Sometimes you weren't sure that you were really living this perfect life you'd fallen into. It seemed like only yesterday that you'd met DI Alec Hardy, world-class crabapple, and now... Now you were marrying him.

Kind of. It wasn't now now, but you were actively planning the wedding, so close enough. You'd managed to nail down the venue, time of year, guest list, flowers, and decor, and the order of the day was the cake.

In order to save money, you'd gone to a local baker and actively avoided saying the word 'wedding'. You had friends who'd gotten married before, and Alec actually had been married, so the two of you knew how this worked. The moment the word 'wedding' passed someone's ears, the prices started rising.

Instead of booking a traditional cake tasting, what the two of you had done was picked three different kinds of cupcakes each, ordered one per type, and taken the box home to taste them by yourselves and get an idea of which one (or two) you'd liked the best.

That was yesterday. Today, you were back at the bakery, having settled on the sort of cake you wanted and ready to actually order the cake. You pushed open the door, walked inside hand-in-hand, and went to sit in a corner booth, where you'd been instructed to meet with the head baker.