Christmas Confection Perfection: Day #5 – November 25, 2025
Day #5 – Famous Like Santa Claus
Mary
Mary woke the next morning to the faint clatter of a snowplow outside and the unmistakable sound of her phone buzzing against the nightstand. Usually a morning person, today she let out a groan as she reached for the phone. Was it possible to have a hot cocoa hangover?
She turned her alarm off and clicked her phone to mute, ignoring the string of notifications that had popped up during the night. She would deal with emails, comments, and whatever else after her deliveries were made. Now, she needed a hot shower to shake the ache from her bones.
Within an hour, she was showered, dressed, and packed up for her morning runs.
As she pulled the red wagon down the sidewalk, loaded up with festive treats and sweet breads, Mary noticed a couple of people watching her as she walked by. The number of heads turning her way gave her the chills.
Did she have something on her face? Had she forgotten pants? What could they all be looking at her for? Mary brushed at her cheeks as quickly and discreetly as possible.
A block later, a teenage girl yelled after her. “Hey! You’re the girl in the video! Can I get a picture with you?”
Mary paused and looked over at the teen. “Video? Do you watch my vlog?”
“Well, I saw the one.” The girl shrugged.
Mary was confused by the comment, but agreed to pose with her. Maybe baking was taking off with high schoolers?
No sooner than the picture was taken, the girl was texting madly into her phone. “Posted!” She declared. “Eat your heart out, Lucy Park!”
The teen rushed off, leaving Mary even more confused. Maybe this was something of a mistaken identity?
As she continued down the sidewalk, Mary noticed more people looking between her and their phones, as if trying to decide something. A few people pointed, and one man even looked like he was trying to snap pictures of Mary.
Not thrilled with the attention, Mary adjusted her scarf up higher around her neck and pulled her hat down further around her face, picking up her pace.
A few moments later she ducked inside Rosewood Café.
Leeann greeted her with far more gusto than usual. “There you are! I saw your video!”
“You started watching too?” Mary asked, considering for the first time that maybe cherry-almond cheese Danishes were trending…but why would there be so much excitement about it? They were delicious, sure, pretty too…
“It’s really taken off!” Leeann nodded enthusiastically, looking at Mary expectantly.
Mary came out of her thoughts and went about handing Leeann her order for the day. “Well, that’s really neat. Sometimes you work on these things and wonder if anyone really notices…” Mary wasn’t sure what the customary thing was to say in this situation. “Thank you.”
As Mary handed off the goods, a man in his thirties walked by, eyeing Mary’s red wagon with a chuckle.
Mary looked around the shop and saw that a couple other patrons were eyeing her…one was even recording with his phone.
“I need to get going.” She said to Leeann and quickly bolted for the door. Maybe having a hit video blog wasn’t the level of fame Mary wanted.
A few blocks later, the chimes on the coffee shop door announced Mary’s arrival and, at the sound, Charlie bolted toward her from behind the counter, a big smile on his face.
“There’s the famous girl! I saw the video and was shocked when I saw it was you!” Charlie’s face was split into a huge grin, his eyes pulled into a happy squint.
“You watch my vlog?” Mary asked, genuinely surprised. Charlie was the first one to say he had no interest in baking.
“What? Sure! I’ll bet it’s taking off!”
Mary shook her head as she started unloading cookies.
“That poor guy tripping…it’s all over the internet!” Charlie laughed.
Mary stood straight up and gasped, realization hitting her like a freight train. “Oh no,” she hissed as she fished her phone out of her pocket.
She squinted at the cracked screen. Notifications blinked like Christmas lights gone rogue. There were dozens of comments on her profiles, she had hundreds of video likes, and a message from Kurt with too many exclamation points to be good news.
Her stomach dropped as she clicked into her profile and saw the video come up.
“Oh no,” she whispered again, thumb hovering over the notification bubble. A news article popped up in her feed with a title that read: Viral Holiday Meet Cute? Red Wagon Girl “Takes Out” Handsome Stranger.
Mary opened the article link, her mind racing. She pressed play on the video she had accidently live streamed the day before. There she was, on camera—chatty and cheerful, alerting her eighty followers that Whispering Hearth had peppermint bark in stock. Then chaos. A blur of motion. Ashton’s flailing arms. Cocoa flying. Her gasp echoing through the café.
The comments rolled in faster than she could read them. Hundreds if not thousands.
I love her reaction!
Poor guy, he’s cute though.
Someone find Wagon Girl, I’d watch her bake any day.
Delivery truck! That’s hilarious!
Mary groaned and dropped the phone into her coat pocket. “I have to go, Charlie.”
Charlie kept on smiling as she handed over his baked good and headed out the door. “I’m telling people the treats were baked by the red wagon girl! I can’t keep ’em on the shelves!”
Once outside, Mary tugged at her scarf some more, trying to cover her entire face. “I hate the internet,” she muttered. “And peppermint bark. And gravity. Why did that happen?”
She started walking briskly toward her next delivery, keeping her head low. “People have short attention spans…” she reasoned with herself. “Tomorrow some kangaroo with an attitude will go viral…right?” She mumbled as she crossed the street.
Her phone buzzed again. An unknown caller, then another, then another. What had she done?
Ignoring the calls, she picked up her pace as more people turned to look at her. She needed a bigger scarf…and possibly a time machine.
Her email pinged.
Then pinged again.
And again.
Curiosity got the better of her as she walked. She opened one: a marketing company asking about partnership opportunities. Another, from a local morning show: “We’d love to have you on air to talk about the viral video!”
Then a text came through from an old friend…a meme of Mary’s horrified face as she looked down at Ashton on the floor covered in cocoa.
The meme read: When he falls for you…literally.
Mary pressed her palms to her face. “No, no, no, no.”
Then it hit her, what would Ashton think? Was it obvious who he was? He was clear enough that half the internet had offered to “help clean the cocoa off the cute guy’s suit.” What if his phone was blowing up too? What if he lost out on that job because of this?
He was going to hate her.
Then another horrible thought struck her…what if Ashton thinks she filmed it on purpose? Lots of people stage “accidents” in an effort to go viral. What if Ashton thinks she set the whole thing up for followers?
Mary thought she would be sick.
She half-expected paparazzi to appear from behind the wreath display. Maybe she should start signing pastries.
Tugging the wagon behind herself, she glanced back at it and the baked goods she still needed to deliver.
“This is your fault,” she muttered to the wagon.