"Sweet and Salty Conversations at the GCAC, Part I"

"So, did you get in contact with the person that I told you about?" Schuyler asks Fen as he's sitting at a table at the GCAC. Schuyler Simms was a pretty 29-year-old white woman who was currently working as a server at the GCAC. She was 5'6, with porcelain skin and had dark red hair and green eyes.

"I did." Fen informs her. "A while back ago actually."

"And…" Schuyler pushes him. "You found something?" She asks.

Fen nods and grins. "I did and I'm about to… get it." He says.

He sits up a little straighter in his chair. "But I want to keep things hush- hush for now. Because I don't want my fiancée finding out about it. I want to surprise her, after we're married." He admits to Schuyler.

"Somebody's going big." Schuyler teases him.

Fen grins. "Oh, yeah, I want it to be my wedding gift to her. But for now, I just want to keep quiet about things. I've known that I wanted this for a while, but now that I'm engaged, and am getting married, I can really share it with her."

Schuyler sighs. "How romantic." She gushes. She puts her hand on her hip. "Does she know how lucky she is?"

Fen shrugs his shoulders. "I'm the lucky one." Him and Schuyler smile at each other and chat a bit more.

"So are you ready to order something, or do you want to wait for her?" She asks.

"I'm going to wait for her." Fen informs her. "We are actually meeting with a friend this morning to do some more planning for our wedding."

Schuyler smiles at him. "Okay, I'll be back around in a bit to take your orders." Schuyler goes to another table to take an order and then goes into the kitchen area of the GCAC to give it to the chef. She runs into another server and her roommate Madison, a cute tall 30-year-old blonde woman with shoulder length hair and brown eyes.

"He's so hot." Schuyler gushes as she talks with Madison for a moment.

"Who?" Madison asks curiously.

Schuyler raises her eyebrows. "You know who." She says giving Madison a knowing look. "Who is like my favorite customer here?" She asks.

Madison shrugs. "You seem to have a lot of them."

"Fen Baldwin." Schuyler says. She sighs. "He's so…yummy. And he talks to me like I'm a valuable person, heck like I am a friend."

Madison makes a face and raises her eyebrows. "Oh, him." She says nodding. "Yeah, you uh…really seem to like him."

"He's so awesome and handsome." Schuyler continues to gush about Fen. "And we have some nice conversations, whenever I wait on his table." She admits to Madison.

"Un-huh." Madison says stacking some dishes.

Schuyler sighs again. "Why I can't find a man like that?" She wonders.

"Well, handsome single pop stars aren't exactly walking around all over the place in this town." Madison says sarcastically.

"It's such a bummer that he's engaged." Schuyler says frowning.

Madison gives Schuyler a look. "Well, not for him." She says. "And you know his fiancée is the sister of Devon Hamilton who owns this place. And who is our boss?" She reminds her.

Schuyler waves her hand. "I know and regardless of whose sister the fiancée is, she's very lucky." Schuyler pauses thinking. "I wonder how she got him?" She ponders.

Madison frowns. "What?" She asks a bit perplexed.

Schuyler makes a face. "I mean how she got him. Like how did she pull a pop star?" She ponders.

"Weren't they friends for a bit first and she helped him build his career?" Madison asks. "At least that is what I think I read in an interview he did one time for a music magazine." She recalls.

"Oh, so they fell in love while working together." Schuyler remarks, thinking. "I wonder if that involved her seducing him."

Madison's eyes widen. "What?!" She exclaims. "Schuyler… What the heck?" She asks in an incredulous tone.

"I wonder if there was some seduction involved." Schuyler speculates unaffected by Madison's reaction to her speculation. She then leans towards Madison and whispers. "You hear stories about that all the time. About an artist trying to make their way towards the top. And they end up seducing or being seduced by someone at the label…." She states.

"Maybe that is what happened there, but it turned into love." Schuyler says the word "love" skeptically.

Madison shakes her head appalled by Schuyler's theory regarding how Fen and Ana's romance developed. "That is such a bizarre take on things. I may not know Fen and his fiancée but from what I've heard their love is genuine…." She shakes her head at Schuyler.

"It's a shame you suggested otherwise." She admonishes her. She then makes a face. "And not everyone has to resort to such tactics to get a man to fall for them."

Schuyler makes a face. "I'm just saying you never know with some people…."

"Well, she's not just some people..." Madison says firmly. "She's our boss's sister and if he heard you talking about her and Fen like that…." Madison shakes her head again.

"Wooooh, let's just say it's best if you keep their names out of your mouth like that. Especially around here." She advises Schuyler. Madison grabs some more plates.

"And I thought you gave up on men, or at least for now." Madison pauses thinking. "You know after you and What's his name ended what it was you too had."

Schuyler cringes when Madison brings him up. "Yes, him and I ended our relationship. Because he felt it was right to move on. But we had some passionate nights and he confided a lot of things to me." Schuyler confesses thinking of the man from a wealthy family in town who she had been romantically involved with a little while ago.

"But he broke things off." Madison interjects.

"Yes, he did." Schuyler admits and starts to get angry, when she thinks about him ending things. "He did, but that was a big mistake. One that he will regret when he's alone by himself at night." She points her hands to her chest. "Without me to listen to him and confide in."

"Un-huh." Madison says looking around to see if the next order was ready yet.

Schuyler continues talking about the man she had been involved with. "He will miss me that's for sure. But…. It's what he wanted to do…"

"And after you cried for three days straight you agreed it was the right thing as well." Madison reminds her. "Plus he never really seemed to take you much of anywhere like on dates or anything. He never even came over to the apartment."

Schuyler frowns at Madison's words and then nods.

"Well, he liked to stay in. But it probably is for the best things were ended between us." She sighs, feeling very unhappy thinking about the man again.

Madison nods. "Right. And You need to try and get past that situation for your own well-being, and your sanity." Madison pauses and sighs, giving her roommate a very serious look.

"And don't make any more inappropriate comments about Fen and anyone's else's relationship." Madison warns her. Madison then leaves and gets an order that is ready for one of the guests at the GCAC. She gives Schuyler a strong look and leaves with the order. Schuyler sighs and stacks some more plates and then goes back out into the dining area to attend to guests and take some more orders.

Around this time, Ana shows up to the restaurant. She goes over to the table where Fen is sitting. He stands up when he sees her and hugs her, and they kiss. They slightly pull apart and he keeps his hands on her waist for a moment.

"Hey, baby." He says smiling at her, looking into her eyes.

"Hi babe." Ana says looking at him. He then pulls out her chair for her to sit in and then he sits back down.

"So…" He begins. "How was your bridal shower yesterday?" He asks.

Ana beams when he brings it up. "Oh, Fen it was lovely. Summer did a wonderful job." She tells him happily.

"I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it." He tells her sincerely. "And that you got to spend some time with your family and friends."

"It really was great, I got to see friends and family like Tyra and Elena who has been so busy working at the hospital. It was nice to be in the same room with them and just let our hair down and have fun."

Fen nods. "Good you deserve to have fun." He tells her smiling.

"And they gave me some really nice gifts." Ana tells him.

"Oh yeah?" Fen asks curiously. "What did you get?"

"Well, I got some stuff for the kitchen that we can use, like a new French press coffee machine."

"Oooh, sounds fancy." Fen says lightheartedly.

"And Lily gave me some nice cheese cutters and a cutting board."

"Awesome, you know how much I love cheese." Fen laughs.

"And Lily does too, she brought up how you went hard at the gourmet cheese samples that she laid out at her last party." Fen and Ana look at each other and laugh.

"I also got some lovely jewelry from both of our moms, and a throw blanket from Tyra." Ana then makes a gesture with her hands.

"And ooh, Mattie gave me a cool looking wooden scrap book that we can start to put pictures from our travels including our honeymoon." She informs him.

Fen nods. "Cool, we can definitely start to add to that here shortly."

Ana continues telling him about the gifts she received. "And Summer gave us some luxury champagne flute glasses and I got a makeup bag from Rochelle... Sophia gave me some really great smelling perfume. And Abby gave…" Ana voice trails off, and she stops herself thinking of Abby's gifts and laughs.

"What is it?" Fen says looking at her a bit amused. "What did Abby give you?" He asks.

"Umm…. It's something for me and… also definitely something for you." Ana tells him slyly.

"Like some more kitchenware or something? She gave us a nice engraved toaster or a crock pot?" Fen asks speculating.

"Well… not exactly." Ana says.

Fen makes a face. "What did she give you?" He asks again curiously.

"Uh…. Well it was…" She starts to tell him and then stops. "You know you may have to find out later on…" Ana teases him.

An amused look comes across Fen's face… "Okay… So, you want to be mysterious…" Just then Summer comes over to their table.

"Hey guys." She says greeting them. She sits down at their table. "Are you ready to go over some major wedding plans today?" She asks them with her tablet and a folder/notebook in her hands.

"We are." Fen tells her smiling. "And my fiancée was just telling me about the awesome wedding shower you threw her yesterday. And about the gifts you gave her. And she has just mentioned Abby's gift, that for some reason she wants to keep secret from me…"

Ana looks at Summer and she laughs. Summer smirks. "Oh, yeah Abby's gifts. Yeah, they were definitely something."

"And Ana won't tell me what they are?" Fen asks.

"Well, maybe she just wants you to be surprised for later on…" Summer says slyly. "You'll love the gifts Abby gave her, trust me…" She tells him.

Fen shakes his head and sighs. "Okay." he says lightheartedly. "I won't press for details. Some things are best left a surprise until the right time." He then thinks about his own surprise that he has for Ana and smiles. "Some things are best revealed at just the right moment."

"Exactly." Ana says, agreeing looking at him, with a sparkle in her eyes. The three people then turn their discussion to planning for the wedding.