"So you can have your cake, give you something good to celebrate."

[glamorqueen]

Who: Romeo Dalton and Liz Harrison
What: Let them eat cake!
Where: Liz's store
When: Wednesday afternoon

It had been a crazy morning. Romeo had done a life appearance on a morning breakfast show talking about Grease, so he had to be up a lot earlier than he normally would be. Then he had to squash an appointment at the day spa for The Works because he could never been seen without anything but perfectly manicure nails, and there was the quickie with Winnie at lunchtime when his lover came home for his lunch break. That actually turned into two quickies because they couldn't keep their hands off each other. Needless to say, Romeo had been very reluctant to let his lover go back to work, but alas, he walked him back and now had an errand to run.

He found the place he was looking for that came highly recommended by his agent who knew this place often did cakes for opening night parties, so that would work. It was all very cute and quaint, like it stepped out of a Fairy Tale or something. He went in and rang the bell on the counter that was currently unattended and took his compact mirror out of his bag to make sure his hair was all in place.

Comments

[glamorqueen]

Romeo took the quote and looked over it, raising his eyebrows a little. The look on his face might have been mistaken for disagreement (probably what Reecy and Autumn would have assumed he was thinking, being the evil Satan-spawned bitch he apparently was), but it wasn't that at all. In fact, he thought it was way too little and when he wrote the cheque out for her, he doubled it. "There you go, darling," he said, signing it in his flourishing scrawled handwriting and handed it over to her. "Call it a tip. No arguments. You're doing me a wonderful service. He's very special to me and it's his first birthday that we've been together, so I want to make it memorable. It will be late on that Saturday night, post-show. You're more than welcome to stop by for a few drinks and see your work being enjoyed. I can introduce you to Winston."

He tucked his cheque book back into his bag. "Thank you. I try my best. This has been the most fun I've had at work in a long time. The success can only truly be put down to Caden Drake and his crew. And please, call me Romeo. I have a father and an older brother who can carry the 'Mr. Drake' title way better than I can. Most generally refer to me as a queen anyway," he added with a smirk. "It was word of mouth. The Broadway world can be very small. You've made cakes for various production parties. There's also Lee McKenna. One of his boyfriends, Hayden, is my personal trainer. Terrible tragedy the three of them are facing. I wouldn't wish it on anyone."

[losing_my_religion]

Liz actually had to focus to keep her eyeballs from popping out of her head when Romeo turned the check over to her. It was clear that he had no problems financially, and that he wanted nothing but the best for his other half. "That's very generous of you," she finally said gratefully. "Not necessary, but very much appreciated. I'd love to meet him, though. He must be a pretty special guy. If you're sure you don't mind, I'll definitely stay for a couple of drinks after I drop off the cake. I always like to see people when they first see the finished product anyway. Thank you for the invite. I think we can call it a plan."

"Well, there's no doubt your talent is a huge part of the success, too, darling. You were a huge part of my enjoyment of the show no doubt. But from what I've heard from the few Broadway actors and staff I've met over the years, it's a lot of hard work from lots and lots of people to make the shows go off as well as they do. Oh, it's just awful what happened to Lee. When I heard about it, it hit me hard. We've worked very closely on a great many weddings, and it blows your mind when you hear something like that happened to someone you were just talking to only days earlier."

[glamorqueen]

Romeo put his hand on his chest giving her a sympathetic smile. "Oh, honey, if people in this world only did things that were necessary, no one would ever be happy or kind-hearted. That's not a world anyone needs to live in. It's not charity. It's gratitude. The only ideal this world will ever see are the ones we make ourselves. Somewhere on the other side of the city, some evil cunt is probably robbing that amount of money off a little old lady taking it to send to her daughter for IVF who can't have children despite her six figure wage and doting husband. Then he'll go home and knock up his extremely fertile crack addict girlfriend of the week who has eight children to different guys. Don't brush away gratitude as something that's only a necessity for you. Your work is making a difference to someone trying to make their own ideal. How often are speciality cakes ordered for something that's not a celebration or a mark of respect, huh? Winston underestimates his own offering to the world." He took out the New York Times of that day where Winston had an article published that day about the pressures of eating disorders in demanding career industries, such as live theatre, such as fashion, such as TV and music, and showed her.

He waved his hand, amused. "Hard work is part of my success. Talent is one thing dripping from the rafters on Broadway. Hard work and knowing how to be what people are willing to pay for. Some people in this world think I'm only where I am because I had it all handed to me on a silver platter and I'm an ungrateful bitch." He rolled his eyes. "The world needs the basic to balance out the fabulous though. Life would be boring if I didn't have someone to mock or flaunt my success to."

[losing_my_religion]

"You're right about that," she admitted, offering him a warm smile of her own. If this was what being gay was, she was really questioning with all her heart why it was so fucking wrong... and why a God of love and kindness as she was taught that he was, would make people gay and then make it a sin. How could he tell people to love one another, then punish some kinds of love while rewarding others? The truth was, all of this -- first with Jesse and Jace and now with Romeo and Winston -- had her questioning the very foundations of everything she believed in. Jesse and Romeo hadn't come in here talking about the sex they had with their other halves, and cocks and asses, and sinful, shameful things that should never even be spoken of in hushed tones in darkened bathhouses. These were two guys who'd come in gushing over the hearts and souls of the people they respectively loved, and that was really all that anyone could want in a lover. She'd give her left tit to have a good looking guy like Romeo or Jace or Jesse talking about her the way these guys talked about their other halves. Who wouldn't? "That's true, too. Most of my cakes are for the sole purpose of making a special occasion that little bit more special. Which honestly means I'm honored by every customer who chooses me to be a part of their special days. So I guess that makes sense. Thank you." She took the paper from him and looked at the article, reading over it. "Wow... You have an incredibly talented boyfriend. That's a heck of a lot of talent for one relationship," she added with a teasing wink.

"Just from what I know about Broadway, there can't be many people there just riding the coattails of the who they know side of things. You have to be talented and hard working, no doubt. Just like any other job that relies heavily on talent... Talent is meaningless without hard work." She had to laugh at that, though, shaking her head just a little. "People always hate people who are more successful than them. It's just a matter of life."