Sweet Temptations:
Chapter 1:
"Next candidate," Ciel called out irritably and dropped yet another CV in the bin.
This series of interviews were going nowhere. If he was served another lumpy profiterole he vowed to hurl it at the person's face.
His secretary twitched nervously. "That was the last person."
Ciel checked his desk for the large pile of CVs that had been there in the morning. They were all now thrown in the bin. Was he ever going to get a pâtissier?
"Should I put the job advert out again?" his secretary questioned.
It was already five in the afternoon. Mey-Rin had a long day in the office with a boss that had been in a downright bad mood with everyone and everything. That was normal, however when faced with desserts that were not to his standards, he was even worse.
Relief came in the form of Ciel's female cousin peeking into the office.
"Ciel! Did you really kick them all out? What's with the pile of cake in the corner?" she enquired.
Ciel had recently made the decision to branch out from confectionery and toys to pâtisseries. It had made sense to everyone involved with the workings of the company. Ciel loved sweet things and was usually in a better mood when faced with cake. The selection of the locations had gone well. The hurdle they were stuck on was the hiring of a pâtissier. Everyone else required had been hired.
This was the fourth day of rejected candidates. Ciel was personally overseeing the interviews and no one had been up to his standards.
Lizzie picked up a banoffee pie from the reject pile. It was completely intact and looked like a child had made it.
"I guess you rejected this one for being too juvenile."
"Correct," was the cold answer.
"This one for being too bitter," she said for a beautifully decorated black forest gateau with a slice gone.
"Right again."
Next was an edible rock garden chocolate cake. She had no problems with guessing this one.
"This one for being too obviously inspired by the Great British Bake Off?"
Mey-Rin laughed awkwardly. "You know his taste so well. Perhaps you could do the interviews instead?"
Lizzie shook her head so hard that her bunches flew up.
"I really can't. Ciel is the ultimate connoisseur and it is his decision."
Her cousin shot her a small smile. Mey-Rin was sure that was the only time he had smiled for the past month.
"I will say that we aren't getting anywhere with the current hiring method," she continued. "Ciel, you either have to lower the standards or find a different way to get candidates."
Mey-Rin consulted the job advert they had been using. It offered a very generous salary and further opportunities. They had posted it everywhere available and sent it to agencies. The method had worked to a degree, there had been almost too many applications to deal with.
Ciel's gaze darkened and Mey-Rin shivered.
"You mean I should start poaching them from other companies?"
Lizzie smiled cheerfully. "If you give them a better offer, I'm sure they'll agree."
"That does sound like an idea," he agreed tentatively.
"Or you could look for people in unexpected places," she added. "Like charity cake sales."
"I'll leave that one up to you," Ciel said, very keen to have no involvement in that idea.
"You can ask your friends if they know anyone good," Mey-Rin suggested, eager to offer input.
Lizzie gave her a warning glance which caused Mey-Rin to remember too late that her boss didn't have any friends.
"That will be all, Mey-Rin," Ciel said in a flat tone. "You can go home."
The CEO of Funtom had a poor night's sleep due to the many cakes he had consumed over the past four days. By 2am Ciel had given up on getting any sleep and had taken countless indigestion tablets and was sitting up in bed with a book.
"How hard is it to bake a cake?" he sighed out loud, choosing to conveniently forget that he couldn't bake a cake either.
Ciel knew he had several options available. He could cancel the venture which would be costly and would mean a lot of people had wasted their time and would be a personal disappointment. He could continue with the current method and hope someone decent would finally turn up eventually. Or he could follow Lizzie's advice.
His cousin was his second in command and carried out any tasks that he disliked without complaint. She tended to have a different perspective to him, so it was always a good decision to take her advice.
He got out of bed and crept down the stairs to his study as quietly as he could. Ciel was unwilling to wake up Tanaka who was sleeping in the room closest to the stairs. Tanaka had been his father's butler and was faithful to him.
Once he was in his study with the door closed he stopped worrying about noise and switched his computer on. Tanaka was very strict about keeping Funtom matters to working hours so he didn't want Tanaka to find him searching for employees at half 2 in the morning.
The next hour was spent compiling a list of potential candidates. Some had won awards, others had just spent a long time in the industry and a few had gone to prestigious culinary schools. Fortunately all this information had been gained legally as it was always listed on companies' websites.
He sent the list to the printer and turned the computer off. He could read it in the morning. When he left the study, he found a cup waiting for him outside. A closer inspection revealed it to be a cup of honey and milk. Ciel was annoyed with himself for waking Tanaka up, but the combination of honey and milk managed to send him to sleep.
"Mey-Rin, contact the people on this list and offer them the job," he instructed the following morning.
His secretary accepted the list and flipped through it. She paused on one page and Ciel spotted a blush appearing on her face.
"Without nosebleeds," he said.
He was always close to firing Mey-Rin due to her nosebleeds over good looking men and her inability to perform most menial tasks. The past four days had seen numerous nosebleeds. Her good skills were that she kept his secrets and didn't mind when he said anything scathing to her. Those two skills were why he was still employing her.
"You're poaching from your biggest rival?" she asked when she turned another page. "I recognise this person."
Ciel's move into pâtisseries had partially been sparked by his biggest rival confectionery company opening a pop-up one in the middle of London. Funtom had kept an eye on its popularity and it had done well. Ciel was keen to open a permanent one before Michaelis Confectionery could do the same.
"When I visited the pop up, his cakes were good," Ciel explained. "He's likely to not be under full contract yet so we need to get him interested in ours first."
"That's a good plan," Mey-Rin complimented him.
Ciel didn't acknowledge the compliment as the outcome of his plan was unknown. He wondered how Lizzie's own suggestion would go.
"Is Lizzie here yet?" he asked.
Mey-Rin smiled. "She called me to say that she's going to be out all day looking for someone suitable. She sounded very sure of herself."
That was a cause for concern. When Lizzie had a goal set she always obtained it. He was expecting her to turn up at the end of the day with a line of people. Ciel wasn't ready to taste that many desserts again, his stomach still hadn't recovered yet.
"Warn me when she comes in," he requested.
At lunchtime he attempted to phone her to see if he could pin down where she was. She was not answering which was worrying. Either she was so into her mission that she hadn't noticed the phone ringing or she didn't want to talk to him.
Lizzie made her presence known around 3 in the afternoon. She bounded into his office triumphantly with Mey-Rin following in her wake.
"Lizzie's arrived," Mey-Rin said unnecessarily. "She got up here too fast for me to tell you."
"I've found someone!" Lizzie proclaimed excitedly. "Will you interview him? I left him downstairs."
Ciel was intrigued. Lizzie looked very sure that she had found the right person. He just wanted to know where she had found him.
"Where did you pick him up from?"
Lizzie smirked. "He was going for an interview at Michaelis Confectionery. As we suspected, they're also looking for people for their pâtisserie."
Her cousin was impressed at Lizzie's brazenness. He hadn't been expecting her to go as far as Michaelis Confectionery in her search. He couldn't have done it himself.
"Does he have a dessert with him?" he asked.
"It's very eye catching, that's why I spotted him getting out a taxi by their head office and guessed he was interviewing."
Ciel was even more impressed with her.
"Excellent. Send him up."
A few minutes later Lizzie showed a tall man carrying a cake box into his office. He was smartly dressed and his mid length dark hair was neatly arranged. Ciel's eyes passed over his physical appearance quickly in favour of eyeing up the cake.
"Good afternoon," the man said formally.
He was well spoken. Ciel's impression of him was good so far.
"I was on my way to an interview and now I'm here," he continued. "Miss Midford has been very persuasive. She's explained everything to me."
He didn't sound annoyed. Instead Ciel could hear traces of amusement in his tone.
"Are you okay with interviewing for the rival of Michaelis Confectionery?" Ciel enquired.
"I can always go back there if I fail here," the man assured him.
Lizzie patted him on the shoulder. "Good luck."
She discreetly withdrew herself from the office which left the two of them alone.
"My name is Sebastian," the interview candidate began. "Would you like to try my dessert?"
Ciel was so distracted by the sight of the cake that he forgot to ask for Sebastian's surname. This turned out to be a fortunate mistake.
It was a very lavish cake with only two layers, but the available area had been well utilised with neat piping and handmade chocolate ornaments. Ciel didn't even mind that it was a chocolate cake. The main question was if the structure would survive with a slice missing and if the slice would fall apart.
He picked up a knife from the collection he had been using for the interviews and cut a slice. It came out cleanly and the cake didn't even wobble which made Ciel sigh in satisfaction. He glanced over at Sebastian quickly enough to catch him smirking.
Ciel felt the need to explain the sigh. "Most people's cakes started to collapse when I cut into them."
"How is the taste?" Sebastian wanted to know.
Ciel took a mouthful and analysed the balance of the flavours. His personal enjoyment had to take second place in situations like this. The middle of the cake was blackberry jam which he hadn't been expecting. It offset the sweetness of the chocolate well. He finished the whole slice in a few seconds.
"It's well made and flavoured," he commented.
The interview followed the standard format after that. Ciel was impressed by Sebastian's credentials. It turned out that he had just returned from studying in France. Lizzie stuck her head in as the interview was wrapping up.
"Are you hiring him?" she asked with very obvious eagerness.
Sebastian winked at Ciel.
"He is."
Ciel had decided on that exact conclusion, but he wasn't going to let either of them know it.
"I haven't made my mind up yet," Ciel protested weakly. "I haven't actually seen your CV yet."
This was the first time that Sebastian looked perturbed.
"You might not want to hire me when you see it," he said. "I do have it here despite that."
Ciel's mind jumped to the conclusion that Sebastian didn't want him to see some bad school grades.
"I don't mind. You're the only decent interview candidate I've had. I'll hire you."
Lizzie whooped loudly and Sebastian smiled. Then he handed over his CV and Ciel immediately saw the incriminating surname.
Michaelis.
He had just hired the son of his biggest rival.
A/N: This story is going to have 10 chapters and no nasty plot twists.