The Sugar Glass Treaty

On the eve of a five-day destination wedding at the Albergo Vellacorte, a twelve-room island hotel on an alpine lake, Ada Kwan, 33, a sugar artist building the five-tier cake, catches Leo Brandt, 36, a hospitality consultant, measuring her pastry kitchen for demolition. Ada hopes the owner will lease that kitchen for her first atelier. Leo was quietly hired by the groom's family to buy the hotel and turn it into a chain resort. Both are dodging relentless matchmaking, so Ada hands him a fragile sugar-glass rose and a dare: carry it through the rehearsal without cracking it, and she'll be his declared date all week. He succeeds. Over limoncello they draft a treaty: hold hands only in public, no kissing where the aunts can see, and either can end the deal by returning a brass key. Rules bend during a stairwell kiss after the first dance lesson. When a storm cuts the power and the cake collapses, they rebuild it by candlelight until dawn, and the door closes on them. Then Leo shows Ada the buyer's contract, risking his job. At the final dance, each must decide: return the key, or name what the treaty was really protecting.