-End of the Beginning-

Cake was an amazing culinary artisan with a phenomenal gift propelling him high above the rest in his field. He was a martial artist with a tall, muscular, although gangly frame. He had a beautiful girlfriend, and lived, worked, and owned one of the most aesthetically pleasing and stylish establishments in the historic city of Lincoln. However, as a businessman, he sucked… big time!

CAKES Bakery & Pâtisserie had been running for five months and with autumn giving way to winter, it felt cold, with daylight hours shorter. Things changed drastically for the business, and with Cake and Jade’s relationship.

Things went wrong with the business almost immediately. Neither Cake nor Jade had done any financial planning or forecasting. Cake presumed that his high-quality products and good ideas would see them through. Jade soon realised that they had not budgeted for the daily costs involved in running a business. They had not factored in any of the peripheries, such as accountants, taxes, licences, and along with the high rental for the bakery, they were still paying a mortgage on their London flat.

Following their opening, they had a fair turnover of customers coming into the pâtisserie, wanting to try out the fresh tastes and flavours of Cake’s unique baking experience. However, after the brief honeymoon period, the customers dwindled from a daily crowd to a steady stream of regulars. Because of the price and unfamiliar range of Cake’s food, the Lincolnshire folk considered that the pâtisserie was more of a luxury treat, as opposed to a daily snack.

At first, Cake and Jade couldn’t figure out what prices to charge for the products and under-priced the cost to the customer. They had only worked out how much cake paid for the ingredients and added a small profit, not factoring in anything else. Therefore, although his prices were cheap at first; when Jade worked out the lowest price they needed to charge, it was too steep for Lincolnshire folk.

The Daves’ and Cake continued baking and experimenting, but it only brought disappointment as trays of their unsold creations ended up either taken home by the staff or binned.

Cake, not interested in the financial side of the business, left that side of things to Jade, who went to accountancy courses at the local college a few evenings a week.

After a few months of tuition and putting what she learned into practical application, she soon realised that unless they made drastic changes, they would soon go bust.

One evening as the couple sat on the sofa, jade, feeling frustrated and looking concerned, said, “Cake, we cannot afford to carry on running the business this way, otherwise we will go broke. You need to cut down the cost of your unessential rare ingredients. You are not working at a high-class hotel where you can order anything and presto it appeared.”

Cake glowered at Jade and snapped. “No, I need them for some of my creations and I won’t compromise on …”

“But they aren’t selling. Don’t you understand,” Jade interrupted, yelling. “We are using our own money to pay the daily running costs because you’re experimenting with expensive ingredients that don’t sell is costing us a fortune.”

Cake saw Jade shaking with rage and thought. ‘Huh, I don’t care, but I suppose I better shut her up.’ He smiled and said, “I want to build a great business to hand down to our kids.”

Jade glowered at Cake and feeling like she was banging her head against a brick wall, screamed. “But you aren’t building a business, you are destroying one.”

Cake smiled, put his hand up Jade’s skirt, and caressed her moist chalice over her laced knickers.

“And speaking of kids,” said Cake and slid off her panties.

Jade groaned with pleasure as Cake put his head between her legs and gratified her for several minutes. With them both aroused, Cake took Jade’s hand and led her to the bedroom.

Panting and sweaty, Cake smirked as he held onto Jade. ‘That’ll keep her happy and stop her nagging’ he thought.

Jade, knowing Cake ignored her warnings, sighed, and with tears in her eyes turned onto her side feeling exasperated.

Nothing changed over the next few weeks and Cake still spent money on expensive ingredients for one-off creations that never sold, with Jade now miserable with her mundane existence.

Cake woke daily at 4:00 am to bake. Jade awoke and cooked them breakfast at 6:00 am, tidied the flat, and went downstairs to work all day in the pâtisserie, which closed at 7 pm. After cleaning and preparing for the following day, they would relax in their apartment, watch television, and go to bed around 10:00 pm and sleep.

They no longer socialised nor found the time to indulge in their mutual passion, kickboxing. Being together 24/7 soon took its toll and the qualities that once endeared them to each other now irritated the couple.

Cake’s quest to discover the perfect spice, once a jovial topic of mutual interest, was now in Jade’s mind, a bloody expensive waste of time and money for something that was in his imagination.

Jade’s body odour, which Cake previously described as a delicate homely baking smell of the pâtisserie, combined with fragrant lavender shower gel; he now referred to as, ‘the stink of yeast and sickly soap.’

The only spark to this mundane existence was when they argued. It was fun at first when they had passionate make-up sex, but more recently, it was just to argue and sulk in separate rooms.

They drifted further apart, with Jade’s advice ignored. The atmosphere created by the pair’s constant bickering affected both staff and customers alike. After yet another argument about money, profits, and Cake’s unwillingness to listen and acknowledge that they had a problem, Jade was at the end of her tether. Seeing no signs that things would improve, she wanted to take a break and get away from Cake. Jade, although still in love with him, knew that unless she did something drastic to shake him out of his unrealistic, cocooned reality, they would lose everything. The couple never expected that their dreams would go so wrong, so quickly.

One afternoon, after Cake had not seen Jade all morning, became angry. ‘Why wasn’t she in the pâtisserie?’ He thought and stormed upstairs. He went into the living room and saw Jade’s suitcases by the door. Jade came from the shower and looked at Cake, who looked furious, and snapped, “Where the hell do you think you’re going?”

Jade looked at Cake and sighed. “Back to London,” she said and went into the bedroom.

Cake stood in the doorway as Jade got dressed and he hollered. “Just like that, without saying a word.”

Jade ignored him as he shouted about how she was leaving everyone in the lurch.

She walked past the still ranting Cake, picked up her bags, and screamed, “I have had enough. There’s still money in the account and I’ve paid the bills. You won’t listen and think you know better, so you can run it on your own.” She sobbed, and with tears streaming down her face, said, “Take care Cake.”

Jade moved back into their London apartment and went to see her old boss at her former salon. Although embarrassed by her return, it delighted her old boss to have her back with her old colleagues and friends supporting her.

Cake wasn’t concerned about Jade’s departure at first, happy that he no longer had to listen to her persistent nagging. Footloose and fancy-free, he intended to enjoy himself. With only a few customers, the girls in the pâtisserie coped without Jade and they thought it would only be a temporary break-up. He went out in the evenings with Big Dave, who was single and enjoyed the carefree life. He was popular with the local ladies and at 24-years-old had no plans to settle down. Cake and Dave went to the lively bars and clubs around the city that Big Dave frequented. Cake appeared happy as he boogied the night away and received plenty of female attention, despite feeling old and out of place. Spending a lot of money on these nightly excursions and the weekends clubbing, Cake realised he would soon run out of money, but didnt care.

Jade phoned him frequently, but Cake was nonchalant and cold towards her. He knew he was breaking her heart but didn’t care, feeling certain that she would come back grovelling for forgiveness.

His euphoria lasted three weeks and as Cake sat alone in the apartment nursing another hangover, loneliness and misery gripped him and the cold reality hit home that Jade had gone.

Cake had a miserable day thinking about the events leading up to his current situation, which he now regretted. He realised what Jade had been warning him about and by the end of the day knew that he must do something, but didn’t know what.

The last phone call from her had been a few days ago when Cake was on his way out. He told her he didn’t have time to speak to her because he was meeting friends, and when she’d asked, “female friends?” Cake chuckled and said, “Maybe.”

Although now feeling guilty, Cake decided he would not call her yet, but make plans and then call and surprise her. ‘Everything will be fine,’ he thought.