Sweet Delivery

"You worked hard last night," his secretary congratulated him after seeing the pile of completed work.

Lucas smiled weakly. Eventually he made himself leave the patisserie and returned to the cold office to finish his boring work. It had been arduous and dull, but the cake and flask of hot chocolate from Layla had pulled him through it. He finished the work around midnight.

"Those summaries you left me for the long ones helped me," he replied. "I think we're all set for the meeting this morning."

Caroline looked over his handiwork again and nodded in satisfaction.

"You are," she paused. "About your birthday next week…"

Was it that time already? This birthday would be his 25th birthday. That auspicious birthday was going to be a fateful one for him.

His parents had said when he took over the company that if he hadn't married anyone suitable before he turned 25, he would have to marry someone they chose for him. It would be an arranged marriage. Conveniently for them Lucas had no opportunity to meet anyone like that in the past 4 years.

Earl Ainsworth and Lady Ainsworth had married through an arranged marriage. When Lucas had found that out, he had been unsurprised to say the least. They had always been like two strangers sitting next to each other on the train. The more surprising thing was that they'd had another child after him. The heir and the spare were likely the intention; it hadn't been love.

In a week's time he would be the one preparing for an arranged marriage. Who knew what kind of women his parents had lined up for marriage meetings? If they were anything like his mother, his married life was going to be hell.

He came back to reality to find his secretary staring at him with polite scepticism.

"I wanted to ask if you wanted to take time off for it. Currently you have a few things you could manoeuvre to get a week off."

Lucas resisted the temptation to ask her to make his days busy so he wouldn't have chance to go to the family home. Instead he told her he would think about it.

Layla came to mind again. He should tell her it was his birthday next week, she might make him a special cake. He smiled idly at the thought of Layla presenting him with a personalised cake.

"You have a meeting to go to in five minutes," Caroline reminded him with a pointed look at the clock.

His escape into fantasy was disappointingly brief. The morning was spent in a stuffy meeting with other people in suits talking about money. A lot of those people were old, balding and tubby. His stomach started to rumble near the end and he wasted a moment thinking of what to eat at the patisserie in the evening.

The main person talking at the meeting was Zachery Ainsworth, a distant relation of his. He was the only other person in the room that was under 30 and not overweight. His parents were always complaining about Zachery Ainsworth, but Lucas's problem was more with Zachery's parents. They clearly had their eye on the company and were pushing their son to take over. Zachery had some resemblance to Lucas, but he liked to slick his hair back instead of styling it into a quiff.

Zachery hugged him warmly after the meeting was finally over and the old men had cleared out.

"I heard you spent most of the night here," he said. "I'll buy you lunch as a reward for your hard work."

"You're just going to take me to the employee canteen because it's inexpensive," Lucas retorted.

He had made sure his employees were fed well at affordable prices. Because of that the canteen was always full around the lunch period. He didn't mind eating there, it was just that people always flocked to him and he couldn't get any peace.

"Actually, no. Let's go to somewhere quiet and order delivery from somewhere," his cousin replied with a grin.

In the end they had to go to the roof. There had been some fairly deserted areas in the company building, but every time they had been about to settle and choose somewhere to order from, an employee would appear out of the air and ask for a photo.

"Can we get cake?" Lucas whined.

His stomach was about to eat itself and continue on if he didn't get something in there quick. As if on cue, his stomach let out a monstrous rumble. Zachery smirked at him and drew out a chocolate bar from his suit's inner pocket.

"Have this to state your hunger," he said and threw it to him before returning to his phone.

Lucas munched on the chocolate and finished in five bites. Now his stomach wanted more. He looked at Zachery to see him with his phone to his ear. He settled for looking down at the view to distract himself from his rapidly emptying stomach.

His company building was multi-storey and surrounded by skyscrapers. He had inherited a generic looking office building from his parents and swore he would move the company somewhere more interesting once his parents withdrew their tendrils from him and the company. That would probably be sometime after he had married to a woman they approved of. He sighed.

The future looked bleak.

"…thank you. I will order again soon," his cousin's voice became audible again.

"What did you order?" he asked once Zachery had hung up.

"There's this place called Sweet Cake Patisserie that does food you like. I've ordered Sandwich Set A and some cakes."

Lucas stood there frozen on the spot at the mention of Sweet Cake Patisserie. Had Zachery actually been inside his favourite place? Did he like Layla? Would those two suit each other?

His vivid mental imagination worked against him and flicked to an image of those two taking wedding photographs whilst he stood at the side with a faceless woman.

"I think I've been there," he said warily. "I haven't tried their sandwiches yet."

That was true. He never went there at lunchtime. As far as he recalled, sandwiches were only served in the morning and early afternoon.

"You should," his cousin said enthusiastically and gave him a thumbs up. "The owner is a bit chubby, but she's super adorable."

Lucas's heart plummeted down to the ground. It was over. His cousin and Layla were going to marry happily and have cute babies. Layla didn't deserve to end up with someone who said she was chubby.

"You would never guess she's from-"

His cousin was interrupted by Caroline bursting out onto the roof. Her usual smooth demeanour was gone and she was breathing hard.

"There's something that needs your attention immediately!" she said in a harried tone.

Lucas looked back at Zachery and the prospect of a very delicious lunch. He had to go with Caroline to sort it out. The company vs a nice lunch didn't involve a difficult decision.

His cousin waved back cheerily "I'll send your half to you later."

Lucas nodded and returned to his office with Caroline to resolve the matter. It turned out to be not as serious as he'd been expecting. A proposal from his reject pile had ended up going through the first stages of the investment process. All he had to do was to make some phone calls to retract it and smooth things over.

His secretary popped her head in after he had made the last phone call.

"Your lunch has arrived. I would also suggest going home early- you worked too hard last night and today."

His eyes affixed onto the neatly wrapped package in her hands with the logo for Sweet Cake Patisserie. He could spare half an hour for a break and his stomach rumbled loudly. If he thought his stomach was protesting earlier, it was rioting now.

"I'll take a break now, but I've got too much on this afternoon."

His secretary withdrew and he turned off his computer screen. He moved the keyboard to the side to make space for his lunch. The pink patterned paper used on the outside was adorable and the note on the top denoting the contents of the set was in Layla's handwriting.

The first part of the set was a neatly arranged club sandwich held together with a blue heart shaped cocktail stick which was followed by fruit salad and cheese straws. He ate them in bliss and moved onto the cake which was wrapped in special patterned greaseproof paper.

Today's special was a strawberry shortcake. Everything about it was perfect from the placement of the strawberries to the neatness of the piping. The only problem was that it reminded him of how much he wanted to be at the patisserie instead of his office.

He found a card at the bottom of the container asking him to fill in an online survey to give feedback. Lucas was very willing to do so. He turned back to his computer and located the website.

The survey was basic and offered him a chance to enter a prize draw which he refused. He ticked all the boxes to say he was satisfied and then at last he had the chance to write a few things in a box at the bottom. He spent a moment deciding what to say and hit on something that came from his heart.

Layla should have delivered it in person. That's the only negative point.

He grinned to himself and submitted the survey.

His goal in life was to make Layla happy and that comment should have achieved that.