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"Do you think that maybe you could help me out instead of doing that?" Romy asked as she bent down to check that the gas burners at the bottom of the oven were lit. It was a temperamental old oven that needed upgrading, but Romy still hadn't gotten around to sorting it yet.

Although she couldn't see what he was doing, Romy knew Justin too well not to be suspicious. She had a niggling feeling that he was eating the cake mixture again.
"You say that like I'm not helping," Justin said with a snigger as he watched her with bright eyes.

"You're not. You're really not," Romy chuckled as she straightened up. She picked up the cotton cloth from the draining board beside the sink and ran it over the nearest counter top for the third time in five minutes. There was so much resting on this cake that Romy was filled with nerves, even though she'd made this recipe several times before. Her anxiety was bringing out the obsessive qualities in her personality.

"Come on, babe, I am helping," Justin argued with a grin.

Romy turned around to glare at him as he spooned yet another heaped spoonful of cake mixture into his mouth. Justin had thought that she wouldn't notice, but of course she'd turned around at exactly the right moment to catch him in the act.

Without saying anything, Romy stropped across the room and peered pointedly into the ceramic bowl that Justin was clutching close to his chest. Romy lifted her eyes to meet his and raised an accusing eyebrow. Justin grinned and chuckled sheepishly as he poked his tongue out to lick the remnants of the cake mixture from his lips. He looked like a little boy who'd been caught stealing cookies from a jar, and Romy tried her best not to laugh. He really was too darn cute sometimes.

"You're supposed to be helping me!" Romy told him as she playfully narrowed her eyes. "At this rate there'll be nothing left to bake!"

"It's a compliment," Justin mumbled as he turned his attention to the wooden spoon that he'd lifted from the bowl. It was dripping thick, creamy batter and he caught a drip with his index finger before shoving it into his mouth. Romy watched him and shook her head, fighting the urge to reach out and ruffle his curly hair. "It proves it's tasty," he said as he pulled his finger from his mouth making a loud 'pop' sound.

"I know it's tasty! This is why I don’t want you eating it all!" Romy giggled as she reached out to remove the bowl from his hands. Justin uttered a moan of protest and fought against her for a moment before relenting and allowing her to take it. He made sure that he kept hold of the spoon. "Besides, it'll make you sick."

Romy stared into the bowl and tried to work out whether or not she had enough mixture left to make a cake with. If not, she'd have to start all over again, and she wasn't sure that she had enough butter and eggs to make another batter. She knew who would be going to the store to buy more if she didn't—it would be his punishment for eating nearly the entire first batch of mixture.

"Do you want the spoon?" Justin asked as he held out the completely licked wooden spoon to her by the handle. Romy wrinkled up her nose and let out a snort of amusement. Justin continued to stare at her innocently; clearly unsure as to why she was looking at him that way.

"No, I don't want the spoon!" Romy giggled in horror. "That's been in your mouth!"

"So?" Justin shrugged.

"What do you mean so? That's disgusting!"

Justin grinned and wiggled his eyes suggestively at her.

Romy threw her head back and laughed, a slight blush colouring her cheeks. "Stop it!" She chided as she placed the bowl down onto the counter and once again ran the cloth over the worktop. "I need to focus."

Romy turned back to the oven and checked the temperature on the digital display. She could hear Justin's deep laughter reverberating throughout the room, and the familiarity of it bought a smile to her face. She loved the sound of his laughter, and although she was pretending not to, she also loved the fact that he was hanging around the kitchen watching her bake.

There were a million other things that he could be doing and yet he wanted to be near her. It wasn't helping her concentration much—she was far too aware of his presence to be able to focus on the task in hand, but she was happy. She wanted this cake to be perfect—she always wanted everything to be perfect—but she'd settle for less if it meant spending more time with him. Even though he really wasn't being as helpful as he thought he was.

+ + +

Romy and Justin stood on the doorstep of the hilltop house in LA waiting for the shrill ringing of the doorbell to be answered. They were late—not terribly so, but enough for Romy to feel awkward about it. However, that wasn't the only thing that she was feeling bad about. She stared down helplessly at the cake that she was holding in her arms before glancing up and meeting Justin's eyes. She didn't say anything—she didn't need to—because her face said it all.

Justin grinned, the corners of his eyes wrinkling as he snorted with laughter. "What?"

Romy shook her head in playful despair and rolled her eyes. She lowered her voice so that if the door were to suddenly be answered, she wouldn't be heard complaining loudly.
"It looks terrible," she hissed and shifted her weight to one side to stop the handbag that was slowly slipping down her shoulder from making contact with the cake. Justin automatically reached over and readjusted the strap for her, before eyeing the cake in her arms and grinning.

"It's a masterpiece!" He announced proudly.

Romy snorted with amusement and leaned towards him so that she could playfully jab her extended elbow into his ribs without wobbling the cake too much. Justin dodged out of the way and sniggered.

"It looks a mess. I'm so embarrassed," Romy said with a groan.

"Come on, he's not gonna care. He'll be flattered even..." he said before adding in a whisper, "...probably."

"It's supposed to be his birthday cake, Justin!" Romy exclaimed in a slightly hysterical voice. "It looks like a three year old made it!"

Justin sniggered and glanced down at the cake once more before letting out a huge belly laugh that made Romy cringe. There were only a few things that made Justin laugh like that, and it only confirmed Romy's deepest fears that the cake really did look terrible. They'd done all they could at home to try and repair the damage, but the more Romy looked at it the worst she felt. The whole thing had been a disaster from start to finish and she glanced up at Justin's face, which was contorted in a laughing fit, and shook her head.

"Oh, that's right," she quipped dryly. "A three year old did make it."

"Only the icing. You made the rest," Justin argued, holding his hands in front of his chest in a defensive gesture. "You can't blame me for that."

"Yes, that's why the 'rest' is the only edible part. Seriously, Justin, we should've just gone out and got a store bought one. This is so humiliating."

"It's not that bad. We made his face out of icing, he's gonna love that! Besides, it's just a barbeque for a few close friends. No one's gonna give you a hard time over it."

Romy stared up at him as the humiliation washed over her. She didn't need reminding about the shredded coconut and black food colouring incident. She might never get that stain out of the worktops, and it would be a constant reminder of the horror of this day. She would never again take up one of Justin's baking suggestions.

She'd known at the time that it was a bad idea to try and create a face out of icing, but Justin had been so enthusiastic about it that it'd been nearly impossible to dissuade him. In the end she'd just thrown herself into it, hoping that the end result wouldn't be as bad as she'd pictured.

She'd been wrong. So wrong.

"Yeah, but I've told everyone that I'm making this. God, I've gone on and on about how good my cakes are. This is like... this is so embarrassing."

"Shh... I think someone's coming," Justin whispered as he straightened up and stared ahead at the door, a stellar grin appearing on his face.

"Oh, God," Romy groaned and attempted to put a convincing smile on her face.

If Justin hadn't been there she'd have tossed the cake away and just pretended that she'd forgotten. She'd have felt terrible about letting everyone down, of course, but it still would have been better than this. The anticipation of knowing what was coming was eating away at her and filling her stomach with butterflies. Why had she agreed to make the birthday cake of all things? Why hadn't she just offered to make a nice salad?

Unfortunately, Justin was there, and there was no way that he would let her throw the cake away. He was suspiciously protective of it, and Romy could only guess why. She knew that he would enjoy recounting the story of the time they made their friend a birthday cake. It would doubtless go down as one of those infamous, embarrassing stories that everyone would remember and talk about forever.

"Smile!" Justin sniggered as he glanced down at Romy out of the corner of his eye. She narrowed her eyes and playfully poked her tongue out at him.

"This is your fault," she hissed in a whisper. "I'm not gonna let you forget that."Memories of the one time he'd attempted to paint her toenails flashed through Romy's mind and she groaned inwardly. Why hadn't she remembered that earlier when it had mattered? When it would have been useful? She really should have known better.

Before Justin could say something sarcastic in reply, the front door burst open and both Romy and Justin shouted "Happy birthday!" at exactly the same time. JC grinned happily before his eyes dropped down to the cake that Romy was trying to hide behind her bag.

"Here's your cake!" Justin beamed as he reached down and lifted Romy's arms so that JC had little choice but to admire the sight of his face in fondant icing, complete with suspiciously grey, shredded coconut hair. Ironically, it really did have a very small resemblance to him, but there was no way that Romy was going to admit that out loud. She had a feeling that JC wouldn't be too flattered to hear it.

Justin's smile was brilliant. He was clearly enjoying his friend's expression of horror and Romy's squirms of embarrassment.

"Sorry..." Romy muttered as she watched JC's reaction to the cake. His face was a picture, to say the least.

"No... I mean. It's... it's..."

"It's horrific."

"No..." JC said politely, although his face was at complete odds with his words. He tilted his head to the side and even leaned in a little to get a better look. Romy wanted to die. He was being a sweetheart about it, but she'd really hoped that he'd just take the cake and hide it in the kitchen where no one would have to look at it again. Or put it in nearest trash can. Whichever worked.

"I swear I had no intentions of it ending up looking like that!" Romy explained quickly, glancing up at Justin for backup. He looked at her helpless face and started to laugh. Romy rolled her eyes and turned back to JC. "It was meant to look like a wrapped present, you know. Like with a big bow and ribbon made out of sugar paste. But someone thought we should make it more personal than that," Romy said glaring accusingly at Justin.

"Nailed it," Justin sniggered.

Romy stared at him in horror, realising for the first time that maybe, just maybe he was being serious. Maybe he really was proud of this horrendous creation. "Oh, my God!" She groaned turning to JC with wide eyes. "Don't listen to him, JC. I swear it looks nothing like you!"

"I dunno..." Justin said, staring intently at the cake and tilting his head to one side and then the other. He peered up at JC's face and did the same.

"The blue bonbons for eyes are a nice touch," JC muttered as a slight smile crossed his face. He glanced up at Justin, who had squeezed his eyes shut and was laughing so hard that his whole body was shaking. "I'm not sure about the grey hair, though. That's a little... harsh. Was that really necessary?"

"It wasn't meant to be grey!" Romy said quickly in a panicked voice. "I just didn't realise how hard it is to dye shredded coconut! The colour just wouldn't take..." She stared up at JC and grimaced. "Please tell me everyone is late and we can hide this before anyone sees it."

"Oh, baby, I'm gonna make sure everyone sees this," Justin snorted as JC took the cake from Romy's sagging arms. It was surprisingly heavy, most likely thanks to the layers and layers of buttercream icing that they'd slathered all over it. Doubtless it would taste as terrible as it looked. Not that Romy could imagine anyone wanting to eat it. One look at the frightening, lopsided face would put anyone off their food.

"Everyone's here. You guys are kinda late, actually."

"Yeah," Justin mumbled as JC turned and headed into the house leaving the door open for Romy and Justin to follow him. "We had some trouble with your nose. It kinda took a while to fix it."

Romy elbowed Justin in the ribs again and he laughed before reaching out to pull her body towards him. He pressed a gentle kiss to her cheek—which she pretended not to enjoy—and then placed his arm over her shoulders, pulling her even closer.

Although Romy wanted to be angry with Justin she just couldn't be. Yes, the cake was a disaster. Yes, she was humiliated. But JC seemed to be taking it well and it was always amusing to see Justin enjoying himself. His laughter was so contagious.

"You're evil," Romy whispered as they continued to follow JC through the house. Romy could hear the sound of laughter and conversation coming from the back of the house, and she could detect the woody, smoky barbeque smell in the air. Her stomach started to growl in anticipation.

JC's barbeques were famous amongst his friends and Romy was looking forward to seeing all of her and Justin's mutual friends once again—even if it meant that they were all there to witness the horrendous cake reveal.

"You love it," Justin muttered into her ear, his breath brushing against her cheek making her giggle. Romy was ridiculously ticklish. She nudged him with her body and watched JC's back as he continued to lead them through the house. Justin leaned into her once again and pressed another kiss to her cheek, slightly lower than before.

"You know, we could go into business, you and me."

"Making horrendous cakes? I don't think so."

Justin sniggered. "What do you mean? We have a gift, clearly."

"A gift that should never rear its ugly head again," Romy said, lowering her voice and meeting Justin's eyes. "Did you see his face? God, I wanted to die."

Justin laughed and reached out to gently pinch her hip with his spare hand. Romy squealed and jumped slightly before swatting his hand away.

"I think he loved it really," Justin told her. "He never has people making stuff for him. Everyone just buys the most expensive thing and gets it gift wrapped. I bet he loved the fact that we made it, even if it is slightly terrifying."

Romy met his eyes and pulled a face. She wasn't completely convinced, but it was a nice thought. She hoped that JC would be able to see the love that they'd put into the cake, even if it didn't show in the end result. Next time she'd just buy something from the store and pretend that she'd made it. Next time she'd refuse Justin's offer of 'help'.

Or, if he continued to tease her about it, she'd make him his own personalised cake. Grey hair and all. That'd shut him up. Maybe she'd even use an icing nozzle to make the icing look like curly hair. That really would piss him off.

Romy grinned mischeviously at the thought. Maybe she hadn't made her last 'personalised' cake after all...

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