The love of the holidays

December the most wonderful time of the year. This is the biggest time for bakeries, especially the two that have been rivals for years. Every year they compete to see who can get the most items sold at the annual holiday festival. But this year was different. Instead of doing solo shops, they decided to make it a partner competition this year. The two shops had no idea how to react to this, they had no other friends in the baking industry to partner with. They had no idea what they were going to do now. Do they drop out of it they both asked themselves? They were unsure still and their completion is only four weeks away. All of their other competitors had already found a partner, but not them. They only had each other left, they both could never even imagine baking with one another. They had been rivals for over fifteen years now, how could they ever be seen baking with each other. They both had always strived to be the best baker out there. But being seen with each other would ruin their reputation of hating each other. How would they possibly win this year, no partners, have not started planning, and only have four weeks before the competition. What now, they both found themselves asking this question day after day. They are stressing out and have no clue what to do at this point! So the woman decided to ask one of her friends that were not in the baking industry to help her out. Her friend then replied to her a couple of days later saying " I am not sure if I am up for that, it seems like a lot for someone who has minimal baking experience." The woman decided not to put that stress on her friend and just decided to ask another friend. But sadly all of her other friends were not up for the job.

With the competition being only three weeks away now and neither of them having partners, they decided to come to their last resort. Eachother. The woman finally decided to walk across the street to ask her rival to be her partner for the annual holiday festival. At first, he was not sure what to think about her walking into his shop. She slowly approaches him and simply asks him. "Do you have a partner for the annual holiday festival?" He explains to her that he does not and is not interested in being her partner. She argues back and tells him that it would be hard but with the help of each other, they may be able to pull through a win. He is not interested at all in being her partner, she tries to convince him. Finally, after almost an hour of her arguing with him, he decided to be her partner. Immediately the next day they begin planning, they spend all day planning. At this point, they were beginning to tolerate each other. Still did not want to be there with each other but were putting up with one another. They got their stand and theme planned out, now all that was left to do was figure out what to bake. With only two weeks before the competition, they were going strong. They had both decided it would be best to prep all the ingredients and make the batter. At this point in hanging out with each other, they were beginning to start having fun, especially in the kitchen. They were laughing all the time at one another and willing to hang out off competition terms. The women began to think she liked him, like liked him liked him.  She did not know how he felt about her though. With one week before the competition, she began thinking about asking him to go on a date. But was too scared he would think she was crazy. She decided to wait a couple more weeks or days before saying anything to him. The next day they began working on getting all of the batters prepared and refrigerated so the day before the competition that could whip it all out and bake it. 

With only a couple of days before the competition, they head over to the fairgrounds to set up their stuff. She invites him to ride over with her, he decides just to take his own car. She then tells him we can stop and get something to eat on the way back if you want? He decided that would be a great idea because all of the baking was making him hungry. They got to the fairgrounds and get everything ready, and on their way back they stop at this little diner and go in to eat. They both had a little too much to drink and she kinda exploded her feelings out for him. After saying it she realized she shouldn’t have said that because she thought it was going to be awkward now.  But little did she know, that he felt the same way about her. All this time they spent working together made them realized how good they are for each other. The day of the competition came and everything was going as planned, it was great. Until it came time to start getting customers. They were not sure who should do what, they both wanted to give away the treats but they both also wanted to take the money. What should we do they asked each other. She suggested they take turns, one person hands out the treats, and the other takes the money, then they can trade. They decided that would work. Halfway through the day they were going strong and had made a lot of money. They are working wonderfully together and are having so much fun. Once the day is over and it is time to split the money. The Man suggested that he close his business and they open one together. The woman is so excited and they open a business together. They then decide they should address their liking for each other problem, he told her he would love to date her. So about a week later they started dating and have been together for almost five years now and continue to participate in the annual holiday festival and have become the best bakery in their town.