First Dates and Birthday Cakes

Ben Porter is turning forty, and he’s not being cool about it.

He told his friends and family that he wanted to let this particular milestone pass by without any fuss, and for once, they actually listened.

Which is great. Because now here he is, sitting in his kitchen on a rainy Saturday morning, all alone, and he can feel himself aging.

So he decides to do something about it.

And maybe throwing himself a last-minute ice-skating party for one in an attempt to recreate the carefree birthdays of his expired youth wasn’t the best idea. Or the most normal. He’d even go so far as to say it was a terrible idea, as there’s a non-zero chance that his impromptu birthday activity will turn into an impromptu birthday trip to the hospital. Because despite the fact that he remembers being pretty hot stuff at skating?

He’s not. He’s really, really not.

He’s so incredibly bad at it that a tall, gorgeous member of staff—who actually is pretty hot stuff—has to come over and scrape him off the ice, just so he stops ruining everyone else’s Saturday.

Except Jake isn’t a member of staff, he has an ulterior (romantic!) motive for helping Ben, and Ben’s worst birthday ever is about to take a surprising turn for the better…


First Dates and Birthday Cakes is a 33k-word romantic comedy novella with a midlife crisis, a big surprise that Ben really should have seen coming, and something that looks a whole lot like happily ever after.