Winter Hearts

by A. E. Radley

  “That’s a lot of people,” Liv said as she peeked over the top of the cardboard.

  There were at least half a dozen of them crowded around the Sugar Plum and more came over when they saw Serenity approaching the window. She smiled and told Liv, “I’m kind of a big deal. All the shops along the street decorate their windows but mine has become a bit of an attraction. What can I say? I’m lucky that there’s a lot more decorating you can do with modeling chocolate and gingerbread than you can do with jewelry or men’s formalwear.”

  They each took a corner of the cardboard taped to the window, carefully peeling it away to reveal Serenity’s gingerbread display to the town for the first time. The castle itself took up most of the space in the window and it was surrounded by a sugar glass moat that led into a frozen pond where little chocolate people skated. St. Nick was sitting in the place of honor at the end of the drawbridge, delicate licorice reins in his hands tethered to a team of reindeer in front of his sleigh.

  It was Serenity’s most ambitious display to date and it was important to her that it dazzled the onlookers – especially Joseph Abbott, who she knew would be by to see it sooner or later. She could hear the oohs and ahhs through the glass and her cheeks colored from the attention as more people gathered around, rotating out of the way so everyone had a chance to look before the parade started.

  Liv slipped her arm around Serenity’s shoulder and beamed like a proud partner. Serenity looked at her and felt a twinge of sadness in the midst of all the festivities. She was growing attached to Liv but she didn’t have much to offer – she certainly couldn’t afford to hire her full-time, at least not with Joseph Abbott working so hard to undercut her. Liv had said her plans could change, but what did Serenity have that could keep her in Angel Valley after the holidays?

  The sound of the coffee percolating broke her out of that sad moment – she just wanted to enjoy every minute she had with Liv before it was over. “We should get out there. The parade’s going to start any minute.”

  “Good idea,” Liv said. “I’ll get the coffee.”

  She went into the kitchen and Serenity followed her after a moment. She watched Liv carefully pour the coffee into an insulated carafe. When she was done, Serenity pushed her up against the wall, out of sight of the parade attendees, and kissed her hard, her hand sliding over her body.

  “What was that for?” Liv asked when they came up for air.

  “No reason,” Serenity said. “I’m just really happy you’re here.”

  “Me too,” Liv said, giving her another quick kiss. They could hear trumpets and woodwinds in the distance as the parade started up, but they lingered for another minute or two in the kitchen together.

  Serenity and Liv made their way outside to watch the parade eventually and Liv wrapped her arms around Serenity’s shoulders as they stood on the sidewalk watching the high school marching band go by. They saw the mayor waving from a horse-drawn carriage, and all the kids in the audience went wild at the end as Santa appeared in a carriage drawn by reindeer.

  “Angel Valley really goes all out for Christmas,” Liv said. “I forgot about that.”

  “How could you forget?” Serenity asked. “It’s what we’re known for.”

  “I guess I just spent too much time in my own head when I was younger,” Liv said and Serenity gave her a critical look.

  “You don’t now?”

  “Okay, fine,” Liv said. “That’s true. But I’m getting better.”

  “Do you want to go back to the Christmas market with me this evening?” Serenity asked. “I’ve got some last-minute shopping to do and I wouldn’t mind the company.”

  “I’d love to,” Liv said.

  “You’d love to get your hands on some more of that caramel corn,” Serenity teased, then felt that odd twinge of sadness again. She kept doing that – finding things to tease Liv about and creating distance between them whenever a moment started to get too real. She didn’t like it, but it might be necessary to keep her distance a little bit – at least until she knew whether there was any future for her and Liv in the new year.

  The parade was winding down and the crowd was starting to disperse. Liv took Serenity’s hand and kissed it, then asked, “Should we go clean up the coffee supplies and then head to the market?”

  “Yeah,” Serenity said.

  They went into the bakery and Liv took the empty coffee pot into the kitchen to wash it while Serenity grabbed a mop to address some melted snow that was puddling in front of the door and turning into a slippery hazard. The bakery wasn’t officially open, but in a town this small she was never really closed it unless she was at home – and she couldn’t have people falling and hurting themselves two days before Christmas.

  She dried the floor and was just carrying the mop to the back to wring it out when the bell jingled and she heard Joseph Abbott’s voice. “I just love a small-town parade. So quaint and charming.”

  Serenity felt the hairs on the back of her neck standing up, but she turned around to face him with a smile. “Everyone involved does a great job with it.”

  Joseph sidled up to the counter, trailing new snow across the linoleum. Serenity set down her mop and stood with her arms crossed, knowing she looked about as defensive as she felt. She waited and finally he told her why he was here again.

  “I brought you that coffee I promised,” he said, pulling a sample-sized bag of Abbott’s brand ground coffee out of the pocket of his coat. He set it on the counter, then said, “I want to buy you out.”

  Serenity snorted. “I don’t want to work for you.”

  “You don’t have to,” he said. “I’m prepared to offer you eighty thousand dollars to close your doors. Finish out the holiday season and then just walk away. Do whatever you want with the money – open another Sugar Plum Bakery in a different town for all I care.”

  “I don’t want your money, either,” Serenity said.

  “Ninety thousand,” Joseph countered and she rolled her eyes.

  “I don’t want to be bought out,” she said firmly. “I just want to bake for my family and friends in this community.”

  “A hundred thousand,” Joseph said. “And that’s the highest offer you’ll get.”

  Serenity laughed. “The building isn’t even worth a hundred thousand dollars and I lease it. Why do you care so much, anyway? Abbott’s Grocery is bound to put me out of business sooner or later – you said so yourself.”

  That wasn’t the kind of attitude Liv liked to hear from her, and most of Serenity’s friends and family agreed. Be proactive. Think positive. Have faith. But it was the truth – the writing was on the wall and Joseph Abbott knew that.

  He rapped his knuckles on the counter a couple of times, then looked Serenity square in the eyes as he said, “You’re right - we will. And then the whole town will resent us for it. I’ve noticed how much everyone loves you – not just your baked goods, but you. You’re a fixture in this community and even if they put the nails in your coffin themselves by spending their money at Abbott’s, they’ll blame me when you go under. Take my money and leave them all with a good taste in their mouths about my store – it’s what’s best for all of us.”

  “Take a bribe to go quietly, you mean,” Serenity said.

  “Think of it that way if you want to,” Joseph said. “Or think of it as seed money for your next venture. It’s up to you.”

  Serenity pushed the little bag of coffee across the counter. “Thank you for the coffee, but I prefer to partner with local distributors, not soulless corporations like yours.”

  He left the coffee where it sat and pulled his coat closed again. “Think about what you could do with a hundred thousand dollars. The offer’s good until the first of the year.”

  Then he turned on his heels, walked across the shop to the door, and Serenity took a small amount of pleasure in watching the slick soles of his dress shoes sliding on the wet linoleum. Then he opened the door and was gone down the street. She put her hands on
the counter and breathed deeply, only realizing after he’d left that she’d barely been breathing throughout the encounter.

  “Are you okay?”

  Serenity looked up and saw Liv coming through the doorway from the kitchen and looking concerned. She sighed and said, “Yeah. Did you hear all that?”

  “I did,” Liv said. She wrapped her arms comfortingly around Serenity and said, “That guy’s a huge creep. I can’t believe he said that to you.”

  “At least he’s an honest creep,” Serenity said and Liv rolled her eyes.

  “You shouldn’t have to deal with him,” Liv said. “Next time he comes in, I’ll set him straight.”

  Serenity laughed, and Liv shook her head.

  “I’m serious,” she said. “You have as much of a right to be here as any other shop in town, and the right not to be harassed by the other business owners. I could have one of my friends who specializes in business law draft a strongly worded letter to Abbott – I bet that would make him think twice before coming in here again.”

  Serenity shook her head, swiping at an errant tear. “No. I don’t want to stoop to his level.”

  “Do you want to go to the outdoor market now?” Liv asked, using her thumb to wipe a little lingering moisture from her cheek.

  Serenity felt her heart sinking into her stomach, as something she’d been trying very hard not to think about suddenly bubbled to the surface. If she held onto the Sugar Plum, she’d have a snowball’s chance of turning a profit large enough to pay Liv to stay on beyond the holidays. And if she sold the bakery, there wouldn’t be so much as a part-time job keeping Liv in Angel Valley. Either way, the chances of their budding relationship surviving the holidays were pretty slim.

  “I’m sorry,” Serenity said. “I’m just not feeling up to it anymore. Why don’t you go home and spend the evening with your family? I shouldn’t keep you all to myself anyway.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yeah,” Serenity said. “I’ve got a few more things to wrap up here, and then I think I should go see my own family. Faith is only in town until the New Year and I haven’t seen as much of her as I should.”

  “Okay,” Liv said.

  She was reluctant to release Serenity from her grasp and part of Serenity wanted to hold her there forever – ask her to stay in Angel Valley for no reason other than because she was curious where their relationship might go next.

  But five years of struggling to establish and maintain her business had turned her into a realist, so she gave Liv a quick kiss and stepped out of her embrace. Liv left and Serenity went into the kitchen to go over the Christmas Eve orders one last time.

  DECEMBER 24

  Serenity opened the Sugar Plum Bakery alone on Christmas Eve. She called Liv the night before, just as she was crawling into bed, and told her not to come in.

  “You don’t want me there?” Liv had asked, and Serenity could hear pain in her voice.

  “No,” she said quickly. “That’s not it. I just don’t want us both to be working on Christmas Eve. You’re in Angel Valley to relax and enjoy your family and that’s what I want you to do. Besides, there are just a few final orders that need to be picked up. It’s not even a full day’s work.”

  Liv made Serenity promise to call her the moment she closed the shop so they could make plans to meet up, and Serenity found herself alone on the morning of Christmas Eve. She completed her orders, made donuts, and filled the display case. She listened to quiet Christmas songs on the radio and wondered if this would be the last holiday she spent in the Sugar Plum Bakery.

  There was no chance that she’d take Abbott’s money – not after what he said to her. But she couldn’t argue with his logic. It was smarter to go out while she was still turning a small profit rather than waiting for the siren call of the grocery store bakery to pull all her clients away from her. She’d wait until after the holidays to make a final decision, but she couldn’t put it off too long.

  When all the orders were done, Serenity sat behind the counter, sipping coffee and looking wistfully around at everything she’d built over the last five years.

  When she first found the shop, it was nothing more than a hollowed-out storefront - a completely blank canvas. Serenity knew what she needed to bake her pastries and desserts, but the shop itself had remained stark and undecorated for the first couple of years until her ex-girlfriend had the vision to turn it into the quaint little bakery that drew people in with its charm. Then came Ashley, who was able to hold down the fort and open up new possibilities for Serenity in catering and wedding cakes.

  The Sugar Plum started growing like crazy after that, and it didn’t slow down until the Abbott’s Grocery opened its doors.

  Today, Serenity’s regular Christmas Eve customers trickled in one by one, picking up the pies and cakes that would adorn their Christmas Eve tables, as well as the croissants and cinnamon rolls for their breakfasts tomorrow morning. The purple Sugar Plum Bakery boxes had a place in almost every home in the town before Abbott’s arrived, and by the very fact that she had time to personally greet every one of her Christmas Eve customers, Serenity knew that her order volume was not what it used to be.

  It’s probably time to say goodbye to this chapter, she thought as she passed the very last purple box on the rack across the counter to Mrs. Thomas.

  “Have a Merry Christmas,” Serenity said, giving her old teacher her best smile.

  “You too, dear,” Mrs. Thomas said. “I’ll see you next week about my New Year’s party, right?”

  “Of course,” Serenity said. She watched Mrs. Thomas shuffle back onto the snow-covered sidewalk, then followed her across the shop to lock up. She might be able to stay in business a little while longer if she focused on special orders for her regulars. It would be a step backward, to those first couple of years, but it was something.

  Serenity locked the door, but when she turned around to shut off the lights in the kitchen, she heard a knock on the glass. She glanced at the counter – Mrs. Thomas was forgetful so perhaps she’d left her gloves – but there was nothing there. When Serenity turned around, Mrs. Jenkins was standing at the door.

  Serenity opened it and said, “Hi, Mrs. Jenkins. Can I help you?”

  “I sure hope so,” she said as Serenity stepped aside and let her into the bakery. “I’ve been sitting at home all morning drooling over the thought of your delicious cream puffs. Please tell me you have some in the display case.”

  “I do,” Serenity said. “How many would you like?”

  “I’ll take all of them,” Mrs. Jenkins said. “And the eclairs, too, if you’ve got them. I have a big crowd coming over tomorrow for Christmas and it just wouldn’t be the holidays without a Sugar Plum Bakery box on the counter.”

  Serenity smiled as she went behind the counter to package up the cream puffs and eclairs – two dozen in all. She’d wondered about whether Mrs. Jenkins had started shopping at Abbott’s when she didn’t see her name in the pile of Christmas orders, but it looked like she missed Serenity after all.

  Serenity charged her, then passed two purple boxes across the counter to her. “You have a great holiday with your family, Mrs. Jenkins.”

  “You too, Serenity,” she said as she carried her bounty out of the shop.

  Serenity smiled to herself, then crossed the floor again and locked the door. It was a nice gesture and it made her feel better, even if it was too little to save the Sugar Plum. She got about halfway back to the kitchen this time before there was another knock at her door and she spun around, surprised.

  There were two more of her old regulars standing outside – Mr. and Mrs. Glass, who lived two doors down from Serenity’s apartment. She smiled and shook her head as she let them in, then boxed up the fruitcake from the display case when they asked for it.

  Mr. Glass turned to leave, but Mrs. Glass lingered at the counter for a moment, leaning in conspiratorially as she said, “I’ve tasted what Abbott’s Grocery calls a fruitcake and I don’t
mind saying it’s garbage. I told Arthur I would not rest until I got a real Sugar Plum Bakery fruitcake, and I won’t spend a penny more in Abbott’s bakery.”

  “Thank you,” Serenity said, although the sentiment was bittersweet. If by some small miracle she won this war, Ashley would end up the loser. Maybe bowing out would be the right thing to do after all – at least Serenity didn’t have a child to support.

  “Have a merry Christmas, honey,” Mrs. Glass said. She and Arthur headed for the door, and they passed Jimmy Olsen on his way in.

  Serenity laughed and leaned over the counter to look down the street as she asked, “What’s going on? Is this some kind of prank?”

  “I’m not sure what you mean,” Jimmy said. “I was just keeping my fingers crossed that you’ve got one of your exquisite red velvet cakes left in that display case.”

  “You’re in luck,” Serenity said. She boxed it up for him and slid it across the counter, then asked, “Now will you tell me what’s going on?”

  “There’s nothing going on,” he said, a little too innocently because while she was waiting on him, two more people had come into the bakery and were looking over the display case, arguing good-naturedly over who got to take home the tray of cannoli.

  It went on like that for more than half an hour, person after person marching into the shop and telling Serenity how much they were craving a Sugar Plum Bakery dessert, and after the sixth or seventh customer, Serenity gave in to the moment, laughing and having a fantastic time as her display case sold out in record time. When there was nothing but crumbs left and the customers stopped flowing into the shop, she collapsed against the counter and smiled in disbelief.

  Then one more person came through the door.