✘ ╱ lily collins + female + she/her ╾ better keep an eye on BLAKE MADDEN whenever they are around. Shady gossip describes the TWENTY NINE year old as ANXIOUS + FAWNING, close sources say they’re COMPASSIONATE + SELFLESS. Can be easily found in PASTA LA VISTA working as PASTRY CHEF.
(pregnancy tw, death tw, heart attack tw)
Born in Los Angeles, California twenty nine years ago, Blake had a fairly normal upbringing. Living with her mother and father The Valley she showed a low of art and cooking from a young age which her parents were more than happy to encourage. Her mother worked at a bank and her father managed a car dealership, so neither of them were particularly creative but they loved to see it from their daughter. Even if they had no idea where it had originated from. When she was six Blake’s father walked out on his family, leaving her mother and Blake alone to fend for themselves. To the little girl it had come out of nowhere, although behind the scenes the fractures in the relationship were constant. The little girl never saw the man again. Left with no one but her mother to cling to the two become increadbly close, Blake considering the woman her best friend, and although things were tough they managed to carry on in a relatively normal manner. She was a bright little girl even if school was never really her favourite thing her grades remained steadily good.
It wasn’t until she was seventeen when her mother had an unexpected heart attack on a routine hike with her daughter that everything really changed. She had been set to head to collage to study nutrition on a scholarship, something her mother was incredibly proud of her for. Yet her mother’s death was the jolt the girl needed to realise she didn’t want to spend her life where she had been born. She wanted to see the world in some way and found a pastry two year course in Florence that would teach her European baking, the kind she had grown up seeing on tv but never really experiencing herself - an exciting prospect to say the least.
Still grieving the loss of her mother she spent every spare moment she had working two different jobs so she could save enough money for her schooling in Italy. The foreign country was a breath of fresh air for her almost as soon as the plane touched down on the tarmac, things were starting to look up for her and she was determined to make the most of the opportunity. It was a magical two years that opened her eyes to a plethora of things, but was sadly over too soon, forcing her back to the city of her birth. She worked odd jobs to keep her head above water including nannying, freelance cake baking and decorating, temping as a secretary, you name it Blake had turned her hand at it. But she missed being in a kitchen, she missed getting to be creative everyday, and longed to get back to that.
The offer of a position in Staten Island in New York at an Italian Bistro called Pasta La Vista was too good to turn down, she just couldn’t refuse, and maybe getting out of LA again would be something that was good for her. That was five years ago now and she had made New York firmly her home since then. Working at the restaurant all five of those years until she felt like the people she worked with were more than colleagues they were her friends. No, her new family. Her boss trusted her enough to allow her to combine her creative and technical baking skills - it was a dream come true. All through this she never really had any kind of solid relationships - preferring to focus on her work. After all working for hours on end at night at the restaurant was not exactly conducive to dating. Her love life consisted more of casual flings or short term relationships, but nothing stuck.
When she met Dominick. It hadn’t been something the girl set out to find but one day in a small bakery off Broadway the man next to her had expressed confusion over deciding which baked good to purchase. Well, if that wasn’t the baking lovers specialist subject and had launched her on a earnest conversation with him where she nerded out over all things pastry, cookie, and cake. One thing led to another and for some reason this man wanted to hang around with Blake more after her embarrassing gushing over food, leading to the two hooking up on and off for a while. She had no idea if he felt anything for her but being the girl she was - a hopeless romantic at heart, she developed a crush quickly. The handsome, mysterious man who didn’t share too many details about himself had sucked her in. However their time spent entangled in the sheets on more than one occasion and it resulted in an unexpected pregnancy. Their fling ending before she told the man, in fact she’s now four months pregnant, and only a few trusted friends are privy to that information. A people pleaser in some ways. Her concerns about becoming a mother are also heavily financial, although she gets paid well for her job that doesn’t change how much everything costs in New York. Hence why she’s shy to scour craigslist for things she might need for her new baby or her apartment.
Admittedly she has a terror of being alone can mean the woman is known to settle in various areas of her life. A true weakness of hers. She is overprotective of her friends, a little bit dramatic in a lot of ways thanks to this fear, things that aren’t so bad can seem huge to her because she’s seen things blow up so quickly in her life. It’s the anticipatory anxiety that can hurt her. When she is in the kitchen though…well she can be almost trance like, getting herself wound up about making sure everything is perfect because her baking and decorating is how she shows her love. Spinning it into sugary confections that look as good as they taste. She will try and buy friends by making them cakes, it’s her love language entirely. Birthday? She will design and hand frost you a cake. Wedding? Cake. Half birthday? Cake. Lost your job? Cake. New job? Cake. It’s her go to for everything and everyone. In general she is an open, sweet girl who just wants to make other people smile when they are down, find her Prince Charming, and have more children so she can give her baby siblings. Ever since her mother died, breaking the only family she had and always loved so much, the girl has been determined to build another of her own.
