Chapter Text
Icing is really sticky. Not like the fun kind of sticky where you could put your palms together and pull them apart like velcro, but the kind where it feels like you’re stuck in an endless loop of washing your hands. You get a spot on your finger while finishing a cake tower, and suddenly the paste has spread all over your hand. It was the unfortunate life of a baker– or a “patissier” as his boss Sophie would correct him all too often. Except, Caiden didn’t do the baking part. He thought of himself as a pretty terrible baker. He just iced things. Cupcakes, cakes, and cookies if specified by the clients. It was usually Sophie’s job; her better half and co-owner of the shop Patrick did all the baking. But more often than not, they would “accidentally” take on one too many projects that required both of them in the kitchen. Caiden used to just deal with the front counter but now he predominantly in the back.
It was Monday and once again, Sophie had taken on an order that Caiden thought was far too big for their store. This had kept her, Patrick, and himself after hours, having shut off their big OPEN sign around an hour ago. The order consisted of five of their store’s flagship cakes, the “Macaron Gateau.” A three layer dinner plate sized macaron that boasted two layers of whatever flavor of icing your heart desired. It was their most commonly ordered item, and rightfully so. Just a slice was an experience. So, he was in the back finishing up a batch of red velvet cupcakes that were set to go out the following afternoon. He didn’t complain much about being in the back. He got to listen to music and work alone, so it wasn’t all that bad. Besides the getting sticky part. They’d hired a new girl to take over the register so now he didn’t have to jump back and forth between the back and the front. That and he got a full view of the ensuing panic of Sophie and Patrick who were working at warp speed to make the dough for these giant macaron cakes. Caiden finishes the last cupcake and finally places the icing bag down to shake out his wrist. They looked good but damn did it hurt his wrist every time. “These look even better than the last batch I did,” Caiden thought to himself as he popped out his earbuds, “They should give me a pay raise and change my title to Chief Icing Executive.”
“Hey Sophie!” Caiden called out to the woman who was steadily adding things to an industrial sized mixer, “Do these look any good?”
Sophie glanced up from her work at the mixer and once glance towards the finished cupcakes brings a wide smile to her face. Caiden can’t help but feel warm seeing her happiness. “Oh, Caiden, these look merveilleux,” the heavy French accent dripped from her compliment, “I told you that you’d improve, non?”
Caiden rolled his eyes bashfully and shrugged, “Yeah, well. I think I have a pretty good teacher.”
Sophie waved her hand, “You flatter me, Caiden. You have a knack for this though, I’m glad I have you here working with us. Would you mind packing the order? You’re free to leave once you’ve done so.”
Free to leave? She didn’t have to say that twice. “Yeah, no problem!” Caiden replied, “How’s the cake going by the way?”
“It’s going well!” she said, heading back towards the mixer, “I believe we’re going to finish the batter tonight and come back tomorrow morning to finish. The cakes don’t have to go out until the following morning.” Caiden was already grabbing for one or the collapsed boxes to start putting together for the cupcakes to be presented in. At least they’d go home early tonight. He remembered a few times where they’d stayed up all night working on multiple orders. There had been one too many 3am clock outs under his belt. But he didn’t mind. This couple was like family to him and he got paid pretty decently too.
The bakery was called Harmony Delights. It was situated in Lower Manhattan and it was run by just Sophie and her husband Patrick. They’d had the shop going for about 5 years and made good money with it. It was definitely more Sophie’s dream than it was her husband's. Patrick had chosen the name. He was a music producer who’d retired early and according to him his wife asked if they could open a bakery now that the children were gone. It was meant to be a small side job but word spread quickly how good Sophie’s baking was that she bought a storefront and now took orders as well as serving food. Occasionally, their son or daughter would pop in to offer a hand but it was usually just Sophie, Patrick and Caiden working the store along with their other 10 employees. Sophie never wanted to have anyone but herself and Patrick making the food, citing it would “no longer be quality French baking if someone else did it.”
Caiden got the boxes folded together and went to grab some more of the fancy wax paper that lined the inside, only to realize they were out. So, he hopped off his chair and headed to the darkened front of the store to go and grab another stack. His mind was wandering, thinking about the 3 day old pastries he’d be taking home for free tonight. He usually got to take home a pretty hefty amount on Mondays when they refreshed their stock. Tonight’s dessert would be eclairs. As he’s bent down getting another stack of papers, the sound of knocking pulls him out of his daydreams. Knitting his brow together, Caiden stands up. “Am I imagining things or…?” His eyes glance over to the entrance of the store where he sees a rather nicely dressed woman standing in front of the bay window.
No, he wasn’t imagining things. The woman makes eye contact with him and excitedly waves him over. Caiden glances to the back and then over to the woman once more, quickly waving his hand near his neck to indicate that he couldn’t answer the door. The woman shook her head and went to reach in her bag. A piece of paper comes out, and Caiden feels some relief that it wasn’t a gun. The woman points frantically to the paper, and Caiden can see that from a distance it looks like a poster for a tour. It was apparently very important. Caiden holds up a finger and quickly heads to the back, “Hey… Sophie, Patrick? There’s a lady at the window and she seemed pretty adamant that someone should come talk to her,” Caiden explained, “I tried to tell her no.”
Sophie took a step forward, but Patrick stopped her and shook his head, “I’ll handle it,” he says, “Don’t worry.” Wiping his hands clean, Patrick headed to the front of the store where the lady frantically pulled the paper back out from her bag to place it against the window pane. Caiden stays back a bit, watching on curiously as Patrick puts his glasses on to view the page. He nodded with a thoughtful “hmph” and to Caiden’s surprise, opened the door.
“I apologize,” Patrick said, “But we aren’t taking any more orders right now.”
The lady’s voice was muffled a bit through the traffic but Caiden was still able to eavesdrop quietly. He grabbed a broom and started to sweep a little. “I know,” the woman replied, “Listen, I’m a manager for this band. Our caterer dropped out last minute, and they’re set to have a show in Madison Square Garden tomorrow. We have food but now we don’t have desserts and I read some reviews online saying your business was the best. I tried to get here earlier but I'm not used to this traffic.”
Patrick glanced around a moment before opening the door wider, “How about you come in and we can chat? It’s a little chilly out there for you to be explaining things to me on the doorstep.” Caiden doesn’t quite make out the rest but Patrick opened the door the rest of the way and the woman stepped in, her eyes traveling around the decorated store.
“I’m so happy you folks were still here,” she says, “I hate to have to barge in after hours but, this truly is an emergency.”
Sophie was already out in the dining room area, “Emergency?” she asked, “Are you alright?”
“Oh, I’m just fine!” the woman replied, reaching a hand out towards Sophie, “Well, maybe a little less than fine after the day I’ve had but– I’m not the emergency. I’m Kelly, by the way. I’m a manager for a band that is here in town and we’re in desperate need of an emergency caterer.” Sophie took Kelly’s hand cautiously, flashing a concerned look to her husband. Kelly continued, “See, they’re performing in Madison Square garden on Wednesday and we just found out that the bakery that was responsible for the dessert portion of our after show dinner completely ghosted us this evening and we have nothing for these boys. They’ve been working so hard to perform here and we wanted to do something special to celebrate getting to MSG. I saw great reviews for you all on Yelp and I… I just prayed you’d be open.”
Caiden wrinkled his nose a bit. There was no way Patrick would let this fly. He continued to pretend to sweep. “We already have so many orders to fill,” Sophie was the first to object, “I don’t know…”
“We will pay you handsomely,” Kelly stated, “Whatever you normally do, we’ll triple it.”
Caiden stifled the gasp in his throat, which turned into a small cough that he couldn’t contain. Quickly, he headed to the back and swiftly into the cooler to let out his coughing fit. Bent over, hands on his knees he scanned the ground while his thoughts raced. Triple? How much would that even be? “They’d be stupid not to take this,” Caiden thought to himself, “I think I’ll just stay back here and finish packing these cupcakes.” He walked back out into the kitchen area and took a seat at the table, the muffled sound of hushed talk still creeping its way into the back room.
He cared, but he didn’t care. What band was it? Maybe he knew who they were. They had to be pretty big if they were performing at Madison Square Garden. Why hadn’t he looked harder at the poster? While he’s loading the cupcakes, Caiden pulled out his phone and typed in “madison square garden performance tomorrow” into the Google search bar. Pursing his lips together, he scrolled a bit and frowned. Greta van Fleet. Was that who was looking for sweets? He’d never heard of them before. They must be pretty new, but big enough to perform at the Madison Square Garden? Caiden was shocked that they were even here. Caiden opened Instagram and curiously typed in their name to check and see what they were all about. They had about a million people following them which wasn’t half bad for a newer band. And they were cute. Caiden wondered if he’d have a chance to meet them.
“Caiden!” Sophie’s voice pulled him out of his thoughts as she entered the kitchen, a smile on her face, “We took the gig. I think we will need you to stay later tonight. Will that be okay with you?” Caiden looks back at the packaged cupcakes, pursing his lips together. Another 3am night. At least he got paid well.
“I’m cool with that,” he said, “Are we canceling the orders for the Macaron Gateau cakes?”
“No,” Sophie shook her head, “We’re going to put it on the backburner. This order is mostly eclairs but we will need to make some cupcakes too. I’ll need you to deliver them tomorrow with me.”
Caiden nearly dropped the bag of flour he was reaching for, “Me? But I’ve never delivered before.”
“Patrick is going to stay behind tomorrow to try and make a dent in the rest of the orders,” Sophie explained, “Which is why I will need you to come with me.”
Caiden was shocked. He was always a behind the scenes guy. Worked in the back on the icing and making things look nice, watching reactions from behind a corner. He rarely ever showed his face. Now this? “You know how I get with crowds Sophie,” Caiden said, “I don’t do well. It’s why I work in the back.”
“I know Caiden,” Sophie was already dumping ingredients into the industrial mixer, “But I do really need you.”
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Caiden didn’t leave the bakery until around midnight that night. Not that Patrick and Sophie made him stay, but more like he felt obligated to stay. The manager who’d popped in at the last minute dropped an order for 100 cupcakes on them before she’d left. She, Sophie and Patrick spent a good hour just chatting out in the lobby while he swept the floors, trying to eavesdrop without looking too suspicious. He tried his best not to be a nosy nelly but it was hard when you heard that this was going to be for such an important band.
Patrick went back to icing the cake that he and Sophie had been working on before Kelly had come in, leaving the job to start the cupcakes for Caiden and Sophie. Sophie’s idea was that they could have them ready in the morning, already cooled and ready to be iced. “You’ll have to pipe the icing like you’ve never piped before,” Sophie had said while they were mixing. Caiden had rolled his eyes and laughed but in reality, he was definitely nervous. It wasn’t like they didn’t have big orders in the past where they were crunched for time. Caiden would never forget the brownie incident with the malfunctioning mixer. That had put them really behind. What had him concerned was just how fast he could work. And would they like them? These were some pretty high profile people they’d be serving so a lot was weighing on him to make sure these came out right.
But at least it gave his mind something to ponder on while he rode home. He was definitely not used to being out this late at night, and riding a bike through the west end of town made him feel naked. There were still far too many people out wandering the sidewalks for his liking and he had a very strong feeling that they were likely up to no good. Sly figures were slinking around the sides of the road, mixed in with more wobbly people who were likely strung out on drugs. But that was what he got for choosing to live in New York. And seeing some of the homeless people sleeping under the trash made him feel lucky that he had something to call home. Even if it wasn’t a great something.
Through the opening of a chain link fence, Caiden rode his bike onto a gravel road into a grassy area which opened up into a pretty decently sized motor home park. Here there were homes of all types, mobile homes, trailers, buses and campers in various states of disrepair. Caiden called this place his home. Specifically towards the back of the park where his old RV home was waiting.
It wasn’t the nicest home on earth. Having been parked for years, weeds and grass were growing all around the tires that were green with algae and sunken into the ground. The once well maintained bus was now dingy, faded and all around the ground in the front were bits and bobs of art projects he’d abandoned. Caiden slid off his bike, coming to a running stop. He gave the stand a harsh few kicks with his foot until it finally came loose and propped his bike up next to the home.
With a small sigh, Caiden hopped up the steps and yanked open the door to his camper. He’s greeted by a little white chihuahua who stretches from her spot on the bed before hopping down onto the carpet below, tail wagging. “Hey Tuna,” Caiden greeted the furry little dog with a chuckle, “You’re probably hungry, aren’t you?”
Turning on the overhead light, Caiden starts to search for the bag of food in the cabinets. She probably was very hungry, having been usually fed at 9pm every day. He was nearly 4 hours overdue on refilling her bowl. Once Tuna was happily crunching away on her food, Caiden headed over to his bed and opened up his dresser while he debated about heading out for a shower. Planet Fitness would definitely still be open and they were about a 5 minute ride away on his bike. But he wasn’t sure if he wanted to go out at this time of night to shower. Not like he didn’t have a shower. There was a perfectly good one in his RV, but it was broken and he was simply too lazy to fix it. Maybe he could do it in the morning. Caiden grabbed a shirt and some shorts, quickly changing out of his work clothes.
But like he did every time he was topless, Caiden stops for a moment to stare at himself in the mirror and admires the reflection that was staring back at him. So much time, effort and money had gone into giving him the look he wanted, and yet he still kept it all a secret. Caiden runs his fingers across the scars under his chest, still a harsh pink color. The doctor said it would be a few years before they’d be less noticeable. It had only been 6 months since he’d recovered from this surgery, and there’d be another 6 more before he would fully feel comfortable taking off his shirt in front of other people. But now at least he felt less like a cow every time he took off his shirt in front of himself.
It had been a long recovery process for him, top surgery. All the articles he’d read warned it would be rough and it was. Especially for him, having little to no support at all. Most of his neighbors weren’t aware that Caiden took testosterone, that he was gay and that he had a thing for watching RuPaul’s Drag Race secretly in the night. All of them just assumed he was a single guy just living with his dog in a big RV. So the day he came back from having surgery, he spent about 2 weeks in bed on heavy painkillers and told absolutely no one. The first few days had been the hardest since he could barely move, he’d been nauseous and dizzy but managed to survive doing it alone. He’d quickly figured out on the first day that he could move if he just stayed hunched over. Then, the rest of it was a breeze.
Caiden threw on his shirt and hopped into bed, reaching over to grab his laptop. It was time he researched this band. He wanted to know what kind of music they played and if they were really worth all this fuss. His first Google search brings up the same informational tiles that had popped up on his phone when he’d initially looked them up at the bakery.
They were a rock band from Michigan, according to Wikipedia, composed of 3 brothers and their friend. He couldn’t tell who was who but they were all rather good looking men. The bassist especially caught his eye with his long hair and bright mint green instrument. Back on his first tab, Caiden eyes the list of songs that were being suggested to him and eventually decides on one of their newer songs, Meeting the Master. Grabbing for his headphones, he plugs them into the laptop, listening intently to the song. The song starts off slow with an acoustic guitar that wasn’t exactly the most entertaining, but then the vocals come in and Caiden is blown away. The lead singer had a powerful, soaring voice that was beautifully unique. And boy was he nice to look at too. Caiden was hooked.
Halfway through the song, Tuna hopped up onto the bed with him and settled in next to Caiden as he went through the band's discography. Was he a fan now? He was almost nervous to meet them tomorrow now, they were so talented. It made him feel like he greatly paled in comparison to his meager little hobbies. He took off his headphones and turned to the little dog who was nestled next to him, “These are some pretty talented dudes, Tuna,” he explained to the dog, “I probably shouldn’t have looked this up, huh?”
Now he felt like he had even more weighing on him to ensure that these cupcakes were perfectly iced. They might have been from a small town but they might be divas and if they were divas, then they might not like his icing job. And then there was the thought that they might not even like the cupcakes. Sophie would be heartbroken.
“No,” Caiden furrowed his brow, “No, I’m overthinking things.” He got up from bed and shut his laptop, running hands through his wavy blonde hair. They were probably just some nice guys and there was a good chance he wouldn’t even see them at all tomorrow. They’d probably just drop off the cupcakes, the manager would thank them profusely and then he’d leave with Sophie and his life would remain the exact same way that it was.
Caiden popped open his cabinet in the kitchenette, finding a spare container of instant ramen sitting near the back. He was due to get groceries soon. Filling up the cup with some water, Caiden puts it into the microwave and leaned against the cabinet. His mind was still racing, even though he wanted it to stop.
This was a really big job. Bigger than any job that Sophie and Patrick had ever taken. It was expected. They were an up and coming bakery located in a busy district of New York City. Traffic for their store had increased exponentially and they were nearing the point that they needed to hire more employees. But Caiden had just expected something like low level celebrities. Not a whole entire band. He had to make sure everything went well tomorrow. Sophie, despite her best efforts, was clumsy. She had dropped cakes in the past and had to remake orders in time crunches. The microwave beeped, his food was ready. Caiden returned to his room and reopened his laptop. He had to talk to someone about this.
Caiden opened up Discord and clicked over to his recent chats where his friend Luke was usually waiting for him. But tonight, the little green circle next to his name was gray. He’d been gone for a few hours already. Caiden still decided to send him a message.
hey, sooo… I have a problem?? We have a HUGE job tomorrow and I’m really nervous about it. Message me when you get a chance.
Luke was a very old friend. Someone he’d known long before his transition, and someone who still remained in his old home state of Alabama. He was someone he knew he could trust with this sort of stuff, nothing that his chat buddies from his Call of Duty games would really understand. They didn’t even know he was trans. Caiden waited for a few moments to see if Luke would come online but to his dismay, the gray circle remained. Caiden sighed and took a bite of his noodles. Maybe it was just best that he slept on it.