Saturday morning Peeta opened the back door to the Meadow Lark that lead into the pantry and kitchen.
"On Saturdays I do private orders, if I have any. It's just one cake today. I can work on it while you take care of the books," he explained with a welcoming smile. "Then we can talk some more."
Katniss turned on Peeta's laptop while eyeing a tray of baked goods. "Are those cheese buns for me?"
"You can't do the books on an empty stomach," he explained. "Dig in while they are still warm."
Katniss worked on the computer and munched on cheese buns while Peeta baked and decorated a baby shower cake.
After the receipts were balanced and the cheese buns were history, Katniss and Peeta waited for the customer to pick up the cake, talking about ways to expand the private order part of his business.
Once the cake had been delivered, Peeta offered to show Katniss the upstairs, which he had turned into an apartment.
"I love the colors," she exclaimed as she glanced around his living space. The muted orange brightened up the kitchen as much as the sky blue living room presented a calming atmosphere.
"It's like living in a painting."
"That's the way I wanted it to feel," he explained, happy that she had picked up on the theme. "All of the framed paintings on the wall are mine. Places I went in the military and some inspired by District 12. I have others that I will show you some day."
Katniss accepted some tea and a seat on his overstuffed sofa and she and Peeta began to talk about his life in the military and adjusting to life in the Capitol until the inevitable subject of Gale popped up.
"You told me you know the truth about what happened between Gale and I. Do you know the truth or the District 12 version?" Katniss asked cautiously.
"I know the truth, Katniss. Gale came clean at his wedding," he confessed.
"It must have been only to you," Katniss spat, the pain of that time flooding over her like a tsunami. "I am the pariah of District 12. The girl who broker the heart of golden Gale Hawthorne. My own mother and sister still hate me for it. Hazelle is my mother's best friend and my sister is going to marry Rory. It shattered what was left of my relationship with my family and Gale's family."
Once the words started coming out, it was like a levee broke. Years of keeping the story to herself, coupled with the guilt of her tryst with Gale made the story pour out of her like a floodgate had opened .
"I thought we were happy, Gale and I. Careers on track, wedding to plan, looking for a big condo together, talk of babies one day. Life seemed so perfect," she explained.
"I had sold The Games to Capitol Publishing and they were a huge success in the young adult world. I loved going on the book tour, writing for the magazine and going to the club and restaurant promotions with Gale.
"Slowly, everything started to crack. The more we planned the wedding, the more our relationship cracked. I was busy with the wedding, so I became more office and home bound. I wasn't fun any more between the book tour and the meetings with wedding people, not to mention the magazine. Gale was still out to all hours of the night doing promotions and refused to help with anything. He was fine with the way our lives had been. Looking back on it, I don't think he really wanted to get married," Katniss admitted.
"All areas of our life suffered. It got to the point where he wouldn't even really touch me," Katniss admitted, blushing.
"I decided to try to fix it. I went to a club promotion one night, which was the first time I saw them together. She was there as a model. Gale said it was nothing, but I could tell….the way he looked at her-he hadn't ever looked at me that way.
"He did everything to convince me that it was nothing, that I was crazy, paranoid. Things got better. A few weeks later I spent the night at his condo and I was beginning to think that I was just crazy. Everything was perfect that night. He went to work the next day and I figured I would help him out by doing laundry that had piled up.
"It was like something out of a bad movie. I found women's clothes that weren't mine. When he came home I confronted him and he admitted to it being Glimmer, the model I had seen. He loved me, but he loved her too. He was unsure about what to do because everyone at home was expecting our wedding to happen."
"Gale told me what you did after that," Peeta said. "How you took the blame for the break up soe he could save face. You are a better person that I would be."
Katniss started to cry. "I couldn't let everybody hate him. I still loved him, even though I was so angry with him for ruining everything.
"Glimmer actually tried to be my friend, if you can believe that. She even invited me to the wedding," Katniss told him, anger flashing momentarily in her gray eyes.
"I told Gale to tell everyone that I had called it off, changed my mind. That I didn't love him anymore...whatever he wanted. Then, he was free….to be with Glimmer or not. Part of me actually thought he would come back," she confessed, sniffling. "When I read about their engagement, I realized that it was silly of me to believe he might come back and my heart broke all over again. Everything happened really fast and everyone believed that Glimmer healed him after I shattered his heart. I have been the bad guy ever since."
"Before the wedding, I was made at you for stomping on Gale's hear," Peeta confessed, wrapping her in his arms and drying her tears. "People thought you cheated on Gale. Nobody blames him at all."
"Yes, I know the rumors. My mom never even met Finnick. She refused to go to Four and I refused to take him to Twelve," Katniss admitted. "People are still made at me about it even now. I couldn't bear to put Finnick through that. His loved saved me when I felt hopeless. I couldn't have him know what people thought, even though it wasn't true. I never introduced him to Gale. He never even knew the story. He knew I had been engaged before, but I told him it was an amicable split. I shut off that part of my life."
"I wish I had been there for you through all of it," Peeta said. "You can say I didn't know, but I did after the wedding and I didn't do anything about the situation. I really am sorry for that, Katniss."
"You have nothing to be sorry for," she assured him, settling into the comfort of his arms. After a few minutes of silence, Katniss asked "Can I hang out here with you for the rest of the day?"
Peeta agreed and they spent the rest of the day talking about the bakery and her ideas for the magazine article she planned to write about it. Peeta even taught her some painting techniques and allowed her to practice on some blank canvass.
Walking home at the end of the day, Katniss realized that it was one of the best days she had had in a long time.