“NOT TONIGHT, honey, I have a headache," is not what you would usually say to your sweetheart on Valentine's Day -- unless, of course, you spent the entire day working at one of Brooklyn's largest and busiest florists doing all the fun things that flower shops get to do on February 14.

Fortunately, even though I work at the florist, I do not have to deal with all that. I was banned from even going near the customers after my first Valentine's Day there (don't ask). But I do have a fun time watching all my grimacing co-workers have the times of their lives.

The girls in front probably have it the worst. They are the ones who get to answer the hundreds of phone calls and deal with the walk-in customers who are demanding and, frankly, quite desperate. When will people realize not to wait until the last minute? (Besides, its almost to the point where the cost of roses increases hourly.) The busiest walk-in time is probably between five and six p.m., when guys decide to pick up a dozen roses on their way home from work.

We have had customers shout at the workers, at each other, even at the merchandise for costing too much. "Whaddya mean one hundred dollars for a box of candy?!" That particular box has been lying around the shop for over five years now, by the way.

So the orders are picked up or placed. Now we move to the back of the roughly 10,000-foot store, where the delivery crew and dispatchers are running around like chickens without heads. "The delivery going to Bergen Street has to be there by five," the intercom blares. Six people are in a tizzy scanning delivery tags.

"Here it is!" yells one happy camper.

"No, that's Bergen Avenue -- not Bergen Street," announces another.

"I thought they asked for Bergen Court," says a third.

Once the truck is loaded, items are counted and double-checked (it is a major faux pas to send the wrong delivery to the wrong person), and off the drivers go. Each driver gets a route loaded with 30 or more deliveries rambling through Brooklyn, Manhattan or Queens.

Besides the regular drivers, a bunch are hired on a per delivery basis, so you know they are not procrastinating. Working in the back has its benefits -- you don't have to deal with the customers -- so I decided to help the drivers out this year. I spent at least an hour and a half pulling colored pins that denoted deliveries that had already been made out of a map so they could start it all over again.

Valentine's at a florist can definitely seem like an endless holiday... just ask the florists themselves. We cannot forget them, the people behind the scenes, the ones who put all the materials together. Our shop usually employs about 10 or so floral designers. Come Valentine's time, the number sometimes triples. The regular holiday crew comes crawling out of the woodwork along with "my cousin, who has a rose garden," and "my sister who does silk arrangements."

The florists have the arduous task of arranging dozens after dozens of roses, hooking together arrangements with stuffed animals and three-foot balloons that say "I love you this much," and standing on their feet for roughly 48 hours until the last delivery leaves the shop.

But it's still not over for the rest of us. The day after Valentine's Day, dubbed "Complaint Day" by all those who work there, can become quite a hassle. First of all, the workers are burnt-out beyond recognition and not in their best frame of mind to answer calls like, "Why did he send me yellow roses instead of pink?" or "I don't like Teddy bears -- can I exchange it for a stuffed kangaroo?"

As long as we don't get the call from a wife named Jean asking, "Why did my husband write `I love you, Sally' on the card?" we're usually doing okay.

There were only minor mishaps this year. We got to say the infamous "our computer is down right now" for about 10 minutes, and a floral designer spent 20 minutes searching a trash bin full of rose waste for his lost scissors, only to find them in his back pocket, but we pulled through.

Now we are taking a deep breath, packing away everything that remotely resembles the shape of a heart, and bracing ourselves for holiday number two in the florist business:

Mother's Day.