Autumn Dream

Buddy: Lol the slow burn is burning slowly but surely! Thank you for reading! 🫶

I really ran with my ability to yap endlessly for this story 🤣 But I'm glad you think so! I'd mused about splitting them up into shorter chunks, but most of the chapters have a specific theme or arc to them that I wanted to keep whole. So. You get giant chapters. LOL Lots of things going on with the growing cast! Pru is a trooper. And yes, interesting that Buddy keeps popping up. Why would he hang around... Thanks for reading! 🫶

Aw I'm glad it's landing that way! Definitely my intention to include and balance between lots of emotions — because that's just life! A little melancholy, a little happy, the ability to laugh at the good and bad — and a big, fragile ball of hope. 💖 And the food is definitely big for me here, because I think that's a big part of life for so many people too. Food as love and food as memory. Oh good, because I crack myself up writing some of these scenes. Glad to spread the joy 😂 Thank you! I love Buddy dearly. He's absolutely an onion. If an onion had a giant gooey marshmallow under the first layer. What? I didn't say that. Carry on. Thank you for reading! 🫶

Fair! This is a little bit enemies-to-lovers 😂 Poor Buds does have his reasons. The slow burn is slow-burning. But I think Violet clues us in to the real Buddy: In Keysbridge, his armor is up, he's angry about the situation that placed him there, and he's taking it out on Chase in particular — but softening slowly in spite of himself. Simon is a sweetheart. But yes, very bold and flirty 😂

Lol indeed!

I wonder, indeed... Poor Chase is still learning when to keep his mouth shut. 😂 They’re both young, though — still learning and maturing. And methinks they’re both enjoying their dynamic more than either of them lets on... Luckily, the actual baking seems to have most of Chase’s attention — even if a certain assistant manager is unusually good at distracting him.

“Well done, Chase,” Violet began in her usual composed voice, calm and precise. But there was more warmth under it now — something softer than her sharp eyeliner and the clipped professionalism she wore like a blazer. Afternoon light spilled through the tall office windows behind her, warm and gold in that particular October way, striping the floorboards and catching on the neat stacks of paperwork spread across her desk. Chase sat very still. He’d come in expecting feedback. Not

Great question! We’ll find out later! A non-spoilery answer at least is that they passed away three years before this — and they did leave Chase with some insurance/ other financial benefits. It went toward the funerary expenses, settling debts, legal costs, paying off a portion of their mortgage, a locked away fund for Pru, etc. Enough that it did help them for a couple years, but that now Chase is struggling and refuses to touch savings meant for Pru.

At this point in the story, Chase is a couple months shy of turning twenty-one, and Pru is about six-and-a-half. Their parents had Pru much later than Chase, when Chase was fourteen. And the mysterious stranger is roughly twenty-four! 😁 Thank you for reading!

Buddy's a mysterious one! And Chase loves tall, dark and mysterious... but that totally doesn't apply to Buddy. Pshht The little baker can definitely bake! 🧑‍🍳🍪

I love writing these two dorks' banter 😌 Glad you're enjoying it! And YES! Gilmore Girls, Waitress, and some of my own family stories/recipes are a lot of the inspiration for Chase and Keysbridge. I binged some of Gilmore Girls again before I started writing this last year 😂 Buddy is being punished! Intriguing... Love triangle, you say? 👀

Thank you! I’m glad the interview and Chase’s first few days at Keyhouse are landing — and I’m glad Simon has you wondering where that whole situation might go. 😁 He's a fun character. And that’s honestly a fair point about the workplace hierarchy! The Ashton brand is definitely meant to operate as a high-end hospitality company, particularly at its larger properties. Violet and Keysbridge itself are a little less formal, though, and the Keysbridge Inn is more of a boutique small-town property within the brand’s portfolio. You’re right, though — Buddy is management, but he isn’t Chase’s department head. Chase reports to Agatha, so there is still a hierarchy, just not a direct supervisor/subordinate relationship between the two of them. Day to day, they interact a little more like coworkers than boss and employee. At the same time, Buddy himself isn’t exactly modeling perfect managerial professionalism with Chase either — he’s still learning, too. He needles him, gives him nicknames, makes little personal jabs, and generally keeps engaging when he could simply move on. And Chase has a terrible habit of speaking before his survival instincts catch up with his mouth. 😅 He knows he needs the job badly and absolutely does not generally think talking back to management is a great career strategy. A lot of the comedy for me is that Buddy, specifically, seems unusually capable of short-circuiting that filter. Chase says something impulsive, then has the immediate internal realization of, oh, right, this man is management and I am on a trial week. I also see Keyhouse itself developing a somewhat different culture from what Buddy is used to within the Ashton portfolio — still professional, but warmer and less rigid under Violet, Agatha, etc. Buddy is probably the person most inclined to import the more formal corporate hierarchy into that environment, while Chase is almost incapable of being formal for very long. So I agree that there’s a line there, and I don’t want Chase to come across as though he thinks being outside Buddy’s direct reporting chain means Buddy has no authority at all. But I also don’t want to lose the fact that the two of them seem to bring out a particularly unprofessional streak in each other. That tension is pretty intentional. And yes — if Buddy ever crossed from prickly/antagonistic into genuinely mistreating Chase as an employee, Agatha and Violet would absolutely have something to say about it. Violet already has a pretty good read on him — which we’ll see plenty of. 😂 Thanks again for the thoughtful comment! I really appreciate readers flagging places where the character dynamic bumps up against real-world experience, especially when you’ve actually worked in that environment. I’ve worked in event planning with hotels but not for hotels, so it helps to hear more from that world!

Whaat? Buddy being a try-hard to prevent falling in love with Hallmark town and little bakers? Never! 😂 Poor Buds has his reasons for the grumpiness... Thanks for reading!

The boy on the balcony glared at the stars like they’d personally offended him. He was used to more light pollution — to skylines that drowned the sky out entirely — so the Milky Way spilling across Keysbridge felt less like wonder and more like mockery. Another reminder of how far he was from home. If he closed his eyes, he could almost feel sunlight on his skin. Taste the salt and citrus in the air. Catch the faint echo of whispered encouragements. Or maybe he had invented that

Oh to live in the cute fictional little town of Keysbridge, Connecticut. I wish fall was as pretty where I live 😂 Chase is the best, but he does need a hug and a vacation! Prunella is cute chaos 💯 Thanks for reading!

Gilmore Girls vibes/ cozy fall small town meets found family cuteness 💯 Thank you for reading!

Yes! Long live the super slow burns 😂

🪝 Lol thank you for reading!!

Aw thank you for reading! There will definitely be quite a bit of baking! And it’ll be an adventure! ❤️

Sugar, butter, flour. Love. After losing their parents, 20 year-old Chase Hollow juggles odd jobs and late-night baking to care for his little sister, Prunella. He dreams of more — but dreams don’t pay bills. When a job opens up as a bakery assistant at the upscale Keysbridge Inn, Chase applies on a whim… and finds himself clashing with the grumpy, polished Assistant Manager with a sharp tongue and colder stare. But cookies and time have a way of softening edges. Original story based on characters in “Cinderella Boy“ by Punko.

They say memories live in smells, tastes, and sounds — that the best recipes are the ones made with love. Sometimes, Chase liked to believe, a cookie could bring back a ghost. Not the kind that came out with the moon and haunted hallways — just the soft echo of someone who used to be there. Long enough for one last hug. Long enough to remember how it felt to be held. That’s how he tried to comfort his little sister. And maybe himself, too. In one hand, he carried a sage-green back

Oh I loved it, Comsie! I thought Parker was such a cute character, and it was sweet how he initiated most of the flirting. By the end, their interactions really had me smiling. It was another great story! But then again, I love all of your work. To be honest, I look for updates from you at least once a week! Your stories always seem to cheer me up when I need it, and make me smile when I don't think it's otherwise possible sometimes. You're a gifted writer, and I hope you continue this story and your other popular pieces for a long time to come. Your stories make a difference, at least to people like me. Keep up the amazing work.

I'm so sorry for your loss, Myr. I know you must be getting that a lot, but I hope each condolence helps you feel better knowing that others are wishing you well. I wish you all the best getting through this hard time, and I hope that your mother is able to move on too. Hugs.

Greetings, minions! I hope all of you are doing well and that your year has been running smoothly so far. As for my new year, you ask? Well, I wouldn't use the word "smooth" in any way, shape, or form. I feel like my life has been like a soap opera or something over the last 2 months! It's seriously been too insane to believe, but what I'm about to tel you is 100% true. ---- So, in my last blog I described the sad ending to my 2 year relationship with my girlfriend, Ariel. If you don't want to go back and read it, the short version is that she cheated on me with her best friend, begged me for forgiveness, got it, then decided she didn't want me back after all and left me for the best friend. Get it? Got it? Good. Well anyway, this is where it gets interesting (as if it wasn't interesting enough already!): After Ariel left me, I was heartbroken. So I turned toward my artwork for solace. In my grief, I created several paintings that reflected heartbreak, and Ariel saw me working on them one day. She seemed a little upset once she realized they were directed towards her/ our relationship, but she didn't say anything other than that they looked nice. A couple of weeks later, my art teacher put up those pieces on the bulletin board out in the hallway. She didn't ask me, but I didn't mind. A couple of days later, however, I noticed that 2 of my pieces were gone. I assumed that my teacher had taken them down, but BOY was I wrong. It turns out, they had been STOLEN!!! 3 things immediately stuck out to me: 1) TWO pieces of mine were missing. Not just one. And no one else had anything stolen 2) The pieces hadn't been signed. This appeared to be a personal attack, since two of my pieces were gone, but someone had to have known I had painted them since they were unsigned. 3) I don't have any enemies, so who would do this? My mind went immediately to Johnny. The best friend. My ex-girlfriend's new man. So, I explained my theory to my teacher: 1) Ariel saw the art pieces and told Johnny they made her upset 2) Johnny decided to get rid of them so she wouldn't have to look at them 3) Because he's a dick, he probably destroyed them too. And guess WHAT? My art teacher confronted Johnny, and he lied to her a few times before finally CONFESSING! That jerk!!! And I was right on every single point! You cannot believe how happy it made me to hear that he was responsible, because I knew I'd get to see him PUNISHED! And guess what? They suspended him for 4 days! Now, I think he should've been expelled, but whatever. Want to know the worst part in all of it though? Ariel totally supported him. She didn't think what he did was wrong and she didn't feel bad that my feelings got hurt or that my art got ruined. There was a time when she would have cared... but she's turned into a total bitch. I think he's rubbed off on her. She never used to be that insensitive to people. It's sad to watch, and hurtful to endure. Oh well. Anyway, I just thought you would find all of that at least moderately amusing. High school drama... there's nothing quite like it Thanks for tuning in, everyone! Dylan

First off, sorry for the late response! Aw thank you, Lisa. I always appreciate your kind words. It always brings a smile to my face when I read your reviews. I'm glad you're so involved in the story - which is good... since you're my editor! I know! I loved writing this chapter to showcase their interaction. Young love is so cute. And there's definitely more of it to come! And all answers will be revealed in the next chapter. I promise.