Dear Reader...

Chapter Nineteen

~Juliette~

"Oh my god." I pulled my bottom lip between my teeth, looking up at Riley who was clinging to the counter, crossed her legs as she tried to not pee herself with laughter. "How about we don't tell my fully trained chef of a boyfriend about the monstrosity that is this cake." I slowly pulled it out and put it on the side, laughing when I pushed a knife into the top. "HOW IS IT BURNT ON THE TOP AND NOT COOKED IN THE MIDDLE?!" That was it. Riley was crying with laughter and I was staring at the overflowing cake. In hindsight. Deciding to surprise Anya with a cake at 9pm when we're both a little past tipsy might not have been my brightest idea ever. Fun. But not bright.

"Oh god, I forgot- I forgot Noah's a chef." Riley panted, trying to catch her breath.

"He's the Cafe's baker. I'm dating a baker and you know what? He's shown me how to do this properly." And she's off again as I turn my head to look at the now collapsing cake. He's going to find this embarrassing, hilarious and he's going to use it as an excuse to teach me again.

I can't help it. I am not a baker. I can never get it right. I try to make cookies and they come out either like wafer thin crackers or just a ball of warm cookie dough. No in between.

"He's- he's shown you to bake?"

"He didn't believe how bad I was. So, I made cookies with him like last month. He sat right there and I mixed it all and he was like, yeah you've got that right. Put it in the oven for 10 minutes on the right temperature, still came out black. He couldn't work it out."

"Blame the oven."

"I DID!" She snickered again, tipping the 3rd bottle of wine.

"It's empty."

"Noah said he was bringing more."

"He's like your own personal English butler." I snickered. "Are English men as good in bed as we were hoping they were before you moved?"

"Plural, not a clue. But Noah? Holy fuck. He made me pass out like 3 weeks ago."

"What?"

"Mhm. Made me hold it so hard that when I released it wasn't just like a spring recoiling it's like he loaded me into a catapult and just *pew* fired me off into the sun." I pulled a tub of ice cream out of the freezer, dropping it onto the counter and grabbing us both a spoon. "It was so intense I literally blacked out. Couldn't see or hear anything, couldn't speak. He freaked the fuck out. It was hilarious."

"Oh god if that happened to me I'd have a heart attack."

"He looked like he was going to. Tell me about home then. I feel like we're 3 bottles deep and we haven't spoken about your gossip."

"I mean it's not really gossip."

"I feel like you having a boyfriend is gossip babe."

"Yeah that's a whole thing. Let me tell you about Kai first."

"Oh god what now?"

"He's in prison." My mouth dropped open, spoon sliding out as she jumped up onto the counter, crossing her legs and digging in. "Fraud. Knocked a police officer out. Then it's come out that hit slapped Anya so I've been talking to a lawyer about getting sole custody. But whilst he's in there I was able to get the courts to sign off on bringing her here which is why I came. I thought it'd be a nice way for her to stop asking where he is. He's in court like 3 days before we go back.so hopefully he goes down and I get sole custody and I can move her out of Toronto before she starts school and we can both get a completely new fresh slate."

"Move here." Riley held her spoon out at me.

"That was another reason I wanted to come. Check it out a little. Potentially. Don't tell her."