Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

She notices it for the first time on her walk to work.

A small bakery, a tiny two story shop tucked in between an Italian restaurant and a dry cleaning place, with a little wooden sign delicately carved with the words “baked goods” hanging over the door. A sign in the window boasts the “Best coffee in Massachusetts!” and she smiles to herself despite the ludicrous message. Two tables, both empty, are parked on each side of the door but that doesn’t surprise Clarke since it’s barely eight am on a late November morning in Boston. She herself is wrapped up tight in a sweater, scarf & wool hat to starve off the bitter cold as she treks the two miles from her apartment to the restaurant she works at.

Clarke has walked down this street over a hundred times and has never once noticed this bakery before.

She glances down at her watch knowing full well that she was ten minutes late getting out of her apartment this morning so there’s no chance she could stop in before her shift starts. Her stomach grumbles on cue as if to chastise her for skipping breakfast and Clarke sighs as she searches the window for store hours.

A small sign is posted next to the door that tells her that the shop is called Blake’s and is open from 6 am till noon.

Well damn, she thinks to herself. Her shift isn’t over until well after noon. Guess I won’t be trying the best coffee is Massachusetts today.

She frowns as she wraps her scarf tighter around her neck and sets off in the direction of her original destination.

***

Bellamy watches in amusement as a pretty blonde stops in front of his shop, a small smile forming on her lips as she reads the sign in his window.

His coffee, while maybe not the best in Massachusetts, is still pretty damn good and he wonders if the sign is enough to bring her inside.

She checks her watch and lets out a sigh before checking the hours of operation and when she frowns he wants to kick himself for not staying open later.

A brand new bakery in a busy part of Boston should probably be more accommodating and he makes a note to himself to reconsider his business plan.

He watches as she shivers in the cold, wrapping her brightly colored scarf tight around her as she heads off back down the street.

***

"So have you heard about this new bakery on Newbury?"

Clarke looks up from her BLT to see her friend and coworker Raven picking at a Caesar salad.

"You’ve heard about that place?" She asks in surprise, choking as a piece of bacon gets temporarily lodged in her throat.

Raven nods. “Yeah apparently the dude that owns it just won some baking competition. Cupcake Boss or Cake Wars or I don’t know. One of those shows. Anyways, he won like two hundred and fifty grand or something and opened a shop here.”

Clarke reaches for the glass of water next to her plate to soothe her now aching throat.

"I was wondering why I’d never seen that place before," Clarke says as the cool water turns the ache into a dull pain. "I passed it this morning on the way here."

Raven stabs a piece of chicken and lettuce with her fork. “It’s only been open like a week I think. I was gonna check it out after work, do you wanna come with?”

Clarke shakes her head. “It’s only open until noon. Neither of us gets off until three.”

Raven frowns as she pops a crouton in her mouth with her fingertips. “This job sucks.”

Clarke giggles as she takes a bite of her sandwich. Free food aside, she has to agree.

***
“Bellamy! We are running low on flour, man. We still have two hours till closing. What do we do?”

Bellamy sighs as his best pastry chef Jasper, who also happens to be his best friend and roommate, scurries around the too small kitchen like a chicken with its head cut off.

"Jasper, chill. Call Tony and tell him to pick up some sacks of flour on his way back from his delivery downtown. We’ll be fine."

There’s a crash from the back of the kitchen and Bellamy frowns as Monty, one of the most talented cake decorators in the city, bends down to pick up a tray of gum paste rosebuds that will now have to be thrown away and redone.

"Sorry chef," Monty says with a grimace as he dumps the tray of pastel flowers into the trash bin. "Won’t happen again."

Bellamy chuckles as he rolls a thin layer of fondant out on the kitchen block in front of him. “It will definitely happen again but you know what? That’s okay. I don’t expect this place to run like clockwork yet. But if we’re still missing flour and dropping trays a year from now…then I’ll be worried.”

Jasper laughs as he dirty ices a layer of chocolate cake before sliding it to Bellamy, who applies the now perfectly thin layer of fondant over it. “Hopefully in a year from now we’ll have our own reality show. I think you could be the new ‘Cake Boss’, Bell.”

Bellamy doesn’t say anything as he trims the fondant from around the base of the cake. He’s not really interested in becoming the next big thing. The only thing he’s ever wanted to do was take care of his family.

The two hundred and fifty thousand dollar prize that he won last year didn’t exactly put that much into his pocket. After paying taxes, he paid off the fifty thousand left on his mother’s home loan and paid for his sister Octavia’s first year of college.

Every last dollar he had left went into buying and furnishing his bakery. He was lucky enough to find a building that had not only a fully functioning kitchen downstairs but an apartment upstairs. Living above his place of work has proved both convenient and annoying since when he’s upstairs trying to relax he usually finds himself wishing he was downstairs doing something constructive.

He glances at his staff, old friends like Jasper and new ones like Monty, and he’s incredibly grateful for the success and achievements that he’s made in the past year.

Only that doesn’t stop the ache in his chest and the gut feeling he gets sometimes that there is just something missing.

***

Clarke lies in bed the next morning, listening as her alarm chirps fifty thirty, and wonders why in the hell she set the alarm for so damn early.

Then she remembers and quickly scrambles out of bed. She doesn’t know why she wants to go to this damn bakery so bad but it’s like some invisible force is pulling her there against her will.

She goes about her daily routine, only almost an hour earlier, spending a few extra minutes in the shower to wake herself up. At least her outfit for the day is already picked out for her. The black pants and white button down shirt doesn’t make for the most original work uniform but she pairs it for the morning with a bright red trench and a black lace scarf so she at least looks cute on the walk to and from work.

It’s ten after six by the time she locks her apartment door and she wonders all the way to Blake’s what it will be like when she steps inside. She imagines it will be comfy and warm, dark wood on the floors and earthy tone colored walls. Maybe some plush chairs surrounding old oak tables with a vase on each one filled with sweet smelling flowers.

She’s so busy daydreaming about the bakery that she almost passes it right by. The sign in the window promising her the best coffee in Massachusetts makes her grin again and she’s pushing the heavy door into the bakery without even thinking about it.

To say she was dead on in her daydreams would be an understatement.

The entire bakery is warm, so warm that she considers for a moment taking off her heavy wool coat. There are people everywhere already, despite the fact that it’s almost the crack of dawn, but somehow it doesn’t feel cluttered or congested like other small shops she’s been in.

There are tables scattered sporadically around the place and she almost giggles when she sees the small vases housing various types of flowers in each. The walls are full of photographs, some black and white, some larger than others. She stops to look at one in particular that shows a pretty woman bouncing a baby on her knee while a little boy plays in a sandbox. It’s faded from age but she can see the love in the woman’s eyes shine through.

Clarke decides immediately that Blake’s might be her favorite place in the whole world.

There is a young brunette behind the register when she finally makes it to the front of the line. Luckily spending a few minutes in line gave her a chance to check out the wide variety of baked goods available that day.

"Welcome to Blake’s, how can I help you?" The young woman asks cheerfully and Clarke smiles.

"Hi, I’ll take a cup of the house roast and a chocolate chip muffin." The brunette, or Josie as her nametag reads, rings her up and Clarke is shocked when her total is less than ten dollars. She hands over a twenty and drops three dollars into the tip jar when she is given back her change.

"Your order will be ready in just a few moments, thank you!"

Clarke sets herself up at the table right underneath the photograph she looked at when she first came in to wait.

***

"Damn would you check out that girl sitting at Table 9!"

Bellamy groans as Jasper peeks out from the kitchen door. “Jasper, what have I told you about ogling the customers?”

Jasper laughs and shakes his head. “Sorry chef. It’s just not often a girl like that crosses your path, you know what I mean?”

Bellamy rolls his eyes but can’t help it when he looks out the door to see what all of the fuss is about.

You can imagine his surprise when the girl of Jasper’s dreams turns out to be the same girl that was outside his shop the day before.

"That’s her," he mumbles, mostly to himself but Jasper hears him loud and clear.

"What? Who’s her?”

Bellamy shrugs. “She passed by yesterday morning but didn’t come in. I think she wanted to but she was checking her watch so she must have been late to work or something.”

It’s then that Monty decides to come over, probably to see why they are both huddled around the kitchen door.

"What’s going on?" He asks as he walks up and Bellamy and Jasper both laugh when they see the smudge of white chocolate Monty is sporting across one tan cheek.

"You’ve got some shit on your face," Jasper snorts as he pulls a hand towel from his apron. "Wipe that off and maybe I’ll tell you all about Bellamy’s new love interest."

"Wait…what?" Bellamy asks incredulously, his eyes still focused on the blonde that is now nibbling on a giant muffin. "Love interest?

Jasper nods. “Yeah, like on TV. You know, boy starts a bakery in big city. Boy meets girl from the big city. Boy and girl fall in love. Classic television stuff here, man. Keep up!”

Bellamy rolls his eyes. “You really need to get off this reality show kick, Jasper. But, since I am the proprietor of this shop it probably wouldn’t hurt to go see if she’s enjoying our baked goods. Right?”

Monty grins as he slaps Bellamy on the back.

"Go get ‘em, tiger!"

***

Clarke is halfway through the most delicious chocolate chip muffin she’s ever had and she can’t help the little moan she lets out when she bites into it.

"Enjoying the muffin?"

A voice behind her, one dripping with something she can only describe as amusement, causes her to practically jump out of her skin.

"As a matter of fact," she says with a smile as the owner of the amused voice comes to stand next to her table. "It’s probably the best muffin I’ve ever eaten…"

Her voice trails off when she sees the grin of the man standing there. He’s the epitome of tall, dark and handsome. His chocolate brown eyes are shining with something, pride maybe, and his grin is almost shy.

"You’re the owner, aren’t you?" She asks, instant embarrassment causing a blush to hit her cheeks and he laughs as he nods.

"Bellamy Blake," he says as he holds out his hand and she smiles as she shakes it. "And thank you for the compliment. I am quite partial to the chocolate chip muffin as well."

"I’m Clarke Griffin. And it’s really very delicious. I can see why you won a baking competition."

He motions towards the empty seat in front of her and she nods and waves her hand for him to join her.

"Well thank you again," he says as he sits across from her and she catches that little hint of shyness again. She finds that she likes that very much.

"So is this the secret to your success?" Clarke asks as she takes a small sip from her coffee cup.

"Our coffee? Yeah, it probably helps."

Clarke laughs and shakes her head. “No, the sitting down with customers angle. I have to admit, I’d probably be a little star struck if I ever watched reality shows.”

Bellamy laughs and motions to Josie to bring them both cups of coffee. “Not really, but I figured you owed me an explanation after yesterday.”

Clarke chokes on her coffee and holds up her hand when Bellamy stands to help her. “I’m fine, it’s okay. What do you mean after yesterday?”

"Well, you stood outside of my bakery for a full five minutes but didn’t come inside," he says with a smirk. He thanks Josie when she sets two fresh cups of coffee in front of them.

"Oh, you saw that?" She asks, horrified at the idea of him watching her frown and leave the front of his place of business. Bellamy just nods and waits for an explanation. "I was late for work. I’ve walked down Newbury to get to work four days a week for months and I’ve never noticed it before. That’s why I stopped in the first place."

"We just opened last week," Bellamy explains. "As you have already pointed out I won the competition, paid off a bunch of stuff and bought this place."

She enjoys watching him look around his place, his eyes are gleaming and she can see that he truly loves his job.

If only she loved anything half as much as he loves his bakery.

"So what about you?" He asks. "What do you do?"

"I work at Benny’s, it’s a little restaurant down on Fairfield."

"Oh yeah? I’ve been there a few times. That place has killer cheesesteaks." Clarke laughs as she finishes her second cup of coffee.

"Yeah, that they do." Bellamy motions towards her empty cup.

"Want another? It’s on me."

She glances down at her watch, instantly annoyed when the hands tell her it’s almost seven thirty.

"Unfortunately I can’t. I start work at eight." She’s pleased to see Bellamy’s face drop because it seems that he doesn’t want her to leave as much as she doesn’t want to. "But since you’re on my way to work, and your prices are so reasonable, I don’t see why I can’t stop in tomorrow morning."

His face brightens as he grins. “Yeah. Yeah, you should do that.”

They stand up at the same time and her breath catches in her throat when he reaches for her hand.

"It was really nice to meet you, Clarke Griffin."

"It was nice to meet you too, Bellamy Blake." She says as she places her hand in his. "Thanks for the best coffee in Massachusetts." He chuckles as he shakes his head and holds his hand up in a wave before heading back to the kitchen.

She watches him go with a smile before turning around to head out the door.

Chapter Text

"So he’s hot, right?"

Clarke smiles as she counts her tips, completely drained from the lunch rush but delighted at the amount she was able to make in the few short hours she’s been here.

"Yeah I guess you could say that," she says nonchalantly as she tucks the bills into her back pocket.

Raven laughs. “Come on, Griffin. I have seen you with that smile exactly twice in the past six months. Once when that horrible lady that was a total bitch to you lost her contact lens in her tomato soup and once when you put a dollar into the vending machine and ended up with two bags of Doritos.”

"Hey! In my defense that hardly ever happens!" Clarke snorts as Raven laughs out loud. "And I’m sorry but that lady was a bitch. She deserved tomato eye after that."

The girls are still laughing when their manager Finn wanders in from the kitchen.

"What’s so funny?" He asks but the sight of a smear of tomato soup across the front of his apron just makes them laugh harder. Finn just shakes his head and tells Clarke to have fun on her day off.

Her day off. She doesn’t have to work tomorrow.

"Shit," Clarke says, the laughter gone from her voice immediately and Raven straightens up at the change in tone.

"What? What’s wrong?"

"I don’t have to work tomorrow," Clarke says pointedly but Raven just shrugs like she can’t understand why this is a problem. Which normally it wouldn’t be. "I told Bellamy I’d stop by Blake’s on my way to work tomorrow. But I don’t work tomorrow. See the problem?"

Raven shakes her head. “Nope. Just go in anyways.”

"Yeah, well there’s a problem with that too. Today’s Wednesday."

Clarke sighs and Raven nods her head in understanding.

"Your dad?"

"Yeah," Clarke agrees. "My dad."

***

Bellamy wakes up the next morning to his internal alarm which is eternally set to four am.

His bright and early wakeup call is one of the main reasons that he closes up shop in the afternoons because it allows him to actually get things done when there are still business hours on the clock.

He goes about his morning routine like every other day, spending his precious morning moments on mundane tasks like showering and brushing his teeth, and when he walks downstairs into the bakery’s kitchen it’s just barely half past four.

The lights flicker a little when he clicks them on before the kitchen is lit up in all its glory. Bellamy grabs a dish towel off of a nearby rack and starts wiping down all of the countertops and the big antique kitchen block that sits in the middle of the room. It was the first thing he bought for his kitchen, something old and substantial, something that could last the test of time. Sometimes he think it might be a metaphor for what he hopes his bakery will someday be.

A relic.

He hears a grumbling from upstairs sometime later and he grins when Jasper stumbles down the steps rubbing his eyes, forever the little kid that Bellamy has known forever.

Them becoming roommates happened by accident. Bellamy had already purchased the building flat out and had offered Jasper a pastry chef position in his bakery.

The same week they started to renovate the kitchen was the same week Jasper’s girlfriend kicked him out of their place.

One night in Bellamy’s spare room turned into one week. One week turned into three months. And the rest as they say is history.

"You know what I don’t understand, Bell?" Jasper asks as he holds his hand over his eyes to shield them from the florescent lights.

Bellamy snorts. “What’s that, buddy?”

"How in the hell you can work under this harsh lighting. I mean, don’t get me wrong I’m not like a vampire or anything but these fluorescents are burning my retinas something fierce."

Bellamy rolls his eyes as he starts mixing up the dough for today’s first batch of donuts. Jasper grabs the ingredients he needs to make the custard that will fill some of the donuts on the menu today and sets them down on the counter before expertly tying an apron around his waist.

"So you never really told me how it went with the mystery girl yesterday," Jasper says as he cracks eggs into a mixing bowl.

"What is this, The View?" Bellamy asks with a roll of his eyes. "We gonna talk about our feelings while we bake?"

"Okay first of all, have you ever even seen The View? Because that’s not really what they…you know what? I’m getting off my point."

"And what exactly is your point?" Bellamy sighs as he rolls the dough out onto the kitchen block.

"My point is that you haven’t been with…okay you’ve been with but you haven’t dated anyone since Jen. Bell, it’s time to get back on that horse!”

"So now Clarke is a horse?" Bellamy asks with a chuckle and Jasper claps his hands once loudly and points at him.

"And now we’re getting somewhere! So her name is Clarke, what else did you find out about her?"

Bellamy groans. “Do we really have to do this?” Jasper just crosses his arms and waits. “Fine! Yes, her name is Clarke. She’s a waitress at Benny’s and she likes chocolate chip muffins. That’s about all I know so far.”

"Oh, Benny’s…that place has awesome cheesesteaks! But wait…so far? Does that mean you’re gonna see her again?" Jasper asks, his voice taking on a sing song quality as he whisks.

Bellamy is still trying to figure out why they are actually having this conversation as he whips up a maple glaze for the donuts.

"She’s supposed to stop by on her way to work today," he says feigning indifference but Jasper has always been able to see right through him and today is no different.

"You like her," Jasper says with a grin and Bellamy rolls his eyes.

"I don’t even know her," he says, one hand gently dipping the donuts into the glaze.

"But you want to know her," Jasper replies knowingly and it only pisses Bellamy off because he’s right.

A quick glance at the clock tells him that in a few short hours he’ll be one step closer to knowing her that much more.

***

The crisp November air whips around Clarke’s head as she makes her way towards Forest Hills Cemetery.

She wraps her black wool coat around her tight and puts her head down as she crosses through the huge stone archway of the main gate. The place is almost always busy, as busy as a cemetery can be, but today it feels like it’s just her and the wind.

Most of the time she likes it better that way.

She winds her way through the gravestones like an expert, never stepping on anyone’s plot out of respect for the dead, until she reaches the one that she’s seen every Thursday for the past four years.

Jake Griffin. Beloved Husband and Father.

Her hair is wild from the wind and she inwardly curses herself for not bringing a hat as she sits cross-legged next to the grave.

"Hey dad," she says quietly, once again thankful that this section of the cemetery is empty today. She always feels a little silly talking to someone that can’t respond but it’s especially hard when there are people around.

"So everything is pretty much the same with me, how about you?"

She sighs as she looks around at the cemetery, colorful fall leaves dancing in the trees like the wind is playing a song only they can hear. Maybe if she’s really quiet she’ll be able to hear it too.

She runs through the basics about her life. How her mom and her new husband are doing (because he told Clarke before the cancer took over that all he wanted was for her mom to find love again and she thinks that he’d be happy to know that she did), how work is going, what Raven has been up to.

All of these things that she should be telling him on a weekly call home, not a weekly trip to the cemetery.

"I met a guy," she starts and then stops because where did that come from? She didn’t meet a guy. Well, she met a guy but she didn’t meet a guy.

It only takes her a second to realize how absurd she’s being, sitting here arguing with herself in a cemetery when there is no one around to judge her anyways.

"He’s really nice. At least, I think he is. I didn’t really get a chance to talk to him all that much." The wind blows a flurry of bright orange and red leaves in her direction and she smiles. Sometimes she likes to pretend that that’s her dad’s way of giving his input on whatever she’s there to talk to him about.

"His name is Bellamy and he owns a bakery. He makes the best chocolate chip muffin in the city. I think you’d really like it."

And maybe you’d like him too, she thinks to herself but it’s a thought that she doesn’t express out loud.

"I just…I feel sort of lost, dad. I have a great life and good friends but something is just…" She takes a deep breath, anything to stop the tears that she can feel stinging her eyes.

"Something is just missing."

She sits in a comfortable silence for awhile, just listening to the wind blow around her and checks her watch, surprised to see that it’s nearing eleven am.

"I can still make it," she whispers to no one and before she can question herself she’s standing up and kissing her hand before placing it on her dad’s headstone.

"I love you. See you next week."

Her boots pound the pavement once she’s back on the street and she’s practically running to catch the bus that will take her to Newbury.

***

Bellamy wipes down the kitchen block with a dish towel as he glances up at the clock.

The hands practically scream eleven thirty and he feels like an idiot for even checking it as often as he has been. Jasper keeps shooting him apologetic looks that Bellamy just shrugs off.

It’s not like they had a date. She didn’t even walk by his place this morning. Maybe she had the day off and just forgot about it.

Or maybe she just didn’t like you all that much and took a different route to work.

He rolls his eyes at his inner monologue and if he scrubs the wood a little harder than necessary it’s only because he’s a little tired and ready for this work day to be over.

The bakery’s business is booming in the neighborhood faster than he had anticipated. At the rate specialty orders are coming in he’s going to have to hire another pastry chef or two by the end of this quarter.

"Everything’s coming up Blake’s!" Jasper calls out after setting the phone back on the wall mount. "That was another wedding cake order making it the fourth one today!"

There are lots of hoots and hollers from his staff but Monty, being the resident cake decorator, looks ready to drop from exhaustion.

"Only thirty more minutes everyone, then you’re free to go!" Bellamy says as he claps Monty on the shoulder.

The bell above the front door chimes but Bellamy doesn’t glance out of the kitchen to see who it is like he has almost every time he’s heard it so far today.

But Jasper does.

"She’s here!" Jasper practically shouts and Bellamy slugs him in the arm.

"Dude, shut up! You realize these walls are thin as hell right?" His heart is pounding in his chest, half from the thought that she might have heard his idiot friend and half because he didn’t think he was gonna see her again.

What the hell is wrong with him anyways? Why does he care so much about a woman that he barely even knows?

"She’s not wearing her uniform, look she’s wearing jeans." Bellamy rolls his eyes at Jasper’s declaration.

"Nothing gets past you. Now get back to work," he says with no bite. Jasper just gives him a grin and goes back to the counter he was working on.

Bellamy pushes his way through the kitchen door and sees Clarke standing second in line with her back turned away from him. He taps Josie on the shoulder and quietly tells her that he’ll take the next couple of customers. Josie grins when she notices who’s in line and she nods to him as she busies herself at the coffee machine.

He takes the next order himself, something that he hasn’t done in this bakery yet, and Clarke turns sharply when she hears him speaking to the customer she’s standing behind.

Her cheeks blush pink when he throws her a wink and he hands a to go cup of coffee to the man in front of him.

"Thanks for stopping in, see ya next time." He tells the man with a grin and Clarke smiles wide when she steps in front of him.

"Hello Bellamy," she says shyly, glancing down quickly as she pulls her wallet out of her purse.

"Hello Clarke," he says with a smirk. "Put that away." He motions to her wallet.

"Why?" She asks, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

He grins as he points to the table they sat at the morning before. The one that sits under his favorite picture of him, his sister and their mom.

"Because your table is ready and today…the house roast is on the house."

Clarke smiles a bit as she bites her bottom lip, something Bellamy watches with perhaps a bit too much interest.

"Okay…" she says slowly as she tucks her wallet back into her purse. She starts to head towards the table but stops and calls out to him, a sly smile forming on her lips. "Oh and Bellamy…?"

He leans over the counter and grins. “Yeah?”

"Don’t forget my muffin."

He chuckles as he pulls a chocolate chip muffin out of the display case and sets it on a small porcelain plate.

"Wouldn’t dream of it, Princess."

Chapter Text

"Tell me about this one."

The place is empty save for the two of them, the tiny sign hanging on the door of Blake’s flipped from open to closed over an hour ago. Clarke is following Bellamy around the room as he tells her about the photos decorating the walls of the bakery, his eyes shining as he explains the story behind each one.

They are stopped in front of what might be the oldest photograph Clarke has ever seen, the sepia tone of the print dripping with age and history, and Bellamy smiles as he wipes a bit of dust off the top of the otherwise spotless frame. They had started with Clarke’s favorite photo, the one right above their table and she was right when she assumed that it was Bellamy and his family. The little baby was his sister Octavia and the woman was his mother Aurora and Bellamy’s eyes lit up when he talked about them. Clarke found it extremely endearing (and attractive) that he loved his family so much.

"That would be my great grandfather, William Blake. He was a baker too. Owned a bakery here in Boston for fifty years."

Clarke smiles as she sees the little building behind his grandfather, an old fashioned brick house with a wooden sign displaying the words Blake’s Baked Goods. She doesn’t need to ask if that’s why he opened a bakery in Boston called Blake’s.

"He ran a bakery out of his home?" She asks and he nods when she glances at him.

"Yeah, baked everything right in his own kitchen," Bellamy says. "Drove my great grandma Rose out of her mind because he barely slept, just stayed up all night working on new recipes."

Clarke laughs. “Why do I get the feeling like you run into the same problem with this place?”

"You’d be right," Bellamy chuckles. "I definitely spend more time down here than I do up there." He motions with his hand to the ceiling and Clarke finds herself (not for the first time today) wondering what his apartment is like.

"I can’t believe it’s already almost two," Clarke says as she glances up at the metal clock hanging behind the register.

"Oh wow, yeah," Bellamy says as he follows her gaze to the clock. "I still have a wedding cake to decorate today."

"I should let you get to that," Clarke says in a hurry, feeling a little foolish for taking up so much of his time. Bellamy holds out his hand and touches her arm when she starts to walk away.

"Do you wanna stay and watch?"

***

There is flour everywhere.

Clarke is laughing as she picks up a handful of the fine white powder and she holds it up like a baseball pitcher.

"I’ll do it!" She cries and Bellamy grins as he raises his hands above his head.

"Okay, I surrender," he says but he can see that Clarke clearly doesn’t buy it which is good because he’s lying. Before she can realize what he’s doing he’s got another handful of flour and she can’t duck fast enough behind the counter. Her face is covered completely and they are both laughing when they hear a sound from the top of the stairs.

"What…in…the…world?"

Jasper is standing on the stairs, his face a mixture of amusement and surprise and Bellamy lets out a snort as he hides his hands behind his back.

"Um…we were just…"

"Baking," Clarke says, a shy grin crossing over her face. "We were just baking."

Jasper chuckles as he takes in the state of the kitchen. “Yeah, I can see that.”

"What’s going on?" Bellamy asks when he sees Jasper’s keys hanging from his finger. "You going out?"

Jasper nods. “Yeah I’m gonna go help Monty set up his new TV and then later we’re gonna hit up that bar down the street.”

"That place has great margaritas," Clarke says before laughing hysterically. "Raven, one of my friends, she passed out in their parking lot once. Had to be brought home by Boston P.D."

Jasper grins. “Sounds like a girl I’d like to meet. Well you two have fun.” He winks before he steps through the kitchen and heads towards the back door of the bakery.

"That’s my roommate Jasper," Bellamy explains as he wets down a towel to start cleaning up the counters. "We’ve been friends since we were kids."

"And he works here too?"

Bellamy nods. “Yeah, he’s a pastry chef. Used to work at a grocery store as a baker and when I bought this place I offered him a job.”

"That’s nice of you," Clarke says with a smile but Bellamy just shrugs.

"He’s good at what he does. I think he’s doing me a favor more than the other way around."

Clarke asks him where he keeps his broom and dustpan and he points to a little closet off of the kitchen. She grabs it and starts sweeping up the flour from the floor while he finishes wiping down the counters. It feels nice like this, comfortable quiet as they clean the kitchen together.

Bellamy wonders if his great grandpa and great grandma ever had flour fights in their kitchen and if this is how it felt when they cleaned up after their fun when it was over.

***

When the kitchen is clean, Bellamy shows Clarke how to use flour the proper way.

She’s never been much of a baker, always enjoying cooking more, but she’s eager to learn when he offers to teach her.

"Now spread the flour over the counter top," he instructs and she does as he says, giving the counter a light dusting. "This will allow you to roll out the fondant without it sticking the counter."

He dumps the bowl of fondant out onto the counter in one solid plop and Clarke laughs as she pokes at it.

"It’s sticky," she says and Bellamy chuckles as he coats his hands and the large fondant roller he’s holding in flour.

"Yeah, this is marshmallow fondant. That’s what all this flour is for." He starts rolling it out carefully as he attempts to get it all the same thickness. When that’s done he picks it up lightly and places it on the layer of prepped cake in front of him. Clarke is just watching him quietly and Bellamy smiles to himself as he repeats the process until all four layers are iced and covered.

"So what’s next?" Clarke asks as she looks at the plain white wedding cake.

Bellamy grins. “Now, we decorate.”

There are tiny gum paste flowers sitting in a plastic tub in his fridge and he grabs them out. He takes his time placing them into the cake, careful not to put too many in one spot and making sure the whole thing is ascetically pleasing.

"I don’t know how you do it," Clarke says with fascination and Bellamy’s eyebrow goes up when he looks at her.

"How I do what?"

"I don’t know, everything I guess." She watches the movement of his hands. "Bellamy, this is gorgeous."

He doesn’t know what comes over him when he says, “You’re gorgeous.”

She blushes immediately and Bellamy chuckles as he places another flower into the cake.

***

"So did he kiss you?!"

Clarke rolls her eyes as she sets the table in her apartment for Raven and herself. It was almost five by the time she left Blake’s and Raven had called on her walk home asking if they were still on for dinner at Clarke’s place.

Something that Clarke had completely forgotten about after her day with Bellamy.

Since Clarke was a little drained from seeing her dad that morning and from her full day of fun at the bakery, she decided to skip actually cooking dinner and stopped for Chinese takeout instead.

"No, he didn’t kiss me." Clarke says as she opens up the containers, each one releasing a different delicious smell that makes her mouth water. "But he did call me gorgeous."

Raven takes a sip from her glass of wine. “At least we know he’s smooth.” She grins as Clarke blushes again. “Oh my god, you really like this guy!”

Clarke shrugs as she sits down at the table, spooning a generous amount of sweet and sour pork onto her plate. “It’s hard to say. I mean, I barely know him.”

"Think of it this way. Today was sort of like your first date, right? Do you want to see him again?"

Clarke considers Raven’s statement as she takes a bite of fried rice. “I guess I didn’t think of it that way. As it being a date, I mean. But yeah, I do want to see him again.”

Raven smirks as she picks up chow mien with her chopsticks, something Clarke has always been jealous of and unable to do herself. “Then there you go. Now…tell me about this Jasper.”

Clarke laughs out loud at her friend, who’s no stranger to the nickname boy crazy, and tells her all about the three minute interaction she had with Bellamy’s longest friend.

***

"So are you going to see her again?"

Bellamy groans at the first words out of Jasper’s mouth as he strolls through the door with Monty close behind him.

"You two look completely knackered," Bellamy says with a shake of his head. "I’m guessing the bar was a success?"

Jasper sways a little where he stands but nods. “Yep! Now quit sidestepping my question with British slang, Mr. Blake. Are you, or are you not, going to see Miss Clarke again?”

"Yeah, Bellamy. Inquiring minds want to know," Monty says as he drops unceremoniously next to Bellamy on the couch.

"Well…I did get her number."

Jasper claps his hands loudly. “Yeah you did! Now onto the next important matter of business. Do we still have those jalapeno poppers leftover from the other night?”

Bellamy chuckles and points towards the kitchen. “They’re all yours, buddy.” He rolls his eyes as Jasper hoots and hollers his way into the kitchen.

"So you gonna call her?" Monty asks, his eyes closed as he leans his head against the arm of Bellamy’s couch. "You should call her."

"What, like right now? It’s almost midnight."

Jasper sticks his head out from the other room. “Or you could text her!”

Bellamy shakes his head as he stands up from the couch, prompting Monty to lie down to fill the now empty couch.

"You two should get some sleep. We have an early morning tomorrow."

Jasper just laughs as he tosses a cold jalapeno popper into his mouth and Bellamy is still shaking his head when he goes into his bedroom and closes the door.