David Miles and Richter Layover are young lovers from West Hollywood who move to Snowden to open a liberal and fun bakery called Cupcakes. What follows is a string of extraordinary men who enter their lives and change their matrimony and the bakery forever. Realtor Anthony Jarr, handsome and alluring, who lives above Cupcakes and considers himself an exceptional lover. When he meets Ryan Glayson, a professional cellist with a relentless urge for sweets, Jarr falls in love for the first time, turning his life into a topsy-turvy spin of surprising romance and selflessness. The magnetic and strange Stefan Pavlov is one of Cupcakes' regulars. Although he comes across as being sweet and charming, he has secrets that are quite damaging, which are exposed during a heated summer along the lake. Erich Misslow, a part-time employee at Cupcakes, becomes enamored with Pavlov, who is almost three times his age. Erich has always enjoyed the company of older men, but does Pavlov have too much peculiar baggage to share? Cupcakes also draws in Ken Eclipse, a charming underwear model with a taste for sweet men and sultry sex. Eclipse searches for Mr. Right like a slice of cinnamon cake for his appetite and personal needs. Can he find the man of his dreams at Cupcakes, or will he forever be single, enjoying the bakery's treats alone? These employees, friends, and lovers combine together with their individual recipes of bliss and loss, and the little bakery called Cupcakes comes to life as the sugary flavor of a gay neighborhood along the lake bursts into life.

Cupcakes

There was a roar above our heads, slapping, yowling, and sexual noises that belonged in the jungle and not in Snowden. Jarr and Ryan were behaving badly in their bedroom, loving each other in the same way that I had wanted Richter to love and behave badly with me.


“Here are the answers you’re looking for,” he said, passing me the red folder.


I took the folder from him and opened it. There were a list of city addresses, pictures of empty storefronts, and pages and pages of various properties and listing amounts, which consisted of compared property values, property tax evaluations, commercial locations, and familiar details that I knew Jarr had worked with throughout his years in real estate. “What is all this?” I asked, curious of his response.


“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that you’re looking at property to buy, comparing sites and stats. All of this information refers to city buildings and storefronts.”


“Exactly,” he said, smiling from ear to ear.


Chapter 42