Page 23 of A Cozy Christmas Escape

A thin layer of fresh snow had fallen the night before, and it glistened brightly in the sun as Valerie walked, causing prisms of light to sparkle and shift. When she had first arrived in town, Valerie had found the town beautiful. But now that she had spent more time there, she was coming to realize that ‘beautiful’ didn’t really cover it.

There was something deeper steeped into the town. It was in the way that people greeted each other when they walked past, in the way that the entire town seemed to hold its breath when it snowed, allowing itself to be cloaked in magic. It was how every business had jingle bells on the doorknob, meaning that at any given moment the entire place was filled with their tinkling. Valerie had never experienced anything like it before.

She caught sight of Baking Fiend, the periwinkle building had white shutters, and was wrapped in twinkling, pastel Christmas lights. People were spilling out of it, many of them holding to-go cups of coffee or bags filled with pastries.

As Valerie got closer, the smell of cinnamon, vanilla, and apples floated out the door, making her pause to sniff at the air. She was excited to try another new place in this town.

The person who had just exited the bakery stopped and held the door open for her as she passed, giving her a warm, friendly smile as they did so. For a moment, Valerie wondered if the reason they were being kind was because they recognized her. But there was such a sincerity lingering behind their smile, that she found it hard to believe. People being nice just for the sake of it was definitely something she was going to have to get used to.

She stepped through the threshold, the stranger letting go of the door and allowing it to shut softly behind her. Most of the tables were occupied, and the sound of people chatting eagerly amongst each other filled the air. It was cozy, with a Paris meets retro diner feel to it.

Spindly, black metal tables dotted the space and were surrounded by antique, wooden chairs. Pastel prints of the Eiffel Tower decorated the black and white polka dotted walls. It was about as different from Sweet Thing as it could be.

Valerie walked closer to the counter, her eyes roving over all of the offerings in the display case, when the sound of someone saying her name grabbed her attention.

“Valerie, hey!”

She whirled toward the voice, finding Sarah standing in front of her by the counter, clearly having just been in conversation with the woman behind it. The other woman, the one standing at the register wearing an apron coated in flour, had blonde hair that fell around her face in corkscrew curls. She had a round, kind face, and soft brown eyes that crinkled in the corners when she smiled.

“Hey, Sarah,” Valerie greeted, surprised to find the owner of Sweet Thing Bakery in front of her. “How are you doing?”

“I’m doing really well.” Sarah beamed. “I just came in to chat for a bit. Valerie, this is Mindy,” she said, pointing to the curly haired woman behind the counter. “She’s the owner of Baking Fiend, and a good friend of mine.”

Valerie couldn’t stop her eyebrows from shooting up in surprise, making the two women chuckle.

“A bit weird, isn’t it?” Mindy chimed, and Valerie realized she quite liked the woman’s quirky, unique vibe. “You think we’d be in competition with each other or something.”

Mindy and Sarah shared a look before dissolving into laughter, and Valerie looked between the two of them in confusion.

“Why don’t I get you something to drink and eat, and we can tell you all about it,” Mindy said, still grinning as she looked at Valerie expectantly.

Valerie’s eyes skimmed the display case and then the menu on the wall behind the counter. She quickly decided on the egg soufflé and bacon sandwich, and a blueberry crumble mini muffin, with a vanilla latte. Mindy rang her up, and then disappeared to get her order put together while Valerie ran her card.

“Mind if we join you for your breakfast?” Sarah asked, giving Valerie a tentative smile.

Valerie considered it for only a moment before nodding at the other woman. “Of course.”

She and Sarah walked only a few feet, deciding to sit at one of the retro style black leather stools pulled up at the far end of the counter. From where she and Sarah perched, they had a clear line of sight to where Mindy worked on Valerie’s drink.

“So,” Valerie began, glancing between the two bakery owners. “You two aren’t rivals or anything? I kind of figured you would be.”

Sarah shook her head, pausing only for a moment as Mindy set a plate holding Valerie’s sandwich and muffin in front of her before turning away to finish up her drink.

“We used to be,” Sarah explained. “When Mindy first moved here, things were a bit tense.”

“More than a bit,” Mindy called out from behind the counter, shooting them a grin over her shoulder. “Sarah kept coming in here to scope me out.”

“You came into Sweet Thing too, Little Miss!” Sarah teased good-naturedly. “She actually opened up around this time last year. And our heads got big. We challenged each other to a bake-off at the annual holiday party.”

“You didn’t!” Valerie let out a small gasp before taking a bite of her sandwich. It was delicious, with perfectly fluffy eggs, crispy bacon, and a jalapeño aioli sauce that brought the whole thing together.

“We sure did,” Mindy chimed in, walking back over to the two women to hand Valerie her drink. “But of course, I messed up my eclairs, and had the teeniest, tiniest little breakdown. That’s when Sarah saved the day.”

Sarah rolled her eyes, but the smile never left her face. “I didn’t save the day. I just said that maybe there shouldn’t be a winner, and everyone could just enjoy all the other treats we made for them.”

Mindy shook her head. “There was more to it than that. We got to talking that night and realized we had much more in common than we thought. And that, instead of competing with each other, we could collaborate. We run complimentary sales, have a co-owned rewards program between both bakeries. It’s been great, actually.”

Sarah just shrugged, as if what Mindy had just outlined wasn’t absolutely ludicrous and unheard of anywhere else in the continental U.S. Valerie looked between the two women, trying to find any hint between the two of them that they were lying, or that one of them secretly envied the other. But there was none to be found.

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