While waiting for the bus last Tuesday, my friend Mikelle and I discussed our plans for Valentine’s Day.

Mikelle and Chris, her fiancé, didn’t have any plans. She wasn’t sure if they were going to do anything at all. In fact, Mikelle can’t recall the last Valentine’s Day she celebrated with Chris.

They work in the restaurant business, and for most restaurant employees, Valentine’s Day is just another day of work.

My husband and I once worked in retail, and last Valentine’s Day, he was scheduled to close the store he worked in. Obviously, we didn’t have any plans.

I wouldn’t have been so upset if he was the only qualified person to close the store. His superior, who is married, took the night off to celebrate with his wife – understandable. But where were all his single co-workers? Why couldn’t one of them have volunteered to take my husband’s shift, so he could take his wife out for Valentine’s Day?

I guess someone else felt it was an unjust situation because an unscheduled snowstorm hit Central Jersey, and the mall closed early.

This situation isn’t unique to me, my husband, my girlfriend and her fiancé. On Feb. 14, restaurant and retail employees across America will be waiting on couples celebrating Valentine’s Day, instead of celebrating the holiday with their significant others.

Valentine’s Day really bothers single people. I understand. I haven’t always been in a committed relationship. Single people feel that Valentine’s Day rubs the fact that they’re single right in their face. And there are dozens of Internet Web sites out there dedicated to both the proactive single people, with creative ways for single people to celebrate Valentine’s Day, and the negative single people, with their Valentine’s Day rants.

This Valentine’s Day, let’s stop pitying the single people out there and save a little sympathy for those who work in the restaurant and retail industry because Valentine’s Day is equally as tough for them.