The Stud Muffin and the Cupcake

1. A Betrayal

Sierra sighed heavily, pressing her balled up hands into her back and arching slightly to crack it. She was rewarded with several satisfying sounding pops, but it wasn't enough to cause the aching to lessen. Thirteen hour stretches on her feet were beginning to catch up with her.

“It's worth it, though.” Sierra mused as she looked at the literal army of cupcakes spread across the counter in front of her. The customer favorite Death by Chocolate shared space with her newly developed CocoNuts for You flavor, fluffy spice cupcakes had been turned into Grandma's Apple Pie complete with a cinnamon buttercream lattice top, and classics like red velvet and vanilla rounded out the ensemble. They looked beautiful.

Sierra was proud of all she had accomplished that day – and in the last year. Sea Bee Bakery, named for her fiancé Jason's pet name for her, had quickly become a success in the ten months it had been open; although the long days were hard, she was happy in the little coastal town she and Jason had moved to after college. Looking around her empty shop filled her with a heady sort of glee. This was all she had ever wanted.

She hung up her apron. Her thoughts were on the next day and her plan for some French macarons as she strode towards the door; she was almost there when she realized she had forgotten her purse in the kitchen. After the quick trip back to grab it, she stepped out into the warm, salt-tinged breeze and smiled.

Life was perfect.

The little apartment Sierra and Jason shared was only a few blocks from her shop, so she often walked and today was no exception. It was dark, the stars twinkling merrily against a velvety black backdrop, but she wasn't afraid. The town was quiet and safe. Her walk was quick and it was no more than ten minutes before she was climbing the stairs to her second story home. The exhaustion had really begun to set in. Sierra was desperate to get a shower and drag her clean, flour-free frame into her comfortable bed.

The first thing she noticed, upon opening the door, was that every light seemed to be on in the house. That was odd; Jason was very particular about saving as much money on the electric bill as he possibly could.

“Jason?” She called his name quietly. Her anxiety was running rampant, thoughts of Jason falling in the shower or being incapacitated by a crazy axe-wielding murderer filling her brain. She knew the latter was unlikely but she couldn't stop herself from picturing it anyway. Creeping through the apartment quietly – to avoid startling the murderer her brain was pretty sure hid somewhere nearby – Sierra made her way through the living room and into the hallway near the bedrooms. It was there that she heard a noise that chilled her to the bone.

Giggling and moaning was drifting out of a nearby room – HER bedroom! The one she shared with Jason! The voice was distinctly female.

It felt like someone else was controlling her body as a hand she barely recognized as her own reached for the knob. It turned and the door opened slowly, revealing her worst nightmare.

There was a dark haired stranger laying on her back in Sierra's bed, her feet flat on the bed with her knees bent and spread apart. The woman's eyes were closed and Jason's head was buried between her legs. The look of ecstasy on the stranger's face made it clear that he was doing an excellent job; Sierra fought back a wave of nausea at the thought and the sight in front of her. She watched, frozen in place, as the woman twisted her long fingers through Jason's hair and ground her hips against his face. The lovers in the bed were too busy to notice her. The unknown woman's moans grew louder and quickly spilled over into loud cries as she reached her orgasm, pressing her hips up into Jason's face. Sierra stood quietly in the doorway, although she didn't know why she hadn't walked away. Her body was no longer responding to commands from her brain.

Jason looked up from between his lover's legs. Sierra could only see the back of his head, but she knew from experience that he was gracing the woman with one of his million watt self-satisfied smiles. The stranger dropped her legs to the bed, her chest heaving as she opened her eyes – and saw Sierra.

“Babe!!” she shrieked, quickly pulling the blankets over her naked body. Jason's head whipped around and his face drained of color when he spotted Sierra in the doorway. He jumped off the bed and grabbed his robe, and that action was enough for Sierra's brain to decide it was time to go. She didn't want to hear anything he had to say at that moment.

She spun and ran down the hallway, rushing as quickly as she could towards the front door. She refused to look back, not wanting to let him see how the betrayal had affected her.

“Sierra!” Jason was behind her, fumbling with the tie on his robe as he followed.

“No.”

“Please stop!”

“No.”

If I say anything else, I'm definitely going to vomit. I should. I should turn back and vomit right in his stupid face. That would serve him right.

Sierra shook those thoughts out of her head and kept moving, pulling off the diamond ring Jason had proposed with as she went. She hesitated only long enough to grab her keys off the table beside the door as she opened it. Without a single glance behind her, she tossed the ring into the living room carpet and fled down the hallway to the stairs.

“Sierra!” Jason was in the doorway, calling after her. She disappeared around the corner and started down.

“Seabee!”

The sound of his voice calling the nickname he'd given her was too much for her to bear. She burst through the door at the bottom of the stairs and stumbled out into the night, tears blurring her vision and spilling down her flushed cheeks. Her car clicked in the nearby parking lot as she hit the unlock button on the key fob. The glowing orange lights, triggered by her button pressing, greeted her as she moved quickly towards the vehicle. She pulled open the door, slid behind the wheel, and locked the car.

Ahead, Sierra saw light spill out of the doorway to the apartment building. It was followed quickly by Jason's tall frame, his head turning towards the parking lot. His eyes fixed on her car and she cursed under her breath. Before he could take more than a few steps in her direction, she had started the car and thrown it into drive. He started to run towards her as she pulled out of her parking spot. It was silly, of course – there was no way he could catch her. Despite that, Sierra sped up and left him standing on the sidewalk staring after her vehicle.

She pulled over about a mile later. Jason was no longer in view. Her head was pounding, her eyes were still spilling tears down her cheeks, and her heart felt like it had been placed in a vise and tightened until it was about to burst. The pain was unreal.

The beach was to her left and she looked at the ocean for a few minutes, willing herself to find peace in the calming waves. Instead of lessening, the pain grew and finally she could no longer stand it. She threw the door to the car open and jumped out. Her steps were unsteady as she strode across the beach. Her brain just kept replaying the scene she had stumbled upon. When she reached the edge of the ocean, Sierra dropped to her knees and began to cry. Before long, deep sobs were wracking her chest and increasing the pain until she thought she would die from it. Something had to give, and it finally ripped itself from her chest in a long, screeching cry.

“WHY?!” She screamed into the quiet night.

There was no answer, save for the squawking of startled seagulls and the steady lapping of the waves on sand.