry and said - "This." Claude looked at it and smiled. His father's favorite design.

Claude was happy that the couple left his shop satisfied. But there was still something that he was worried about. It was 12:30 p.m and still no sign of her. As he heaved a sigh and turned to start working on the cake, the shop's door opened.