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

Richter called out to Jarr, “Watch the shop! David and I have some business to take care of!”


“On it!” Jarr answered, eating a slice of strawberry cake that was going to be thrown away because it was a day old. “Ryan and I will run the place.” They had finished the bottle of golden champagne between the two of them, but weren’t intoxicated. Perhaps they were buzzing because of their alcohol consumptions, but it didn’t mean they couldn’t maintain the shop while Richter whisked me away by the hand.


I didn’t know where I was being led. Richter escorted me out of Cupcakes through its front doors in a quick trot, around the side of the building, and up to our apartment on the second floor. Once inside the apartment, he closed the door behind us, locked the two of us inside, and began to strip me out of my clothes.


“Guy, what are you doing?” I asked, enjoying his play, whatever it entailed.


“Seducing you. What do you think I’m doing?”


Chapter 45