Love At Last

Blessing in disguise

Lily

We made it to the finals of the competition and just like the party Cayden and I had attended back in New York, this too was going to be in two phases and the first stage was going to hold in a few days so we had to come practice and prepare. To my greatest delight Cayden decided to accompany me to not just the two days that the final stages were going to hold but he also came for every practice day. Cayden was becoming very intentional about being in my space and I enjoyed being in his too. We would tease each other at the slightest eye connection and would sometimes even get baking powder all over our faces and aprons and would giggle and chuckle as we did it.

“Who knew you could be this handsome even with powder on your face” I smiled mischievously as he tried to wipe off the powder I left on his face.

“I know you’re enjoying this, aren’t you?” He smiles

“You bet your nuts I am” his eye widens and then he smiles again. Cayden was normally a sexually intimidating guy but it gave me pleasure to know that I could make him vulnerable whenever I talked about his body.

“Well naught Lily isn’t going to bake this pies, normal Lily is” he immediately waves off my comment and we continue practicing.

“All the while, Jarod paid kin attention to all the lovey dovey acts Cayden and I engaged in and his irritation became more and more aggravated as the days went by.

On the day of the first stage of the finals, we all engage in final preparations for the competition. Cayden and I arranged things before the event would start. I asked Jarod to wait for us while we both went back to our homes to change up. Cayden offers to drive me home and I agree. On our way remembers that he forgot his phone back at the venue of the competition and tells me he’ll go back to get it before going home to change.

Little did we know that Jarod was about to do the worst. While Jarod thought we were away, he went for the ingredients we had prepared and sabotaged them. He even went as far as mixing some ingredients together knowing fully well that using too much or two little of whichever ingredient could ruin whatever we made. He continues his sabotage when Cayden comes and sees him.

“Hey! You!” Cayden shouts to draw Jarod’s attention. He gets startled when he hears Cayden and even pours some of the flour he was pouring into the sugar jar in himself “And what do you think you are doing”

“No… nothing…” the words stagger out of his mouth and immediately tries to flee the scene. Cayden smells a rat and grips him tautly by the elbow

“What were you pouring into that jar then”

” Look mehn, I didn’t do anything… let me go”

Jarod breaks free from his hold and walks away. Cayden tries to go after him but people start noticing the drama so he withdraws from his quest and immediately calls me. I didn’t pick his calls as I was in the shower and didn’t hear my phone ring, he then decided to drive down to my place and tell me what had happened instead. Cayden may not have known how to bake but he was one for details and he knew something was not right and that Jarod had sabotaged the ingredients.

He soon arrives at my place and blocks me at the door as I am about to step out with Jacek.

“Cayden, I thought I told you I’d take a bus back? You didn’t have to come” I say as I am surprised to see him

“I need to tell you something Lily, he has done it again” his face tensely stiffened and anger written all over it.Content is © 2024 NôvelDrama.Org.

“Who has done what again?” I ask in perplexity

“Your friend Lily, Jarod!”

“And what did he do?”

“I caught him trying to sabotage the ingredients we had kept earlier and I don’t know which of them or how badly the damage is but I know he sure did something”

“You should stop this Cayden, Jarod cannot possibly do such a thing. We’ve been friends for longer than I can remember and he has always been of great help to me, why would he wanna do something to hurt me now especially knowing how important this competition is to me?” I became furious and defensive about Jarod. Cayden sees that nothing he was going to day could change my mind so he yields and apologizes in order not to have an issue with me.

“Alright I’m sorry, maybe I’m just overthinking it. I don’t want to ruin your relationship with Jarod, I’d hate for that to happen… I know how sad it would make you” he pulls me closer and gives me a hug, I become motionless in his warmth and my temper relaxes.

The competition had already begun and I was mixing the ingredients when I noticed the sugar was more powdery than was normal, I deep a finger into what remained in the jar and what I thought to be sugar was mostly baking flour. This meant that I had just added way more flour than was necessary in my mixture and there was no sugar to use either. I was devastated and Cayden was right. He sabotaged things in such a way that whatever I made was going to come out poorly especially because there was no sugar to use. Luckily for me I remembered the bottle of honey I carried with me to make tea for Jacek later and I took the risk of using it. I had never used honey for my baking before so this was going to be a precarious situation.

All was done and presented to the judges and to my greatest surprise, my presentation was selected as the best for that day and I was so elated, I saw Cayden and ran like a bull to hug him.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry for not believing you Cayden”