Balance

"Good morning, Fredbutt!"

Freddie groaned as he tried to pull his covers up over his head.

"Come on, time to get up!" Sam said cheerfully, yanking back the sheets. "We've got a busy day ahead of us!"

"Sam, it's seven in the morning!" Freddie moaned. "Since when are you even remotely conscious at this hour?"

"Don't you know what today is?" Sam said.

"I'm to tired to know anything," Freddie yawned.

"Today's the day we go cake testing!" Sam exclaimed, ignoring Freddie's comment. "Aren't you excited? We get to go to cake shops all around Seattle and sample the best cakes out there to pick which kind we're going to use as our wedding cake! I've been dreaming of this day since I was a little girl!"

"You've dreamed of testing wedding cakes?" Freddie frowned. "Don't girls dream of the actual wedding?"

"Well I was more interested in this part," Sam said. "Think about it! These bakers are all so desperate for you to pick their cake that they'll practically shove samples down your throat! Now let's get going! We still need to pick up Carly."

"What makes you think these bakeries are even open this early?" Freddie sighed.

"Well we have to be first in line, otherwise some other couple will swoop in and get all my samples!" Sam said. "Now up! You have five minutes to be dressed and ready to go or I'm dumping cold water on you."
"Alright, alright, I'm up!" Freddie conceded, slowly sitting up in bed. "But you know, if I ever tried this stunt with you, you'd have kicked me in a very painful place by now."

"Of course I would've," Sam smiled sweetly, leaning down to give her fiancé a quick kiss. "Now hurry up; we're burning daylight."

….

"This baker is going to think we're insane for sitting outside his store for two hours before it opens," Carly yawned as her and Freddie stood on the sidewalk in front of a small bakery while Sam stared eagerly into the display window.

"Probably," Freddie said. "But you know Sam's been excited about cake shopping since we got engaged. You know, even though I'm exhausted, I've got to say, it's kind of cute seeing her like this."

"If only she had the same enthusiasm for the other parts of the wedding planning process," Carly sighed. She looked over at her best friend. "Hey, Sam? Have you looked through those dress catalogues I gave you yet?"

"Nope," Sam said at once. "Hey! Hey, I see the baker coming out! The store's opening! Are you ready?"

"Sam, please don't jump the poor man when you go in," Freddie said. "Just try and stay calm and we'll-"

"Hello," the baker said, opening up the store's door. "I'm sorry to keep you folks waiting. I just had to put a few things in the oven before I-"

"Where are the samples?" Sam demanded at once.

"Um, well we have samples available in the back of any cake you'd like to test-" the baker began, but Sam shoved her way past him before he could get any further.

"I'm so sorry," Carly said quickly. "She-She just really likes cake."

Her and Freddie hurried into the bakery after Sam, who was staring around at the many cakes with a huge smile on her face.

"I think she's drooling," Freddie smirked.

"There's so many different choices," Sam whispered in disbelief. "It's like I died and went to heaven! Okay, this makes getting married officially worth it!"
"So what am I? Just some added bonus?" Freddie scoffed.

"Um, I-I meant more worth it," Sam said quickly.

"Yeah, alright," Freddie said, rolling his eyes. "So, what flavor do you think we should go with? Vanilla or chocolate?"

Sam gave him a disgusted look. "You want our wedding cake to be vanilla or chocolate?"

"Um…"
"Freddie, this bakery has really fancy, gourmet cake flavors," Carly explained before Sam could go off on him. "Like pistachio, butter pecan, raspberry-"

"Coconut, lemon-cream," Sam continued. "White chocolate-almond, pink champagne-"

"Alright, I get it," Freddie said. "So…what do you have in mind?"

"I'm thinking something that will go good with a buttercream frosting," Sam said. "Of course which kind of buttercream frosting we go with is a whole other story. Let's see…what about this mocha-walnut cake? Can we try a sample of that one?"

"Sure thing," the baker nodded, heading into the back.

"So just how much cake are you planning on eating today?" Freddie asked Sam, somewhat amused.

"As much as I have to," Sam said. "I wore my stretchy pants here for a reason, Fredifer."

"Ten bucks says we're kicked out of this place before noon," Freddie whispered to Carly.

"Alright, here you are," the baker said, bringing out two slices of cake and handing one each to Sam and Freddie. "Taste it and see what you think."

The couple took a bite of the cake.

"Holy chiz…this is amazing!" Sam said. "Especially with these walnuts; they give the cake an extra crunch."

"I dunno," Freddie said slowly. "I'm not sure how I feel about walnuts in my cake. It's kind of distracting."

"Distracting?" Sam repeated. "What are you focusing on? You're eating cake!"

"But it messes up the texture," Freddie said.

"Well too bad, I like them," Sam shrugged.

"Sam…" Carly said. "This isn't just your wedding cake. Freddie has to agree with whichever cake you guys wind up getting. It's only fair."

"Ugh, you mean I have to compromise?" Sam cringed.

"That is what marriage is about," Freddie said. "And we need to compromise about our wedding cake. Come on, there has to be some flavor here that we both like. Let's see…ah-ha! What about white velvet-blackberry cake? Can we try that one, please?"

"White-velvet blackberry, coming up," the baker said, going back to the back of the bakery.

"Blackberries in cake?" Sam frowned.

"What's wrong with that?" Freddie asked.

"I don't know…it just seems so…healthy," Sam said.

"Putting blackberries in a cake hardly makes it healthy," Freddie said.

"Well it makes it healthier than putting walnuts in it!"

"Will you forget about the dang walnuts?"

"No! I-"

"Guys, are you seriously going to have a whole big argument about your wedding cake?" Carly cut in.

"Absolutely!" Sam said.

"Ugh, why am I surprised?" Carly sighed. "Look, can't you two just-"

But just then her phone beeped, and she looked down at the screen.

"Oh no!" she gasped. "We have a flower emergency! The shop we ordered the roses for the reception from is saying that they're converting into an ice cream parlor!"

"Sweet!" Sam said.

"No, not sweet!" Carly snapped. "This means that we don't have flowers anymore! Aw man…I've got to go run out and try and track down a new place that can take your order on such short notice. Are you two okay here on your own?"

"Why wouldn't we be?" Freddie asked.

"Because you two are throwing a fit over blackberries and walnuts!" Carly retorted, shoving her phone back in her pocket. "Alright, just-just try not to kill each other over this cake, okay? I'll see you guys after I solve this flower crisis."

"We can just forget about the flowers, you know," Sam called after her.

"Over my dead body!" Carly called back right before she left the bakery.

"Alright, here's your cake," the baker said, handing the slices of white velvet-blackberry to Sam and Freddie. "What do you think?"

"Hey, this is pretty good!" Freddie said. "These blackberries really balance out the sweetness from the-"

"It's like I'm eating a fruit salad," Sam declared, setting her fork down. "There's no way I'm letting fruit into my wedding cake."

"Oh come on, you just don't want our cake to be even the tiniest bit healthy," Freddie said, rolling his eyes.

"That's right," Sam said.

"That's ridiculous!"

"Well too bad, because, as you said, we both have to agree on this cake," Sam smirked. "And I say no fruit!"

"Fine!" Freddie said. "We won't have fruit. What flavor do you want to try next?"

"Let's try that German chocolate fudge cake," Sam said. "That sounds promising. Hey, can we get two samples of-"

"Already on it," the baker said, turning around and heading back into the kitchen.

"Yeah, we're definitely gonna get thrown out of here before noon," Freddie mumbled under his breath.

"What was that?"
"Nothing!"

"Alright, here's the cake," the baker said, returning with two slices.

Sam bit into her piece. "Now this is what I'm talking about! It's like a chocolate bar exploded in my mouth!"

"This is way too sweet," Freddie cringed. "I feel like I'm gonna throw up just by nibbling at it."

"Are you kidding me, Benson?" Sam moaned.

"I'm sorry! But you know I can only take so much chocolate!"

"Ugh, this is hopeless, isn't it?" Sam said. "We're never going to find a cake flavor we both agree on. Our tastes are just too different when it comes to food. You like fruity, prissy flavors, and I like real, delicious flavors."

"Baby, I'm sure there's some flavor out there that we both like," Freddie said, putting an arm around her.

"No, there isn't," Sam sighed sadly. "Let's just face it; we're going to wind up having to get a boring flavor like plain vanilla or chocolate for our wedding cake. How lame will that be?"

"Um, excuse me?" the baker spoke up. "I couldn't help by overhear your predicament, and, if you don't mind, I think I have a solution that may work for you…"

….

"Well, you'll be pleased to know that I found a new flower shop that can take care of your order for the wedding," Carly announced an hour later as she stepped back into the bakery. "I may have made the saleslady cry, but other than that, it's all good. So how's it going over here? Did you make any progress in finding a cake?"

"Actually, Carls, we just finished putting in our order," Freddie smiled.

"What? That's great!" Carly said. "So you finally found a flavor you both agreed on?"

"Nope," Sam said at once.

"Huh? So what did you do?" Carly frowned. "I told you, you both needed to agree on the cake. It's for both of you."

"Oh, we agree on the cake," Sam grinned. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a rough sketch of a four-tiered cake. "Since we couldn't agree on a flavor, we decided we'd just each get a couple that we like and put them all together."

"You can do that?" Carly asked.

"Sure," Freddie nodded. "See, each tier is a different flavor. So the bottom and third level are my flavors, and the second level and the top are Sam's flavors."

"So I got chocolate maple crunch and hazelnut cream," Sam said. "And Freddie got peach and raspberry truffle."

"Wow," Carly said, somewhat impressed. "That was actually a really good idea. And it was some great compromising."

"We know," Sam said proudly. "Now all we have to do is pick the icing flavor and we'll be good to go."

"Alright, so which kind are you getting?" Carly asked.

"Vanilla buttercream," Sam responded.

"Um, I thought we were leaning towards the cream cheese frosting," Freddie said.

"No," Sam said. "Cream cheese frosting would taste terrible with my cake flavors."
"Well vanilla buttercream would taste terrible with mine," Freddie said.

"Well that's too bad, isn't it?" Sam snapped.

"Hey! That wasn't very compormisey!" Freddie said.

"Yeah? Well you-"

"My God…we're going to be in this bakery forever," Carly sighed.