Back in 2010, when people still tuned in to FM radio and Bluetooth file-sharing was peak technology, I wrote this story. At the time, I thought it was profound—a tale of love, longing, and unspoken confessions wrapped in a metaphor as sweet as a lollipop. Looking back now? It’s a mix of pure cringe and a flood of memories I didn’t ask for. But hey, nostalgia has a funny way of making even our most awkward moments feel worth revisiting. So, here it is—raw, dramatic, and dripping with the emotional intensity of a guy who thought love was best expressed through candy.
Adam was the kind of guy who believed in grand romantic gestures but had the subtlety of a fireworks display in a library. A small-town boy who had watched one too many 90s rom-coms, he believed that consistency was the key to a woman's heart. And what better way to prove his dedication than through a daily offering of a single lollipop?
Alice, his unsuspecting office mate, was the lucky recipient of this sugar-coated affection. At first, she thought it was just a quirky habit, like someone who always wore mismatched socks or insisted on drinking coffee from a chipped mug. She accepted each lollipop with a polite smile, assuming Adam was just being friendly. Meanwhile, Adam saw that smile as a beacon of something deeper—something meant to be.
As the lollipop ritual continued, they grew close in that casual, coworker way—sharing inside jokes about their boss’s weird obsession with paperclips, exchanging stories about childhood, and occasionally teaming up to survive grueling overtime shifts. Adam, however, was operating under a different reality: he saw these moments as proof that Alice was warming up to him, that the lollipops were working their magic.
Valentine’s Day was approaching, and Adam decided it was the perfect time to unveil the truth—his feelings, his unwavering devotion, and the reason behind the lollipops. But he wasn’t an idiot (or so he thought). He wouldn't blurt it out over a casual lunch break. No, he needed the moment. The right ambiance. The perfect confession. So he did what any hopeful romantic would: he asked Alice out on Valentine’s Day. And she said yes.
In Adam’s mind, this was it. The culmination of weeks of effort. The lollipops had done their job. The universe was on his side. He imagined the grand reveal—Alice gasping in shock, overwhelmed by his heartfelt confession, maybe even shedding a single tear as she realized that she had loved him all along.
Reality, however, had other plans.
On the fateful day, Adam was buzzing with excitement. He had everything ready—maybe even rehearsed a speech in the mirror. But just a few hours before their “date,” Alice casually dropped a bomb on him.
“Hey, Adam, I almost forgot to tell you—I’m actually going out with my friends tonight.”
Boom. Silence. Internal devastation.
Adam blinked. Laughed nervously, as if she were joking. But she wasn’t.
“Oh, and also…” she hesitated for a moment, “I won’t be coming back to the office after today.”
Boom again. Double explosion. The lollipops had failed. The universe had betrayed him.
Alice left, completely unaware of the wreckage she left behind. Adam stood there, lollipop in hand, feeling like the human embodiment of a tragic movie ending—but not the cool, cinematic kind. More like the ones where the hero gets hit by a bus right after delivering a heartfelt monologue.
He never told Alice about the tiny love notes hidden inside each lollipop stick. He never told her that, from the very first one to the very last, he had been saying I love you all along. Maybe she never saw the signs. Maybe she did and ignored them. Maybe she was just being kind, accepting his gestures without thinking too much about them.
Adam would eventually move on, but the sting of that day would linger—because nothing wounds deeper than a love story that never even started.
And so, Adam would carry this lesson with him, hoping that, next time, he’d find a love that didn’t require decoding hidden messages inside candy. But for now, he’d sit there, reflecting on the past, wondering if he’d ever meet someone who would love him back before the world ran out of lollipops.
