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“Char, slow down!”
Running after Charlie was never a good idea. The man could really run. Like fast. And since their return to Truham after university he had joined a running club, taking part in Park Run every Sunday, meaning his stamina was incredible. Nick on the other hand, well, since he had quit semi-pro rugby his athleticism had declined. However, his gym membership was put to good use, meaning that his muscles were now well defined — he just had no hope of keeping up with his fiancé when it came to running.
“Come on Nick, we are so late!” Charlie shouted over his shoulder as he ran towards the stadium, never slowing his pace.
Nick was beginning to feel a stitch developing in his side, luckily however, they were now at the hospitality entrance.
Charlie had bagged two meet and greet game tickets to see The Falconers international exhibition game against the London Guards, Knowing Nick’s new found obsession with hockey he had scooped them up at work but due to tube strikes they were incredibly late and had missed their slot.
“Sorry lads, you're too late for the meet and greet,” the security woman on the door explained with a mildly apologetic face.
Charlie’s face dropped as he tried to look at Nick.
“I'm sorry sweetheart,” he whispered, placing a hand on Nick’s shoulder.
“Look…” the security guard continued, “I'm not meant to let you, but go on through this entrance, it will save time and you'll make the start of the match.”
Nick and Charlie thanked the woman and headed on through the entrance and out into the corridors of the stadium.
Spotting a sign for the bathroom, Nick pulled back on Charlie's hand.
“Wait here for me Char, I need to use the bathroom real quick.”
Charlie glanced down at this watch. The game would be starting really soon, but it couldn't be helped.
Charlie watched Nick head into the men's loos as he stood in the corridor, sighing loudly, spinning round on the spot to look for a sign to clarify in which direction they needed to go to find their seats.
As he spun, Charlie felt himself crash into a pile of boxes being carried at high speed by someone.
“Oh my god, I'm so sorry!” Charlie yelped as he tried to help catch the boxes as they flew into the air and began tumbling to the floor.
“Excuse me…” came a sweet male voice with an undeniable southern drawl.
Charlie looked up to see a slim man with large brown eyes and short blond hair looking miserably down at the pile of boxes on the floor.
“I'm so sorry,” Charlie began, “I didn't see you there. Let me help you pick these up!”
Amazingly, none of the contents of the boxes had fallen out, but Charlie suspected that whatever was inside would be quite heavily damaged.
“You have a lot of boxes to carry, can I help you take them to wherever you're going?”
The man smiled “That's so kind of you, it would be super helpful actually!”
As Charlie and the man began to collect the boxes Nick returned and stopped in his tracks in front of the pair who were now joking and laughing together.
“Oh my god, you're Eric Bittle!” Nick gasped.
Charlie turned to look at Nick and back to the dark eyed man next to him, the name meaning nothing to him. The man however smiled and balanced the boxes with his one arm and shook Nick's hand heartily.
“Good to meet you, call me Bitty or Bits, everyone does!”
Nick gaped at the man.
“I'm Nick, and this is my fiancé Charlie.” Nick gestured to Charlie who nodded in greeting.
“I've watched your vlogs for years! I still make your Aunt Judy’s jam recipe every autumn!”
“Shhhh! You'll get me in trouble!” Bitty laughed.
“Oh my God, and that maple sugar crusted apple pie! I made that for our engagement party and it was the first thing to get eaten! I never even got a slice!”
Bitty laughed heartily, slapping Nick on the back.
“Well, you're in luck Nick! I'm just heading up to the friends and family box to take these pies and I have a couple of those in here.” He rattled the boxes in his arms with a smile. “They might be a little smashed, but they'll taste the same! Why don't the two of you join us?”
Nick looked like he may faint.
“We’d love to!” Charlie responded, clearly seeing that Nick was incapable of a response other than nodding enthusiastally.
***
Half an hour later after the first period of play, Nick, Charlie and Bitty were all in the friends and family hospitality box tucking into some delicious slices of the many, many pies that Bitty had been baking.
“These pies are incredible!” Charlie moaned through a large mouthful, a noise so filthy that Nick felt his dick twitch and so he had to change his stance to hide his semi.
“Aw thanks Charlie. Well, I've been a little lonely here in London, what with Jack training for the game, so I needed something to occupy me. I've found it hard to find some of the ingredients that I needed but I think I've done pretty well considering…” Bitty finished, wiping his mouth with a napkin.
“Yeah, I wish I could bake like this!”
“Nick, you know you're an incredible baker!” Charlie smiled, reaching up and offering a gentle shoulder squeeze for support.
“Whilst we’re in Europe, Jack and I were talking about visiting Paris. There's this amazing class that I'd love to do where they teach you all these techniques for pastry lamination which I've always wanted to try, the only issue is that the entire class is in French and as much as I know Jack loves me, I can't force him to come along to a two day course just to translate for me!”
Nick gulped loudly.
“That is like my dream! I've always wanted to do a class like that!”
“You should do it!” Bitty smiled warmly. “In fact we should go together! We just need to secure someone with enough French skills to translate all the technical language for us!”
“Well actually—” Nick began.
***
Some time later when the match was complete, the Falconers having beat the London Guards 5 to 4, all of the players had come up to the box to enjoy some drinks and Bitty’s pies.
Jack was now stood, his hand resting in the small of Bitty’s back, as they chatted with Nick and Charlie. Nick, predictably, was star struck. Charlie knew that Nick had a slight crush on Jack, his dark hair and striking blue eyes making him Nick's type to a T, but what he didn't expect was to find himself bonding with Jack so much about books since he found out that Charlie was an editor and that they seemed to read a lot of the same things.
“There was this one book I read recently,” Jack began through a mouthful of pie, “it was an LGBT romance series where the main character was an exiled king and he fell in love with this twink elf who helped him to go and recover his lost throne…”
“Not the ‘Legends of The Ember Realms’ series?” Charlie queried excitedly, bouncing on the balls of his feet.
“That's it!” Jack exclaimed excitedly.
“I edited that series!” Charlie beamed.
Bitty smiled widely as they chatted back and forth, he and Nick separately deep in conversation about the baking courses they wanted to try and how to go about booking their couples trip to Paris.
As they left the stadium, rather tipsy from the free bar, Nick and Charlie chatted jovially about meeting celebrities and the logistics of the proposed trip. They both sincerely hoped the trip would happen but were worried that perhaps Jack and Bitty had just been polite inviting them along. Either way, they’d had a fantastic time and would remember the match for years to come.
18 months later
As they walked into their wedding reception, hand in hand, a cheer went up as a member of staff announced the entrance of the new Mr and Mr Nelson-Spring.
Smiling around at their assorted guests as they made their way to the top table, Charlie's eyes roved over an unexpected tower next to their modest wedding cake.
As they walked closer, Charlie squeezed Nick's hand and nodded towards a tiered stand holding no fewer than 5 pies, arranged biggest to smallest at the top.
Nick beamed as they reached the pies and turned on his heel to scan the crowd until his eyes landed on Bitty who was at a table nearby, hands clasped together by his face as he watched the grooms’ reactions.
“Bitty!” Nick squealed as he beckoned him over, he and Charlie now standing right in front of the tiered pie-cake, their wide smiles lighting up their faces.
“I can't believe you did this!” Nick murmured, grabbing Bitty into a huge hug as he caught up to them.
“Well, it was Charlie's idea originally,” Bitty smirked, nodding towards Nick’s new husband, “ I just took the idea and ran with it…”
“Me? Charlie queried, unbelieving. “I had no idea about this!”
“Do you remember our first Paris trip?” Bitty asked, a small smirk spreading across his face.
*
Of course they remembered. Only three short months after meeting Jack and Bitty, Nick and Charlie had joined them in Paris for a week before they all retreated to the south of France and Nick’s father's family villa to unwind.
Whilst in Paris Nick and Bitty had followed through with their dreams of attending a baking masterclass to hone and develop their already phenomenal skills.
Charlie and Jack had spent those few days exploring Paris together and discovering many, many book shops, scouting out rare finds and retreating to public gardens to read and share picky lunches of cheese, bread and wine until it was time to meet up with their partners.
It was undoubtedly the best holiday of their lives. Both couples bonding and cementing their relationships whilst also learning so much about their new friends.
After moving to the villa for the second week of the holiday, talk turned to upcoming nuptials.
Jack and Bitty were due to get married at Christmas and had invited Charlie and Nick to fly over to the States to join them, whereas Charlie and Nick's wedding was still over a year away.
One evening, drunk off of too much wine, both couples sat outside dangling their feet into the pool, chatting and laughing together when Nick suddenly announced how hungry he was.
“You know what I would love right now?” He asked as he rested his head on Charlie's shoulder, his tired eyes closing as he mumbled, the wine taking full effect.
“What sweetheart?” Charlie queried, smirking as his fiancé began to drift in and out of consciousness.
“That pie, the one that Bitty made the first time we met.”
Bitty and Jack laughed loudly, the wine loosening their inhibitions.
“He never shuts up about those pies…” Charlie smiled, pressing a kiss to Nick's head before taking his hand and encouraging him to stand before moving him towards the house and up to bed. “I swear he would have your pies as our wedding cake given the chance…” Charlie smirked before saying his good night's and leading Nick to the stairs and up to bed for the evening.
The idea sparked in Bitty's brain and grew almost immediately into a fully formed picture in his head of how a tiered pie wedding cake might look.
And so, when the wedding arrived, Bitty had bought with him from the US his trusty pie trays and almost all of the dry ingredients that he would need to make the pecan, blueberry, cherry, rhubarb and (Nick's favourite), maple sugar crusted apple pie for the reception.
*
As Nick and Charlie inspected the pies together with Bitty (and a very proud looking Jack) they noticed that the top pie, Nick’s favourite, Bitty had decorated with “N&C”.
“They're perfect,” Nick announced, tears in his eyes.
If it hadn't been for Bitty's baking, they may never have made friends with this amazing couple, and their lives would have been poorer for it.