Chapter 2
1054 Words
Chapter 2
Shaking his head at his own hand-waving silliness, Garrett Martinez forced himself to keep walking and focus on getting an outrageous selection of treats ready for later that evening.
The Sweetheart Bakery had a decidedly old-fashioned vibe Garrett had loved from the second he set foot inside a couple of years ago. The space’s brief stint as a hair salon left behind a clean black, white, and silver décor that he hardly changed.
It was enough to replace the salon chairs with groovy black metal tables and chairs, then take out the row of shampoo sinks and put in his gleaming ovens, kitchen equipment, and decorating tables.
A couple of long antique wood and curving glass display cases made a nice separation across the middle of the room (with cleverly hidden refrigeration and lighting), functioning as a showpiece themselves while showing off the fruits of Garrett’s many years of study and practice.
He’d even left the walls outfitted in sleek black glass with huge reflective ovals for the stylists’ mirrors. Letting the fantastic colors of his creations steal the show worked quite well according to the constant stream of loyal customers he’d had since opening the doors.
Today his display cases were unusually empty, with most of the romantics around Estonoa picking up their heart-shaped cakes, bundles of red velvet cupcakes, and extra decadent candies the day before. Garrett had already delivered an array of dark chocolate-dipped strawberries, raspberries, and candied ginger to the brewery in town that morning.
They and other restaurants were handling the traditional couples-oriented lunch and dinner, and he was happy to have that part out of the way.
Recently switching to the single side of the aisle left him even less enamored of all the typical sappiness and drama and excess of the holiday than he usually was.
He loved the part he played in other people’s romantic interludes or special time with friends.
He didn’t love it nearly so much for himself.
Hanging out at the hotel for singles’ night suited him much better. Especially with Mike Sullivan tending bar. Mike who could easily model as the lonely and irresistible lumberjack on a romance novel cover, one Garrett would snap up and read in a hot second.
Right now he had to be ready for a voracious, giggling, and very likely tipsy crowd of single folks, who expected to finish their Valentine’s Day meals on an especially high note.
Garrett intended to deliver enough pastry and cake and candied joy to send them off to bed floating on clouds of confectionary bliss. If he did his job right, they might even go to bed together and wake up with a whole new view on life and each other.
He wasn’t sure his offerings could compete with the honest-to-goodness pink snow starting to pile up outside as the highlight of the day, but he was going to give it his absolute best shot.
That and he wouldn’t mind making a bit more of an impression on the Railsong Hotel’s big burly bartender. Even though Garrett was almost certain Mike never thought about him at all once the usual desserts were delivered.
He snorted to himself and rolled his eyes. Enough of that nonsense.
Garrett counted the shiny pink and red gift boxes already stacked up on half the tables in the bakery. The Railsong’s rooms and restaurant would be packed full tonight, between the welcome chance for single folk to celebrate and be taken care of and the well-publicized pink snowfall across the whole region.
Which really was falling now, rather than drifting down in a seductive tease.
Barely heading toward evening, and the sweet, dainty tourist attraction snow showed signs of settling in for a much longer and more substantial engagement. Thank goodness he only had to make it across the street instead of hiking across town or trying to drive in this pink-tinged mess.
All of the boxes were ready, full of decorated marzipan, seriously good cinnamon and ginger and rosewater varieties of Turkish delight, and spiced chocolate cookies. Everything he could manage to bake and prepare ahead of time.
All he had left to do here was tie those up extra pretty with glowing gold and silver ribbons.
He wouldn’t actually make his last, most spectacular treat until he got set up across the street. The trick to any kind of churros—the crispy-sweet fried dough delicacy his grandfather Juan had brought with him from Spain—was they needed to be prepared fresh.
Trying to carry them across even one street that was filling up with a rather alarming sea of pink simply wouldn’t do.
The Railsong had promised to set aside space for him to make his extra-special and top-secret Valentine’s Day recipe so they could get to the tables full of happy singles piping hot. He’d already made the dark chocolate, raspberry, and dulce de leche dipping sauces.
He’d even mixed up several big batches of sweet, milky horchata, again from his grandfather’s recipe, using tiger nuts rather than rice. As far as Garrett and everyone else in his family was concerned, nothing suited churros better.
On his way to gather the last things out of the huge stainless-steel double fridge, Garrett stopped in his tracks. Now he could barely see the Railsong right across the street. The formerly flirty pink snow came down fast and thick enough to look like a solid cotton candy wall.
This was not what the tourist association had ordered.
Nor what he’d prepared for when leaving the house at the crack of dawn that morning. He had the absurd black tuxedo he secretly thought he looked great in, the jeans and flannel shirt he was wearing, and a light jacket.
And nowhere to sleep if this kept up, since his chances of getting home tonight seemed to be dwindling by the minute.
He shrugged and kept going. Nothing for it but to get the job done and see what happened. If nothing else, he wasn’t about to miss the debut of his special churros.
What the hell. Maybe he’d end up getting to spend even more time with Mike the Lumberjack Bartender, assuming the usual and understandable crowd of both women and men weren’t hanging around him instead.
Sure, this party was all about celebrating being single, and that was the main reason Garrett loved it and wanted to bring his best.
But he wouldn’t turn down the chance to change his own single status with the right person.
- Writer
