The Baker & The Bear #4

"...You got engaged?"

If she hadn't already been seated, Bree would have surely fell down. But there was no mistaking Gigi's elated expression, nor that obnoxious ring on her finger. She already hated it, but right now, it was most important for her to control her facial expression. She knew how sensitive Gigi was, especially lately.

"Yes! What do you think?"

It was hard to think of anything, really. Anything positive. Bree kept playing it over in her head. Sure, Gigi had looked happy during their double dates, a little too happy, even. The kind of ecstatic happiness that girls had when they were jumping head first into a relationship. How long had she been with that boyfriend of hers, again? She had mentioned a six-month anniversary not that long ago. Wasn't six months way too soon for anybody to get engaged? Especially someone like Gigi?

"... You don't like it?" Gigi's expression started to fall, prompting Bree to get herself together.

She hated it.

"No, no, it's just... Gigi, don't you think that's too fast?"

They waited for her answer as the waitress came over to bring the two glasses of champagne Gigi had insisted they order. Bree had felt the disaster coming, but she didn't think it was that bad. Better than the accidental pregnancy one, though. The waitress put down a little plate of dips between the two of them, and excused herself. Bree didn't wait to dip her bread and nervousness into some fluffy white whatever-this-was.

"I know," Gigi nodded, "but you know, we're really in love, and Bentley did that really amazing proposal, and I said yes because, you know, I can really see myself growing old with him!"

Bree tried hard not to roll her eyes. Firstly, she couldn't really imagine herself with a guy that was named like a car and couldn't hold eye contact with her for more than two seconds. Secondly, she knew he'd done the proposal without asking her or Gigi's dad permission first, which were two more in a long list of red flags she had about him. Lastly, that ring was really gaudy. Sadly, she was Gigi's best friend, and she had to walk a thin, thin line to safeguard her without breaking her heart. And Gigi's heart was really fragile.

"You haven't even been together for a year yet."

"It will be well over a year by the time we're done planning the wedding!" Gigi chuckled. "I want a grand thing, like in movies. Oh, nothing over the top, of course, and you're my maid of honor, no way around that. And I want you to do the pièce montée!"

For a second, Bree wondered if the opportune self-destruction of a wedding cake would be a good reason to stop a wedding ceremony, but probably not. She grabbed her glass, and finished it in two gulps. She had to talk Gigi out of it, somehow. Anyhow, she would love for her friend to get happily married and realize her childhood dream to have a big house and plenty of kids, but not with that guy.

"What about your parents? What did they think?" she asked, in a sliver of hope Gigi's parents had a say in this.

"I haven't told them yet! I wanted you to congratulate me first..."

Crap. There it came again, Gigi's disheartened expression. If there was one thing that could make Bree lose all willpower and drop the guns, it was that very expression, like she was about to cry. She knew Gigi had succubus blood, which was said to make people around naturally attracted to her, but in Bree's opinion, it also made her unable to resist her will, one way or another. That sad puppy expression was the worst.

"It's not that I don't want to congratulate you," Brianna sighed. "Gigi, I'm just worried you're going way too fast..."

"Is it because it comes too soon after your breakup?" Gigi suddenly exclaimed. "Oh my God, I'm so inconsiderate! I'm sorry, Bree, I thought it'd lift your spirits if we had something exciting to plan together, I didn't realize—"

"What?"

Bree couldn't even fathom how Gigi had come to this conclusion. She'd broken up with Noah weeks ago, and it wasn't that bad of a breakup either! First, she'd initiated it, and they'd parted ways while agreeing to stay friends, how in the world did that possibly need her spirits lifted? Plus, they still saw each other once in a while, keeping the physical part of their relationship going, so there really wasn't anything to cry over... although Gigi didn't know the latter. She was a romantic, so Bree had just decided to omit that. But to think Gigi thought she was secretly depressed or whatever!

"Gigi, I don't need my spirits lifted. This isn't about me, this is about you and how I'm worried you are rushing into getting married with a guy you've only been seeing for six months!"

"Eight months."

"Still nowhere near long enough!"

"I'm telling you, it's going to be alright!" Gigi smiled.

Bree wished she could have just a fraction of that optimism. As much as she really, really hoped it would be alright, she couldn't help but consider the worst. In her book, Bentley was not husband material, and far less Gigi's husband material. She tried to calm down. One, she could still prevent this. They had just gotten engaged, so things weren't too late.Two, Gigi wasn't that much of a fool. She probably had some foundation to her wishful thinking, so maybe this time, she was the one being too pessimistic? Either way, Bree just couldn't shake off that gut feeling.

"Come on, Bree! You've met him, he's really not as bad as you think he is! He's got a stable job, money, friends, he's polite and he's smart, too!"

"He's been living rent-free at your place and not helping with the chores at all, from what I see. And inviting those friends of his over all the time, while he barely gives me a word when I'm there. I don't call that marriage material, Gigi."

"It can't be helped," she shrugged. "You two don't get along, and he's just living at my place until we find something to rent together, you know his was flooded a few weeks ago! Really, we're already looking into buying a house! You know, that one near the river that's been for sale forever? I'm kind of interested!"

"That house is going to take a hell of a lot of renovation, Gigi, and from what I saw, Bentley still has no idea where your trash bin is. I don't see a guy like him using a screwdriver or a brush, and certainly not with the skill it takes to make that house a home."

She could have gone on a lot more, but she stopped, as Gigi's expression was turning more and more upset. Brianna sighed. It was hard being the voice of reason sometimes. She took her friend's hand.

"Gigi, you know I'm happy if you are, but this is me expressing my concern for you."

"... If I get married anyway, will you be there?"

"Of course I will. You know I'll be there no matter what."

"Then you'll be there if I was wrong too, and you'll even get to tell me you were right, okay? But... this is my wedding, and really, it's just a ceremony and a piece of paper. At worse, I'm just making a stupid mistake, but at least I chose to do it, alright? Please."

Brianna sighed. Of course she'd let Gigi choose, no matter how strongly she felt about it. She had tried to warn her, but she knew that when Gigi had an idea in mind, no matter how bad, she'd go through with it. She just hated that she couldn't prevent her from being hurt in the end. Her only hope was Gigi's family. Her parents were overprotective, so maybe they'd be able to have her come around. At least, she was sure they wouldn't approve of Bentley so easily. Gigi's dad had called him a dickless rat once.

The two girls agreed to put the wedding subject aside before the main plates arrived: a goat cheese salad for Bree and a burger for Gigi. Luckily, they moved on to lighter subjects, notably how Giselle's internship was going. She was acting as an accountant and secretary for a small local stationery and paper printing company, and surprisingly, loving it. At least from the way she spent fifteen minutes talking about that new line of perfumed letter paper they came up with, that seemed obvious. It was alright with Brianna, who was more of a listener than a talker.

"How about you?" she asked after a while, biting a fry. "Work's going well?"

"Yeah, it's busy with Christmas coming up. You should let me know early if you want a Christmas cake. Oh, and I'm working on that new dessert, I'll have you try it. It's dark chocolate and raspberries, the bitter kind you like."

"Oh, I would love that! And... how is it going with Tom?"

"What about Tom? The usual?" Brianna asked, confused.

"Really? Nothing else?" Gigi insisted, taking her expression of a cat hoping to catch a mouse.

Brianna sighed.

"Weren't you the one claiming I was supposedly brokenhearted from my not-that-recent breakup minutes ago?"

"There's this and there's that!" Gigi protested. "You're single again, and it's never too late to get back on the market."

"I'm a bear, Gigi, not a horse...."

"Come on, you know what I mean! Fine, leaving Tom the handsome baker colleague aside, anybody else on your radar? I saw at least one waiter here who's been looking in our direction a lot..."

"Probably another poor soul hooked on your charms," Brianna chuckled. "Nope, Gigi, I'm good. I'm enjoying the single life for the first time in a while, leave me that. Plus, with Christmas coming, I really am busy."

"Valentine's day is going to come next, though, you can't be alone for Valentine's day!"

There she goes again. The soft-hearted Gigi who cried at romantic movies and would die for a pink-colored balloon. Brianna shrugged.

"I promise I'll think about it. After Christmas."

"Alright, I'll organize a mean New Year's party then! With plenty of hot single men!"

Brianna chuckled, but quickly hid behind that glass.

Their lunch together over, both girls parted ways to get back to work. Brianna rushed, well aware she had gone over the hour allocated to her lunch time. She usually didn't even get any lunch time, the bakery was busy selling sandwiches for lunch. Today was exceptional, Tom had offered to cover her shift so she could meet with Gigi. He'd been close by when she had gotten the call the previous night, and offered to swap their shifts. She'd only agreed for him to cover her during lunch, but naturally, he was still there when she rushed back at 2:00 p.m.

"I'm so sorry," she said, grabbing her apron and hat. "They took forever bringing the bill, and Gigi had a lot to say..."

"It's okay," Tom chuckled, busy refilling a tray of buns in the oven. "It wasn't too busy today, we managed all right. We did sell out on the new goat and honey cheese sandwich, though!"

"I told you it would," Brianna smiled, a bit proud. "And the desserts?"

"We're running low on strawberry tarts and lemon meringue. Oh, and I told you that your orange-flavored cake you made a while ago really was amazing, more people asked when you're bringing it back again today. You might also want to get started early on macarons, somehow the kids have picked up on how cheap they are and we're expecting a batch of middle schoolers... Dad said he sold out early yesterday."

"Damn, I wish I'd been that smart when I was a kid," she chuckled. "Those kids got taste. Alright, I'll get on that. And I'll ask your dad about the orange cake, I still think it needs something else."

"How was Gigi?"

Brianna didn't even try to hold in her long sigh.

"Oh, wow. That bad?"

"No, just... She got engaged."

"From your expression, we're not celebrating?" He grimaced.

Brianna grimaced. The pill still wasn't swallowed, far from it. Noticing her expression, Tom took off his apron and came closer, crossing his arms. He'd gotten a lot more muscular recently, at times Brianna was wondering when he found time to work out.

"I hate the guy, and I hate that Gigi thinks he can make her happy. She's thinking she'll be happy, and I'm worried she's making the biggest mistake of her life."

"... You told her that?"

"You bet I did!" Brianna grumbled, walking to the refrigerator to check on some of her desserts. "But she said I was bitter because of my breakup, and she wanted to get married no matter what I said, even if it turns out to be a mistake. I just don't get it."

"She's the you-only-live-once type," Tom shrugged. "As long as she's aware of how hard the fall could be..."

"That's the thing. I don't think she realizes."

"... What do you mean?"

"I watched my dad raise five kids by himself. It's hard enough when your partner leaves, but if they have kids..."

She sighed again, and she was tired of sighing. Tom leaned on the entrance of the refrigerator room.

"You did your best as her friend, you warned her. Everything else is up to her."

"Yeah, I guess..."

A faint silence passed, then Brianna asked him a couple of questions regarding an order they were working on, a complex Christmas cake the customer had tons of requests and allergies to take into account. After a while though, she realized Tom wasn't completely into it.

"...What are you thinking about?" she asked him. "Tom?"

"Sorry, I was just a bit confused. You didn't tell me you and Noah broke up?"

"I didn't? Well, we did. Maybe I forgot to mention it, but yeah. It was a while ago, though. Back in September, or late August maybe. Why?"

"Didn't you see him last weekend, though?"

"Yeah, we're still... close. Tom, why the questions?"

From his sour expression, he had decoded that she and Noah didn't keep seeing each other to play jenga. Brianna was completely at a loss. She hadn't mentioned her breakup because she genuinely didn't think it was that relevant, not to Tom. She couldn't even remember if she had told all of her own siblings. So why was Tom making that expression like he had bit a bad lemon?

"I don't know, it's just... I didn't know you were... you know?"

"I was what, Tom?" Brianna chuckled, closing the door and walking to the computer. "Single? Or sleeping with my ex? Sorry to break it to you, I'm twenty-three now, not thirteen."

"Sorry," he shook his head. "My reaction was stupid. Of course I know you're an independent woman, you can sleep with whomever you want... Why Noah, though?"

"Why not? … Why are we having this conversation? Because I'm not sure where this is going nor if I want to tell you about my sex life. Or my ex."

Tom ruffled his blonde curls, visibly uneasy, and also unable to look her in the eye. She wasn't sure what was going on. There was that strange tension in the air, something she'd carefully pretended not to feel or see for a while, now. They were friends. They were colleagues working together in his dad's bakery almost every day, so it was a given they'd gotten closer. But Tom had always kept that respectful distance. Perhaps because of Noah? He'd had a few girlfriends, but none stuck around long enough for Brianna to even remember their names. They hadn't mentioned anything about her past crush, but then again, it had been years now...

"I don't know," he mumbled. "I'm just surprised you didn't tell me you'd broken up with him. I thought we were close enough for you to tell me such things. Maybe it's my fault for not noticing."

"I didn't think it was that important," Brianna shrugged. "I don't think you would or should have noticed, either. It's not like I was heartbroken or anything."

"You were together for four years, though?"

"Yeah, it was three good years. But I don't think I was really in love with Noah, and I don't think it would have gotten us far either. That's why we agreed to stay friends."

"... You didn't love him?"

"No," she replied calmly but confidently. "Did they forget the new batch of flour? I don't see it in today's receipt."

"They said they'll bring it with tomorrow morning's delivery, they had a delay. Did you love me then?"

Brianna stopped right in her tracks, taken aback by the question. She watched Tom’s expression, but he was hard to decipher. He looked calm, only just waiting for her answer. He'd asked it quite casually, too.

"Yeah," she said, after a second. "I guess I did."

Then, she moved to the front of the bakery, smiling at his dad and rushing to resume work, before he could ask any more of those questions she didn't want to know where he was going with. Maybe there was a reason she hadn't told him about her breakup.