"He's never coming back..."

"Get your elbows off the counter," Mindy said, whipping my arm with a flour-dusted cloth. "If you're going to sulk, do it where customers won't see you."

"What customers?" I asked, my face falling deeper into the pit formed by my crossed arms. "Morning rush finished an hour ago, and he didn't show up." I sighed and felt my warm breath collect along the top of the glass display case. "I made him a bear claw with cinnamon almonds on top..."

"Yeah, I sold that to the barista from down the street. She wasn't a huge fan of the cinnamon, but I told her it was the only bear claw we had left."

"Who doesn't like cinnamon?" I snapped up and turned to find my business partner and friend placing tubs of deli meat, fresh lettuce, and sliced tomatoes onto her workstation to prepare for the lunch crowd.

"She didn't, apparently," Mindy replied with a shrug. "Perhaps she's inhaled too much of it when topping off people's lattes."

"That's ridiculous," I mumbled, resting my chin on my forearms and staring out our bakery's front doors where only a few pedestrians sauntered by so late in the morning.

"What's ridiculous is you still moaning about Justin." She slammed the refrigerator door, and I turned in time to catch the roll in her eyes. She then dropped a jar of mayonnaise and a bottle of mustard on to her counter.

"Why shouldn't I be upset? This man could be my soul mate and I ruined my chance by acting like a complete ass."

"Didn't have much chance with him at the rate you were going, anyway. It took you four months to learn his name."

"And then it took one night to throw it all away."

Mindy groaned as she planted her palms on the edge of the counter. After taking a deep breath, she turned to me with a pitying smile. "Look, any decent human being would forgive you for what was said at a bar. Especially when you hadn't expected any drinking company that night." She took a step forward and gave my shoulder a squeeze as she made her way to the bread cabinet. "It's not like you guys were on an actual date."

"No, but it was a big, wide open opportunity for it to become one. Fate practically dropped this gift right in my lap and yet I fumbled it." I watched her scan over the loaves I had baked between rushes that morning. As she debated which to slice, my sense of duty eventually cleared away the cobwebs of self-pity and I stepped forward to grab a honey wheat loaf and a sourdough. Then I headed to the back workstation to do some cutting. "I was just so nervous," I continued with a sigh. "I was supposed to be there drinking away the pain of your abandonment..."

"I'm allowed to date," snapped Mindy from the other side of the dividing wall that separated the front and back of house.

"Yes, well, when that means your lovesick roommate, and best friend for life, is left alone and hungry, you have to realize there will be consequences."

"Consequences I don't particularly care about."

"You know you are very cold-hearted."

Mindy stepped out from her workstation and peered at me from around the corner. "No, I was sympathetic a month ago, when I found you black out drunk on our sofa and then I was devastated for you when you vomited in the toilet while crying about how you remembered next to nothing from the night before. And I was there consoling you on the couch, reminding you that what you remembered sounded like a good time. I pointed out that the pieces of the puzzle you did have seemed casual, fun, and friendly. And I was thrilled for you when he showed up a couple of days later to get his order, as usual."

"Except he was distant." The words dribbled over my pouting lips as my eyes focused on my loaf. I slid my serrated knife into the slicing guide and cut into the crispy crust. "He didn't say more than hi and thanks to me."

"You weren't exactly talkative either." She stepped forward with a smile and stood in the open doorway where she rested her shoulder against its frame. "You were a deer in headlights, if I recall."

"He's only been back once since and he was just as distracted." I put the knife down and leaned against the cool metal of the worktable. It was silly to hold on to a crush with this much ferocity, but I'd invested so much time in it and then destroyed it instantly. It had been almost a month since I last saw him, yet he used to come in several times a week.

"Look, you know he's in international sales for some fancy company. He's been away before."

"Yeah, but not for longer than a week," I pointed out.

"I'm just saying," she continued with a shake of her head, "the guy is busy and you don't know what else is going on in his life. I mean, you barely know anything about him at all."

I looked over at Mindy, and she gave me a light shrug and a thin smile. I couldn't deny her the truth since I had, in fact, spent the last six months drooling over a handsome, well-to-do businessman whose last name I didn't even know. Not to mention, I also didn't know if he was even single. Of course, I checked for a wedding band, but not everyone wears their rings 24/7 and he could have had a girlfriend for all I knew. And, sure, the parts of that night that I remembered were pleasant and full of lively conversation, but there still wasn't anything inherently flirtatious. At least not on his side. He was a friendly gentleman who simply wanted to ask about my day and little ice breaker type things about my life and family. There was no reason to believe he thought much of me, but that didn't change the fact that I thought a lot about him. And our conversation that night only made it worse.

I discovered he had quite a few siblings, that his mother was avidly into Jazzercise, and that his father wouldn't eat any fish he hadn't caught himself. Learning little details like that gave me such hope and, in return, I had a clearer picture of what life could be if I could somehow convince him that a small time business owner/baker like myself was worth taking out in a formal setting. And, though that hope was a nice, warm, fuzzy feeling, the picture he presented before me also showed what I could lose if I screwed up.

At least I had the martinis to help me set aside my rising hope and anxiety so I could proceed with our conversation while wearing a smile on my face. However, I paid the price the second I stood up, and that's about when my memory disappeared. For all I knew, I immediately stumbled into Justin and threw up on his coat. Thankfully, he is a gentleman, so whatever happened afterward, he at least had the decency to get me safely home before immediately running for the hills. If I had to guess, the only reason he came in the couple of times he did was because he just hadn't found a new bakery to hit up near his work yet. It seemed maybe he'd finally found an alternative.

"Hello! Welcome to Dough Divas! How can we help you today?"

Mindy's cheery greeting snapped me from my thoughts and I realized I'd finished slicing my loaf while I was drowning in my own lamentations. We created the Dough Divas six years prior and before that I'd been baking on my own and in my community college associates program. Thankfully, things like kneading dough and slicing bread had become second nature. Still, I gave thanks I hadn't sliced my finger and bled all over the loaf in my dazed state. Taking a breath, I slid the slices on to some parchment before setting the other loaf into the slicing guide.

"I thought she was supposed to have black hair," said the customer with a youthful whine in her voice. "I thought for sure this was it."

"Jeez, Lucy," growled an equally youthful guy's voice, "at least act decent while we're here. You can cry about it when we leave."

"Brendan, I'm not crying," replied the girl with a stamp of her foot. "I'm just disappointed."

"We've got some food coloring in the back," said Mindy with effortless ease. "I can go dye my hair real quick if that will help." She had a calm attitude she picked up when she studied hospitality services back in college. Back before I knew I was going to spend my days as a baker and we were just young, optimistic teenagers who swapped dreams in our dorm room.

"I'm sorry." The boy sighed. Based on the timbre of his voice, he sounded like he was just short of adulthood. "My sister's been hung up on trying to find someone and she thought she'd finally tracked the woman to here. She just gets really invested in these..."

"Don't apologize for me," said the girl with a bite in her voice. She then cleared her throat and continued. "My apologies. I didn't mean to appear rude." She spoke in a very practiced tone that attempted to sound mature, while lacking all the experience she needed for it to really be so. "I'd be interested in buying something to make up for it."

"You don't have to buy anything," said Mindy with a light laugh. "Most of our stuff is leftover from this morning anyway, so it's not really fresh. I'd be happy, however, to wrap up something for you, on the house."

"Oh, you can't do that. I..." Lucy's voice softened, her age more apparent now that her emotions had drawn in. "I can't accept..."

"It's free food, I'll take it," offered Brendan.

"Really, it's alright. We usually sell this stuff discounted to our lunch crowd, anyway. And just to make it somewhat more satisfying for you, I'll even ask my black-haired partner to come out and grab them for you. She may not be the one you're looking for, but at least it won't feel like your mission was a complete failure."

I rolled my eyes as I put my knife down. Mindy knew I wasn't good at dealing with customers—that was her job—but I gave myself a shake and attempted to put a smile on my face.

"Wait, so someone with black hair does work here?" Lucy's voice rose as renewed hope surged through her.

"Hence the plural in the name Dough Divas," added Mindy.

"Does she also have bright hazel eyes, some freckles on her nose, and two piercings in her ears?"

"I... Well, y-yes..."

I popped out from behind the dividing wall to find Mindy looking back at me with a confused bend to her brow. Across the counter stood two teenagers. A young girl with curly brown hair and an infectious smile that revealed all of her teeth, and a young man with inky black hair, a taper earring in his right ear, and an embarrassed scowl upon his face.

"Are you Dani Joyce?" The teenage girl bounced with excitement, her bright eyes beaming.

"Y-yes."

"Finally!" she exclaimed with a clap of her hands. "Finally, we've found you!"