This is only slightly based on my life:) 

Chapter One: 

She walked into the house and felt every eye in the room on her.  It was like a scene from a movie where the music stops and everyone abruptly turns and looks at you.  Except there was no music playing…and it wasn’t so much of an abrupt look as it was a sideways glance.  Ok, so maybe no one even noticed her entrance, but it felt like they did.  Lou Ella quickly scanned the room until she spotted her friends and then made a b-line for them.  She was not an old black woman as her name might suggest, but a 25 year old white girl from Georgia who, as the story goes, was named after a rich Aunt who didn’t leave ‘em the farm after all. 

“Lou!” shouted Cici from across the room.  “Where’ve you been?!  We thought you were gonna bail on us.” 

“No”, replied Lou Ella “I just got a little lost”. 

She hadn’t gotten lost, but no one would doubt her story.  She was known for having a bad sense of direction and she wasn’t about to tell even her closest friends that she had sat in her car down the street for 15 minutes working up the courage to come in.  Lou was apart of what she liked to refer to as a dying breed.  She was over 20 years old and hadn’t managed to get herself married off or knocked up.  As a matter of fact, she was no where near walking down the isle.  She had worked in a big skyscraper in Atlanta for a while and didn’t feel so much like a member of the afore mentioned breed then.  But since coming home to the small town where she had grown up she quickly realized that she was indeed…different.  And here she was at yet another wedding shower where she would have to hear the whispers of all the married people she had gone to school with as they speculated on the reason for her not being married yet.  Truth be told she could handle the whispers.  It was the brave ones she hated.  They just had to come up and ask when her “lucky” day was or reassure her that she was next or throw-out the ever-popular “it’ll happen when you least expect it”.  To which she would fake her best smile trying with all her might to keep the eat crap look underneath from showing through.  Judging from the way they usually walked off she didn’t think she was doing a very good job of that.  At least she had a group of people she felt completely comfortable around.  She had known Cici and Layla for as long as she could remember.  They were both married but Lou had known their husbands, Brad and Jack respectively, for just as long.  She never felt like an outsider with them…even if she was always the fifth wheel.

“You didn’t drive all the way to South Carolina again did you?” said Brad.

“No, I kept it in the state this time.  How long have yall been here?”

“Not long”, said Layla “you haven’t missed anything”.

Then they all noticed something at the same time.  Everyone froze trying to decide what to do.  They all scattered.  The guys got away while the girls just bumped into each other.  By the time they regained composure it was too late.  Angela Decker was upon them. 

“Heeeeyyyy yall!” shouted Angela. 

They all three chimed in with feigned enthusiasm, “Hey Angela.”

“How are yall?!” Angela exclaimed.  “It has been way too long”.

“Didn’t we just see you at Brett’s wedding last month?” remarked Lou.  Layla shot her a glare to plead with her to be nice.  Lou picked up on it and quickly recovered with “but you’re right…it has been too long.”

“I guess I did see yall at the wedding…that thing was a disaster right from the start wasn’t it?  And that dress…good night!”

Lou just stared at Angela as she put in her two cents about everyone in the room.  She nodded every now and again to act like she was listening.  Right behind Angela’s head she saw a group of people walk in the door.  A couple of guys and a few girls.  She didn’t recognize any of them and assumed they were friends of the future bride…who wasn’t from around there.  Suffering from the plague of the dying breed she had to take inventory of every guy in the room.  It was unintentional and something she stopped fighting a long time ago.  Both of the strangers that had just walked in were good looking.  One was tall and had dark hair.  The other a little shorter with blonde hair.  She couldn’t tell from across the room if they had wedding rings on, but she was sure they were either married to or dating one of the girls in the group they had walked in with.  Just as she was about to look away she made eye contact with the dark headed one.  He smiled and she was so surprised that he had noticed her she didn’t even hear Angela say her name. 

“Lou Ella!” Layla said as she elbowed her.

“What?  I’m sorry Angela…I thought I saw someone I knew over there.”

“You know everyone in the room” Angela pointed out.  “Anyway, I was saying that I met this great guy the other day!”

Here it comes Lou thought to herself. 

Angela went on to describe this man in his entire splendor.  Apparently he was the brother of someone she knew and Angela made him sound like a Greek god.

Lou had been set up more times than she cared to recall.  Most people were under the impression that she should be more than happy to go out with anything that was male and breathing.  She had told herself that she wasn’t going to go on anymore blind dates, but try as she might she just couldn’t tell people no.  And at this point she was just ready to get rid of Angela Decker.  And she could tell by the looks on their faces that Cici and Layla were ready to see her go as well.  So when Angela volunteered to be the matchmaker Lou regretfully said yes. 

As soon as Angela was gone Lou looked around the room for the dark headed man who had smiled at her, but he was nowhere to be found.

“Expecting someone” asked Jack as he and Brad made their way back over to the girls. 

“No.” Lou mumbled to herself.

“Thanks for running off and leaving us here with Angela by ourselves.”  Layla said to her husband.

“Hey, when the town gossip is headed your way it’s every man for himself.” replied Jack. 

“Are we staying at this thing for much longer?  If we are I need another drink.” said Brad.

“I’ll go get you one.” said Lou.  She grabbed his glass and headed for the kitchen.  She could use a drink herself.

When Lou walked into the kitchen she was grateful to find it empty.  Finally a second to relax.  She made Brad another drink and was pouring herself one when she heard “rough day?”  She turned around and saw the dark headed man standing in front of her. 

“What was that?” she managed to get out.

“Well judging by the two drinks you just poured I thought maybe you were having a rough day.”  He replied.

“Oh, no…these aren’t both for me.  Somebody would have to carry me to the car if I drank both of these.” she said as she laughed nervously. 

“Is that an invitation?” He said with a smile as he walked out of the kitchen.

Lou was surprised at what an effect he had on her.  She could feel herself still blushing, but she forced any hopeful thoughts out of her head, grabbed the drinks and headed back to her friends. 

As she got closer to the group she realized that the dark headed man and the group he entered with were talking to her friends.  She briefly thought about turning around and going back to the kitchen, but it was too late.  Cici saw her.

“Lou!  Come over here and meet our new friends!” called Cici. 

Lou walked over and handed Brad his drink as Cici introduced everyone.  The girls were Caroline, Mandy, Lindsey and Katie.  She shook hands with all of them trying not to look over at the dark headed man.  Then Cici began introducing the guys.  Keith was the blonde headed one and Mark was the infamous dark headed one.  She shook their hands as well withdrawing her hand from Mark’s grip as quickly as possible.  Lou had been right about them being friends of the bride.  Cici explained that they had all gone to college together.  Cici was cut off in her explanation by the host of the shower announcing that the happy couple were about to start opening presents.  Everyone made their way into the living room and gathered around the couple to watch.  All Lou could think about was how they were never going to be able to sneak out early now.  It would cause a scene and everyone would notice.  She was too busy making another plan of escape to notice that Mark had made his way over to stand right beside her.  She wasn’t even aware of his presence until he lightly put his hand on her back and leaned down to whisper something in her ear.  She was so startled that she turned suddenly and accidentally elbowed him in the stomach.  All the commotion made everyone in the room give them the evil eye.  Lou covered her mouth to keep from laughing out loud.  When she regained her composure she leaned over to him. 

“I’m so sorry” she whispered.  She was mortified.  She’d never been good at first impressions, but she’d outdone herself this time.

“Don’t worry about it.  But you might have to carry me out to the car now” he whispered back. 

They spent the rest of the time talking instead of watching the couple open their presents.  Every once in a while someone would give them a look as if to say, be quiet, but she didn’t care.  She had seen a million couples open a million presents and Mark was far more interesting than them all.