Bittersweet: A dark romance

I sprang out of bed happy to get on with the day. I'm not a morning person so when my alarm rang loudly and yanked me out of my happy place, I groaned and shut it off.

"Elyse, get your *ss out of bed" Lou my assistant, and one of my best friends yelled from the living room.

After brushing my teeth and putting my hair up in a messy bun, I glanced at my reflection. My clear complexion and curves were gifted by my mother. My wavy brown hair, dominant jawline, and thick arched brows were nothing of the ordinary.

The morning went by quickly with a steady flow of customers. Mondays we're usually busier in the bakery, mainly with walk-in special requests which makes me happy but irks Lou because we don't have time to make small talk

Brienna walked in at noon looking so classy in her tight pencil skirt, black shirt, and heels. Brienna has a very good fashion sense which was one of the reasons we hit up immediately and became close friends. Besides the height difference where Skylar is tall compared to my petite self, she's tall and slender and I'm small with a big *ss.

"Hello, babies. How's everyone doing"

"You look hot Bree, where are you off to?" Lou quizzes as she puts the remaining chocolate in the display case.

"I'm going to head over to Alden's workplace, gotta look good for my baby.

Bree and Alden have been dating for a whole year, sometimes I just feel lonely and jealous of their love, I want that.

The shop doors opened and a man walked in.

"How can we help you, sir?" I ask

The gray-haired man smiled and moved up to the counter. " Good afternoon, do you have any tarts? I love tarts and haven't had one since my Emily died. He eyes up at my display case and taps the glass with his hands.

" I'm sorry I don't make tarts. Although, maybe I will. What kind do you like?"

He smiled sweetly, as his eyes lit up. " All kinds of strawberry, blueberry, they are all delicious."

I giggled and took out my note pad scribbling down a reminder.

"I'll personally make some tarts and have them in the shop ready for you by the end of the week how does that sound?"

" That's perfect, thanks love. I'll stop in sometime on Friday." He winked at me before turning and leaving the shop, the door dinging closed behind him.

" You're so accommodating Elyse, we do enough special requests already" Lou shook her head at me.

"The old man was craving tarts and I think he meant he had not tasted it since his wife died, this is the least I can do for him"

I go to my haven in the bakery, I know exactly what to make, I need to fill up the display case. My mocha cupcakes with butter frosting. The perfect combination of caffeine and chocolate. I opened the recipe book that I have had since I was a child and thumbed through it until I stop on a particular page. It's a recipe of my grandmother's that she used to make when I was a little girl, stumbling around her little kitchen as she baked all day long. She made treats weekly and always let me help her, my big blue eyes watching her with awe. My mother hated when she would make this recipe and I would consume them in mass quantities and be on an insane sugar and caffeine rush. My grandma passed away eight years ago and it makes me sad that she never got to see me have my bakery and make her proud. After pulling all my ingredients together I got to work after so much dancing, singing, and jumping I was finally done and I put it in the oven to bake.

"Sh*t I missed my consultation."

"Relax I took care of it, you were in your world and I didn't want to bother you. You're welcome." Lou smiled.

" I love you. You know that right?"

She wrapped me up into a head hug and kissed my cheeks. " You better."

To give you a backstory of my and Lou’s friendship, I was a scholar and Kat was the captain of the cheerleading team, the popular one. In return for me helping her with her homework, she made sure no one picked on me. It was a good system, we were a great team and we quickly became friends, cliche maybe but that was how we got to know each other. Then, Lou’s mother became ill and her father was deemed bankrupt, everyone had abandoned then and I ended up being the only support.

After two years or so, her mother started to recover which was a huge relief to all including me, she was like a second mother to me. Her dad proved his innocence and they returned to their wealthy lifestyle flocked by fake people, hopping on their friendships for the ride. The only consolation through this period to them was that they could see who they could trust and continue forward with their lives.

"Where did you go to" Lou snapped her fingers at my face.

" Nothing, big head"

"Can I get the sticky stem ginger cake with lemon icing?" a voice commanded to my right. I mentally rolled my eyes as I step up to the guy, my smile stiff.

"That will be twenty dollars," I said as I waited for him to hand me either his card or cash. We always took payment before packing the treat to ensure they would pay. The treats and cakes weren't cheap. I was being careful because I've heard a lot of people complain about how some customers order and don't want to pay. I had to take precautions so that I'd not lose any money.

" Keep the change." The guy looked sleazy with his hair combed back with what seemed like an entire box of hair wax.

" Thank you." my cheek hurt from all the fake smiling. Fifty cents were left after he'd paid for the treat. Keep the change. Urgh, jerk.

I packed the treat and handed it to him. "See you one-time, darling." he drawled like a creep.

"That guy is sleazy as f*ck" Lou mumbled.

The week ran out with orders piling, doing deliveries for various weddings, anniversaries, and birthday parties.

I'm looking forward to the weekend because I'm going to spend it with my best friends. We've had a very stressful week and we needed to unwind. 

This weekend we were going to go out and celebrate.

Brienna arrived at our apartment and helped me to find an outfit. 

I end up wearing a black short tight gown with some light grey pumps.

" Finally. Holy hell, Lee that dress. Kill em' mama" she grinned and runs her eyes down my body.

"I hope we meet some hot guys because this girl needs to get laid," Lou said

Brienna drove us to the club, when we got there we walked to the door and showed the bouncer our ID, and they let us in. Brienna took us to find Alden. Alden waved us over and I saw him and a cute guy lounging in the corner. Brienna walked to Alden, and they immediately started suckin