Chapter 1

1

Henry shoved another cupcake tray into the oven with a huff. The noise he made bordered on a growl and his warm, beloved kitchen shivered at the sound of it. Sighing, Henry turned away from the oven and leaned his palms against the center island, head lowered. These were not sounds for his kitchen. Not this banging around and huffing and angry noises. The kitchen was his peaceful place. Where Henry smiled without realizing. Rocked his hips offbeat to his favorite bands singing the best of music in the background while boiling bubbles popped and eager veggies sizzled.

Today, it was anything but. Today, Henry wore a tight frown rather than a smile. No music played at all, and even if it did, Henry was in no mood for offbeat dancing or out of tune singing. Not even a whistle would make it past his lips.

“This is ridiculous,” Henry mumbled, as he snatched up the mixing bowl to scoop some batter out with two of his fingers. He stuck them both in his mouth. Muttered with his mouth still full of batter, “It’s not thatbig of a deal.”

Taking a few more bites of raw batter, Henry dropped the bowl into the sink, considered washing it over shoving it in the dishwasher, but decided to just grab another set of mixing bowls. He had several of them so he could keep baking for special occasions like holidays and birthdays and such. Luke had made sure of that when they moved in together.

Henry dug through the cabinets under the sink for the bowl and started mixing up another batch of batter.

He could do this. No point in trying to hide it now anyway. Henry was baking cupcakes and he only baked cupcakes when there was something wrong. So Luke was gonna know that something was wrong the second he walked in. Which, if he stuck to his normal schedule, should be in less than a minute. Just in time to sit at the table and claim to help frost the cupcakes when, really, he’d only be licking the frosting off the spoon.

Still in the middle of throwing together another mix of batter, Henry could hear the distinct sound of keys jingling in the door. It’d take Luke at least two tries before he finally unlocked it. It always did.

“Hey!” Luke called the second he worked the door open. Right on time. “Uh-oh. I smell cupcakes.” He wandered into the kitchen with his coat and hat and gloves still on. “Bad day?”

Oh, that wasn’t even the half of it.

“Yeah,” Henry grumbled as he pulled the second tray of cupcakes out of the oven. “Real bad.”

“Wanna talk about it?”

“Sure. But I bet you won’t need me to tell you what happened.”

Luke grunted and yanked the wool hat off his head, making his locks of dark hair full of static.

“Blaine still giving you a hard time?”

Henry scoffed a humorless chuckle.

A hard time. A hard time would be a piece of cake. The last two months had been a damn nightmare, having Blaine in the same department. It was hard enough before when Henry needed to pretend to laugh at his jokes—which were sometimes pretty offensive—when just in passing and had to get his approval for only some projects because he was an editor’s personal assistant.

Now, since he’d been promoted to a senior editor’s position, he’d been utterly unbearable. With Blaine making subtle remarks that made Henry a little uncomfortable and winking at him after an occasional rude joke and even once pretending that he wanted to pinch his ass. He was pretty sure Luke was gonna plow down anyone who got in his way to sock the guy in the jaw for that one.

Most of the time, the things Blaine did were passive enough that Henry had to question if they really wereinappropriate or if he was overreacting. Sometimes, it didn’t even dawn on him to be offended until later.

On top of that, Blaine somehow managed to pile all his shit onto Henry’s already full workload. He even made a remark once about Chinese guys loving all that extra work. Never mind the fact that Henry Kato was Japanese. Not that trying to explain something as simple as that would ever get through to someone like Blaine Thompson III. The one time Henry tried, Blaine laughed him off and told him “you people are all the same to me” and Henry didn’t care to bother again.

He did take that one to human resources, though, and a month later, everyone had to attend a seminar on sensitivity in the workplace.

Luke had told him time and time again to quit. That Henry’s time—and life and hard work—was worth so much more than how he’d been being treated. Henry agreed with that, he really did, but another six months and he’d have a year’s experience in the publishing world. And working for Owl Books for a year could open so many opportunities. He had to stick it out. Just another six months and he would be out of there and then he could look for a job somewhere where his skills and talents would be appreciated. After a year’s experience at one of the most respected publishing houses in the country, Henry could finally make moves to become an editor himself and have a hand in making a writer’s dream come true.