All happiness depends on a leisurely breakfast.

Name: Desmond Dallas Tyler
Age: 29
Gender: Male
Race: Human, caucasian
Eye Color: Blue
Hair Color: Auburn
Skin Color: White
Height: 5'9"
Weight: 130#
Personality: Friendly, sweet, easily embarrassed
Occupation: Head chef at his cafe, The Shade Tree
Other: An adoptee

Name: Falon Tyler
Age: 33
Gender: Male
Race: Human, latino
Hair Color: Black
Eye Color: Brown
Skin Color: Tan
Height: 6'3"
Weight: 230#
Personality: Serious, easy to piss off, loyal, very protective of his little brother
Occupation: Popular freelance journalist, works for several different food magazines, as well as doing news stories for several major newspapers and magazines.
Other: An adoptee

Desmond:

Falon:

Name: Bret Maddison
Age: 30
Gender: Male
Race: Human, caucasian
Hair Color: Auburn
Eye Color: Violet
Skin Color: light Tan
Height: 6'1
Weight: 187#
Personality: easy going, flirty, easily amused, very happy person
Occupation: short order cook at an old fashion diner.
Other: lives in the suburbs with his 16 year old sister. Their parents died in a plane crash. They have a pet iguana names pedro.

Among the busy streets of Chicago, Illinois is a small cafe called The Shade Tree. It doesn't look like much from the outside; it's just a small, brown, stone building on a corner lot with some cute little tables and chairs out front and a sign with a picture of a cherry tree on it. It's one of those places that the locals like to keep a secret, because they don't want it to start getting overcrowded. Engraved on the wood doors at the front is a quote: "Happiness is a bowl of cherries and a book of poetry under a shade tree. ~Astrid Alauda." On the inside, the store is as cute and quaint as it's exterior; the decor is simple and elegant in a palette of warm browns and grays. Most of the tables are your typical bistro tables, made for two, three at most. The rest are long, low coffee tables, set off towards the corners and surrounded by comfy chairs and couches.

The owner and head chef of the establishment is a short guy with long, auburn hair and blue eyes named Desmond. You know him as soon as you see him; he's the one wearing the chef coat in some ridiculous color. If you ask him, he'll shrug and tell you "If I wear a white one, it's just going to get dirty, and if I wear a black one, it's going to get dirty and I'll look like a goth kid. So I wear something different."

The Shade Tree starts serving lunch and dinner at noon, but breakfast is available all day. Desmond's favorite saying is, "Never work before breakfast. If you have to work before breakfast, eat your breakfast first." He can't tell you who originally said it, but he'll tell you that whoever it was is a very smart man, and he never works without having breakfast first.

Bret pulled his sister into the cafe at precisely 3:27. It was a few blocks from her school and he had always been curious about it. They sat at one of the bistro tables and snagged menus.

"This place looks better than where you work" The girl commented.

"..." Bret stuck his tongue out at her. "Thanks Alice."

"Mmhm"

Bret glanced around the quaint little cafe with interest.

Desmond heard the bell ring when the door opened, and glanced up from what he was working. He figured that if it were a customer, they would need a minute or two to browse the menu, so that gave him time to finish what he was doing. He mixed the last of the egg whites into his choux batter and filled his pastry bag and hurriedly piped little rounds on one pan for cream puffs, and then lines on another for eclairs. He still had some left in the bag when he filled both pans so he pulled out a third and lined it with parchment papaer. He was going to try a trick he hadn't used since culinary school. He piped out some tapered teardrop shapes until he had just a tiny bit of dough left in the bag, and then piped some thin little s-shapes, then stuck the whole lot in the oven and hurried out into the dining room to greet his customers.

"Hi there!" he chirped happily. "Welcome to The Shade Tree! Can I get you guys anything to drink to start off with? Or are you ready to order?"

Bret had to smirk at the cutie in the chef coat that came out to take their order. "That depends." He stated sweetly. "Are you on the menu as well?"

Alice kicked him under the table causing him to cringe. "Water please. And we'll need a few more minutes to decide."

Desmond turned an ungodly shade of pink and ran off to get their glasses of water. He quickly sat them on the table and hurried off to the kitchen, calling over his shoulder, "I-I'll be in the kitchen. J-just ring the bell when you're ready to order!"

When the kitchen door swung shut behind him, Desmond took a deep, steadying breath and rested his head on the cold stainless steel counter. He wasn't used to being flirted with so obviously, and it had totally taken him by surprise. He peeked in the oven at his choux and, seeing that some of them were done, he pushed up the sleeves of his dark blue chef coat and grabbed a couple pot holders.

He pulled out the eclaires and his extras and sat the pans on the counter. The cream puffs needed to stay in a while longer so that they could dry out; the rest were meant to stay a little moist in the middle. He transferred all the finished choux pieces to a cooling rack, poking a hole in the side of each one to facilitate easier filling later, and so that the steam could escape and the choux wouldn't deflate. Then he set about making a batch of pastry cream to fill them with.

Bret scowled at Alice. "Hell spawn."

"Just pick what you want to eat."

"Fine." Bret grumbled. "I'll get a bowl of soup of the day and a slice of cheese cake."

"Alright then" Alice stated, getting up and ringing the bell before returning to her seat.

Desmond jumped a little bit at the sound of the bell ringing. He turned the heat off underneath his pot of pastry cream, took a deep breath, and headed out to the dining room with a timid smile on his face.

"So... you decided what you want to eat?"

"A house salad" Alice stated

"And I'd like a bowl of the soup of the day, a slice of cheese cake, and your phone number" Bret stated with a cheeky grin, only to be kicked under the table again.

"Ah, uhm..." Desmond stuttered, blushing again. He wasn't sure how to respond to that, so he decided not to until he could decide what to do. Filling their orders was the perfect way to stall for time, so he just nodded and scurried back to the kitchen.

The first thing he did was pull his now perfectly GBD (that's industry slang for golden brown and delicious) cream puffs out of the oven and get them cooling on a rack with the others. Then he pulled out a salad bowl and set to chopping vegetables and putting together the girl's salad, focusing on his work to clear his mind. He filled the bowl with fresh, crisp, green lettuce, sprinkled the top with cheese, then arranged the house-made croutons and sliced veggies artfully in the bowl before setting it on the plate with a cupful of the house salad dressing, a tangy red wine vinaigrette, and a cupful of ranch. With that much done, he turned his attention to the (cute) guy's soup. The soup of the day was french onion soup, which was kind of a specialty of Desmond's. He ladled out a hearty portion of the sweet onion soup, topped it with a piece of crispy garlic bread and a heaping pile of cheese, a blend of parmesan, asiago, and white cheddar, and put it under the Salamander to melt and brown the cheese.

With their orders done, he set them on a tray and carefully carried the food out to the dining room. "Here you go!" he said with a smile, before turning his gaze to the guy. "I'll bring out your cheesecake when you've had a chance to start on your soup, okay?" He gave him a shy smile with a little mischievous glimmer in his eyes. He had plans for that cheesecake.

"Alright. Sounds good." Bret smiled.

Alice rolled her eyes. "Don't even Bret. I'll kick you again."

Bret scowled at Alice.

Desmond smiled and went back into the kitchen. So his name's Bret... he thought to himself, pulling some plates down from the shelf. He grabbed one large plate and one small; he felt like he should treat Bret's companion (his sister, Desmond assumed) to some dessert as well. He decorated both plates with a bit of chocolate sauce, then put a slice of cheesecake on the big plate, which he drizzled more chocolate sauce over top of.

He put his finished pastry cream in a piping bag fitted with a small round piping tip and filled a few of the eclairs, which he then dipped in chocolate. He grabbed a couple of his extra little treats and split them in half lengthwise and filled the bottom half with the pastry cream; the top half he split in half, right down the middle, and stuck into the filling at the sides, making wings. Then he grabbed the little s-shapes he'd made and stuck one end into the cream to make a swan. They were simple, but they made for an impressive presentation. He put an eclaire and a swan on the small plate, and the other swan joined the cheesecake on the big plate. As the finishing touch, he grabbed one of the fancy dessert forks out of the cutlery drawer; Then he grabbed a sticky note off of the pad attached to the wall, wrote his cell phone number on it, and wrapped in up with the fork in a napkin. He allowed himself a self-assured grin before heading out the door with the tray.

"Ready for dessert?" he asked in a friendly voice, setting the plates in front of them. He carefully placed the dessert fork next to Bret's cheesecake. "Make sure you use the nice fork for that, okay?" His eyes sparkled merrily. "You may be surprised at how much more worthwhile the whole meal will feel if you do."

Bret smiled at him. "Anything you say~" he purred. He reached down and unwrapped his fork. His smirk grew at the sight of the sticky note.

Alice sighed. "And he encourages him" She muttered

Desmond grinned widely and ran his hand back through his hair. He's even cuter when he smiles like that!

"Enjoy your dessert, you two. My name's Desmond, by the way."

"Desmond..." Bret tried, the name rolling off his tongue like silk. "Cute. Sexy. Like you"

"Bret I will kill you." Alice stated.

"Shush Alice"

Desmond could hardly contain his excitement. No one had ever flirted with him like that before. Sure, he'd gotten plenty of pickup lines, and he'd fallen for them, too, but he never got compliments like that. Maybe Bret will be different than the others, he thought, trying not to grin like an idiot. As much as he wanted to just throw his arms around the man's neck and hang on him, Desmond knew that he had to at least play a little bit of hard ball; he had to make the guy work for it, at least a little. Otherwise he'd just get used and thrown to the side again.

"So Desmond~" Bret practically purred.

Alice glared at him.

"You doing anything later? Cause I would love to treat you to dinner" Bret smirked sexily, trying his hardest to get the man to say yes.

"I have to stay and keep the cafe open until eight. But if you want to come get me after that, that'd be okay, I guess." He kept his words carefully veiled, trying not to let on how much he really did want to go out with this guy, trying to play hard to get.

Every person, male and female, that he'd been with in his life had turned out to be abusive in one way or another. Some had beaten him, some had been really controlling, some were verbally abusive; others were just toxic relationships from the start, where they would break up and get back together a few days later, breaking Desmond's heart every time. More than anything, he wanted to have one relationship that worked out well for him.

Bret's smirk widened into a grin. "Really?" He asked almost breathlessly. "I'll pick you up at eight then! Is here good?"

Desmond nodded nonchalantly and smiled. "Yeah, sure, I guess," he said. Underneath his calm, cool exterior, he was really excited. Bret had sounded so excited when he'd agreed! That had to be a good sign.

I just know I'll be lucky this time. Bret won't mistreat me.

Bret continued to grin happily. "I'll see you then!"

Alice rolled her eyes. "We have to finish eating first"

"...right"

"Heh, right. See you then. I'll be back in the kitchen if you guys need anything else." In the kitchen celebrating.

He turned and walked calmly into the other room, but as soon as the doors closed behind his he couldn't help but do a little dance of happiness.

Bret and Alice ate leisurely, conversing lightly between them. Once they were done, Alice called back for the check.

Desmond came out of the kitchen and popped behind the register to print their bill. His apron had some fresh cake batter on it, and there was a bit of flour in his hair. He'd forgotten all about trying to be nonchalant while he was working away on some commissioned cakes, but he was walking with a new, more confident spring in his step, and the smile on his lips and in his eyes was imbued with that same confidence. It was a foreign thing to see in the man, but it was also a very attractive thing.

"Here you go, guys," he said, placing the bill on their table. "Everything was good, I hope?"