Here’s an excerpt from my short enemies-to-lovers story “American Master Bakers,” which takes place on a reality TV cooking show. It’s one of nineteen gay romances appearing in the anthology Men In Love from Bold Strokes Books, due out on April 1, 2016.
Joey hated Terence. He hated his perfect puff pastries, his melt-in-your mouth mille-feuilles, the way he arranged lebkuchen on a platter, and his baritone voice barking “yes, chef,” and “no, chef” loud enough to be heard over twelve roaring stand mixers. He hated Terence’s salt-and-pepper hair, prettier than white buttercream dusted with silver sugar, and how Terence didn’t seem to think anything was wrong with strolling naked between bedroom and bathroom at the contestants’ dorm, his nuts hanging low beneath his meaty cock, swinging shling-shlong, shling-shlong with every stride.
Terence had become the bane of Joey’s existence from that first day on the set of American Master Bakers. There’d been fifty contestants then, each presenting their signature bake for a chance at being on the full season. Within the four-hour time limit, Terence had somehow managed to bake and decorate a three-tier wedding cake with a different sponge in each layer, two custard fillings, and three jams from scratch. That alone would have made him a shoo-in, but then he’d decorated its flawless ganache with handcrafted fondant lovebirds that looked like the real thing.
“Well, Terence, we might as well skip the whole season and give you the bakers’ crown now!” had been the judges’ assessment.
Fucking show-off.
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