chapter 1

When I first started dating my boyfriend Cham everything was perfect. He was such a romantic, always surprising me with little tokens of affection. But slowly, over the course of many months together, our storybook existence was being rewritten. Things weren't always so upbeat. Cham was negative about a lot of different aspects of my life and slowly I started hating myself. I felt like complete trash until I met Brady. I hadn't considered what would happen between the two of us. He was such a great guy, a guy that helped me reevaluate my life. I'll always be thankful for that.

I had first noticed the new handyman about two weeks after he started working in our building. He had been around the apartment complex quite frequently and the older members living here were afraid he was scoping the place out for a robbery. That was when the building owner formally introduced him to all of us.

He was a younger guy, but very large, about 6'4" and 250 pounds. He was gorgeous, incredibly handsome. He had darker, brown hair and green eyes. I was so taken by him from our first meeting I couldn't believe I actually forgot about my boyfriend.

Cham was a lot like Brady. They were both tall and muscular, but Cham was very fit. Brady had a lovely belly that I noticed pushed out his t-shirts. Brady also had a much better butt. Cham didn't work in the traditional sense and he spent most of his time exercising. He did modeling work for a chain of local fitness centers, who paid him surprisingly well each time they called upon him for their advertisements.

Cham would never eat anything I made for him at work. I was a patisserie and I loved to bake. I studied in France for two whole years during college. Cham said he'd never eat something so fattening and usually threw away any snacks or pastries I brought into the house. I had gotten used to it, but I never stopped bringing the treats into the apartment. Maybe one day he'd tell me he liked what I made.

It was a few days after the building manager introduced Brady to everyone. I was at work, apron tied tightly around my waist and a smile on my face. I loved what I did. I washed my hands and started mixing batter for an order. The bakery I worked in was relatively small and the owner was getting very, very old. She was super sweet, but her daughter wasn't. Karen hated the bakery and planned on tearing it down once her mother died. She had actually said that to me. She said, "I plan to tear this dump down when that old bat dies." I could never imagine saying that about my mother.

At the end of the day I took home the older baked goods as usual. I began to put them away when Cham walked into the kitchen and lost his marbles. I already knew what he was going to say. "Eli, what did I tell you about this garbage?"

"Cham," I said seriously. He picked up a box of strawberry tarts and flung them into the trash can. "It's food, not garbage!"

"I don't want this shit in the house," he said as he threw more of the snacks I made into the garbage. "Nobody likes this garbage, so stop bringing it back here."

"What if we have company or...or you want a snack?"

"Like I'd eat this," he spat. He threw another bag of cookies into the trash bin. He lifted his tank top over his head and stood shirtless in front of me. "You don't eat that stuff if you want to look like this." He walked out leaving a boxed Bundt cake in my arms. I had smashed it a little from holding it so tightly. At least he didn't push me this time.

There was a knock on our door and I went to answer it. I saw Brady standing there and smiled foolishly. I still held the cake in my arms. I loosened my hold on it.

"Uh yeah, I'm here to fix a shower head." Had I called him? No, it was probably Cham. The shower head had been acting funny.

"Oh--okay," I said. I lead him to the bathroom and he started unscrewing the shower head. Was I supposed to leave? I stood there until I felt my silently watching him was borderline creepy. "Do you want some cake?"

"Huh?" he asked.

"Oh, um...so...some Bundt cake," I said, clarifying what the heck I was talking about. I thought about the cake some more so I could describe it for him. "With a peach flavored glaze and, uh, some milk? It's a little banged up but I'm sure it'll taste all right."

"Sure," he said as he continued to work. He didn't look my way but I could see he was smiling widely. Somebody was actually going to eat my food for once. He plopped the shower head into some mixture he had made and washed his hands. "That has to soak for twenty minutes before I reattach it."

"Okay," I said. "Sounds like a plan." He followed me into the kitchen and sat at the table. I cut an incredibly large slice of cake and set it in front of him before I grabbed a glass for the milk. "If...if that's too much cake you don't have to eat it all." He was already halfway done.

"It's delicious," he lauded. "Did you make this?"

"Sure did. I work in a bakery," I said proudly. I was a bit embarrassed by how pleased I sounded. "I don't know if you've heard of it. It's the little one a few blocks east of here. 'Sweet Tooth.'"

"No, I haven't," he said as he drank the milk I had handed him. "But it must be great if you work there. Hell, if I had somebody that could bake like this I'd be the luckiest guy in the world."

"My boyfriend threw away most of the stuff I brought home today." I didn't mean to sound gloomy. I didn't really mean to sound any type of way in particular.

"Really?" he asked. He finished the rest of his milk and stood up. He walked over to the garbage can and picked up the bag of cookies. "These look good." He opened the bag and ate one. "They taste fine too."

"It was nothing wrong with them...," I said, my thoughts trailing off. My excitement from receiving compliments from a brawny Adonis about the one thing I was most confident in the world had my mind wandering in a plethora of directions. "He just told me not to bring them in the house."

"Well, you can always give them to me."

"That'd be nice." I smiled. He smiled. He said he had to finish the job in the bathroom.

When Cham came back, he threw out the other half of the Bundt cake.