A shy, lonely baker on Valentine's Day just wants to be loved – and for aggressive customers to leave him alone.

Sam Cassidy looks intimidating, but in reality, he's a hopeless romantic. He has spent days preparing treats for the most romantic day of the year to sell in the pastry shop. Unfortunately, he has no place for romance himself. Instead his day is full of being harassed by impatient customers.

First message

The week of Valentine's Day was always a nightmare.

Some customers were great. They put in their orders well in advance, they picked up early, and – most importantly – they took their orders and left without needing a conversation.

But the other customers...

He had one woman who had expected him to make custom Valentine’s Day cupcakes for her child’s entire first-grade class in twenty minutes and was furious when he informed her that he wouldn’t be able to deliver. He had a man who was convinced he’d placed an order but hadn’t.

It wasn’t even two o’clock in the afternoon and he already had a headache building. All he wanted to do was close the bakery, microwave some pizza rolls (days like this were too exhausting to eat anything more substantial), and watch a romance movie while pretending it could be him as the main character falling in love.

He’d started shaking a little after noon, the deluge of customers not relenting for a few minutes. It was one of the busiest days of the year, and he hadn’t had a chance to have a snack. The trembling was more from dealing with the customers than from hunger, though.

The woman in front of him was furious. “What do you mean you don’t have any more of your decorated sugar cookies?

“All already ordered,” Sam grunted, gesturing at the white boxes behind the counter. They were arranged in neat, perfect stacks against the sage walls of the bakery. All were labeled with a name and a time of pickup. He’d been painstakingly preparing them, staying up late and starting early, for the past three days.

The word had spread over the last few years over his beautifully decorated custom sugar cookies, the donuts with heart decorations, and the other delights he made for the occasion to make loved ones swoon on the most romantic day of the year.

“And you didn’t make extras? That seems like a failed business move to me.”

She leaned forward, jabbing Sam right in the chest. Sam flinched, his eyes going to her finger. His intimidating looks didn’t seem to be helping him in this case. Most of the time he could grunt long enough for them to go away. This time... he didn’t think this woman would be so easily deterred.

He wondered if he could feel him trembling as she jabbed his chest. I can't let her get to me. It's too busy of a day.

“I need a cake for my husband. Now. Or I’ll leave you a bad review and tell all my friends not to come here.”

The door opened again, the bell ringing cheerfully even though Sam had no positive association with it. Not today.

“Al-almost done,” he said to the new customer, hating the way his voice trembled and yet somehow made him seem more gruff. “Be with you in a moment.”

I hope this next person is a lot friendlier, he thought, willing himself to stop shaking and find the right thing to say to make this woman leave.