A young woman came out from the back of the shop and smiled at them from behind the front counter. “How can I help you?”

“We’re here for a cake tasting appointment,” Daisy said. “For Rocco Stone and Tyler Houston.”

The woman nodded and opened a laptop to check her schedule. “Yes, I’ve got everything set up for the two of you.” She smiled at them. “You’re going to make a gorgeous wedding couple.”

“Oh, no, we’re not the couple,” Daisy said quickly with a laugh as if it was the most ridiculous, asinine thing that they might be a couple. Even though, once upon a time, she’d promised Diego forever.

She’d either forgotten, or she was enjoying twisting the knife.

“I’m the wedding planner,” Daisy went on, then made a vague gesture at Diego. “And he’s the best man.” Her phone buzzed from inside her purse. “Excuse me a minute,” she said, fishing out her cell. She looked at the screen and then at Diego before answering. “Rocco. You and Tyler running late?” She paused, head tilted as she listened, her eyes slowly narrowed. “Uh-huh… Traffic on Divisadero…okay, sure, hold on.” She held out her phone to Diego. “He wants to talk to you.”

Diego put the cell to his ear and let his silence speak for him.

“Listen,” Rocco said quietly as if trying to keep Tyler from overhearing him. “So, we’re stuck in traffic. We’re not going to make it.”

Diego responded to the bullshit story with more silence.

“So…here’s the thing,” Rocco went on when he clearly got that Diego wasn’t going to make it easy. “Daisy is one of my dearest friends. I love her madly, but she’s going to side with Tyler on everything. I need your opinion in there. So, can you hang out and make sure I don’t get some sort of mango filling with a green tea cake or something like that? Oh, and no flowers on the cake, okay? Nothing frou-frou. And we don’t need any fancy, high-tiered cake with a figurine on the top either. None of that gay shit. And, yeah, I know, I heard it as I spoke, but I like what I like.”

“You really think you should trust me with all that?” Diego asked, feeling a twinge of amusement.

“Please,” Rocco said, sounding sincerely worried. “Nothing frou-frou.”

Diego took great satisfaction out of disconnecting without making any promises. He looked up at the baker. “All right, let’s get this over with.”

Daisy slid him a dirty look, which he returned with an innocent what look of his own.

“Be nice,” she mouthed.

The baker smiled nervously and turned to lead them to a table decked out with champagne and testing-size cakes galore. “We’ve got all sorts of different things to try,” she said. “But is there anything you’d like to start with?”

“Let’s just go with the basics,” Diego said. “No reason to make this a whole big drawn-out thing and keep you from…baking.”

“Oh, no worries,” she said with a smile. “We set aside an hour and a half for each couple’s cake tasting.”