OCC member and USA Today Bestselling author Susan Mallery is proud to announce the winners of “My Last First Date” contest.
First Place:
The Zone by Jenny Hansen
Second Place:
Better Late Than Never by Gillian Doyle
Third Place:
Next Time, You Pick the Movie by Tanya Hanson
First place winner, Jenny Hansen, will receive a signed copy of Susan’s June release, HER LAST FIRST DATE, and a Starbucks gift card.
By Jenny Hansen
My last first date was almost doomed before it ever got to the starting gate. “Almost†is such a stressful little word, isn’t it? I got engaged on May 4th…we’re getting married on July 2nd. And it ALMOST didn’t happen. It all began in this cheesy little bar in
You know The Zone, right? It’s that really special place that surrounds your heart, without actually being inside it. The Zone is the place you giggled about with your girlfriends in junior high: â€I think he likes me! You’ve likely grown up a bit since then, and you probably don’t laugh like a hyena anymore when you start liking someone. Still, when a new man gets into The Zone, your heart still shimmies in your chest and the world around you shimmers with an extra layer of beauty.
On a great first date, Mr. Hubba zings his arrow (pardon the metaphor) somewhere into The Zone. It might be the way he smiles or the touch of his hand on the small of your back as he guides you through a crowded room. It might be the sound of his laugh, or his ability to tell a great story. I’ll bet you $1000 that every single one of the authors in this contest knows the exact moment when her future husband breached The Zone.
The night I met my husband-to-be was a like a maze of bricks, laid down by a higher power, where every pathway led to a single destination. My mother died in January 2004 and my life was submerged in a syrupy river of grief. By April, my vision was clearing and I was starting to actually see the world around me again.
I attended OCC’s April meeting and an author reception before running home to get gussied up to meet two couples I knew at a place in
If smoking were allowed indoors in
My girlfriend, Mary, and I – two blondes – were out on the dance floor together, shaking our groove thing, when this dark haired man with stunning blue eyes glided up to us.
“Can I join you ladies?†he said while he bopped in time with the music.
Mary gave me a smile soaked around the edges with vodka and said, “Sure. Why not?â€
I admired the cohones on this guy – he couldn’t dance, but he had style. When the song ended, Mary bopped off to the bathroom and he and I went back to sit down at the bar where we began whole getting to know you Dance of Singles. This was helped along by Mary who sidled up a while later and joined the conversation.
“Hey! Dance floor guy! I’m Mary, by the way.†She shook his hand. “What’s your name?â€
“Steve? Uh-huh. What do you do? Oh, a Computer Guy! Uh-huh. Great! Jen works in computers! Where do you live? Oh,
(I tried to slink off right about this time but Mary trains dogs for a living and she’s got a grip like a pit bull.)
“How do you feel about pets? Oh, you’re afraid of dogs? Well, cause she has a dog, but Hoshi’s a really nice dog. She really likes men – Hoshi, not Jen…well, I mean Jen likes men too. Anyway, you guys will do great! What kind of dog? Oh, Hoshi is an
At the end of this conversation, she gave me a thumbs up (right in front of him) and zoomed off. I’m sure she went back to her husband Mike, who loves good gossip, to share the news that “Jen-Pooh was talking to Dance-Floor Guy who stood up to the Inquisition.â€
I gave Steve a pained smile and we continued talking. I was thrilled when he asked if we could exchange information. He joined us when Woody’s closed and we all piled into a car and headed over to Villa Nova, a late-night place in
After we ordered and everyone began talking, Steve leaned in toward me and said, “I’m extremely attracted to you. Are you attracted to me?†I swear, he practically sniffed at me. I blessed the dim lighting that hid my instantaneous blush and stammered a response. Meanwhile, I felt Mike pressing closer to catch every word being said and gave him a swift elbow to the ribs.
Is there anybody more annoying than nosy married friends when you’re single?
We drove Steve home – I was again sandwiched between him and Mike – and he directed us up to the gates of a glitzy
“Why do you live here?,†I blurted out, then moaned silently. Did I actually say that out loud?
Steve didn’t even pause. “My parents are getting older and I like to live close to them.â€
“Ohhhhh!†Mary and our other girlfriend sighed in unison in the front seat.
Steve got out of the car and shut the door. I turned back from watching him walk away and found Mike staring at me like something he’d stepped in at the dog park. “Why do you live HERE? You had it in the bag, and you say ‘why do you live here?’†He threw up his hands. “He is never going to call you!â€
Well, it took him almost a week, but he did call and we did arrange our first date. I opened my door to him and saw him go pale when he caught sight of my 90 pound
I started to give my usual spiel about how my dog is shy and if he just ignored her, she’d be his best friend in about 10 minutes. Then I gave him a quick hug and turned around to find Hoshi splayed out on her back with love-at-first-sight in her eye.
Steve kneeled down to pet her belly. Just like that, he breached The Zone.
Jenny Hansen (aka Jen Crooks) is a longtime OCC member who writes the Writer’s Word column for A Slice of Orange. By day, Jen manages the sales and marketing for a national training firm. After 12 years as a corporate software trainer, it’s nice for her to be able to sit down while she works. By night, she writes women’s fiction, chick lit and short stories.
I was 24 and engaged to be married on June 15 to a guy nobody … but nobody … liked. I had intestinal by-pass (a great deal like lap-band) surgery a couple of years before, having been fat all my life and no dates.
Now, all of a sudden, after losing over 100 lbs., men were coming out of the woodwork and I didn’t know what to do with them all. Frankly, it scared me. I wasn’t even used to flirting, must less a whole date. So, when I picked out this “loser,” it was apparently a bad choice that everyone could see but me. He had been my first date, ever, and we had been seeing each other for about a year.
By Leslie Kay Ashe
Leslie Kay Ashe is the pen name of an unpublished Orange County author who would rather die than put something so personal in her own name.
0 0 Read moreImet my husband at the dog pound. I was working there in dog licensing, and he came in to do an audit. Since I was eighteen years old, and he was twenty six, professional and handsome, I really didn’t think he’d be interested.
But consider my competition—they were all dogs!
Finally, Dan asked me to lunch one day. My excitement may have dimmed a bit when we ended up at Burger King (don’t think I’ve let him forget that), but I didn’t eat much anyway (and don’t think he’s let me forget that). All these years later, I don’t remember what we talked about, except that he asked me out on another date.
Eventually those dates turned into two decades of marriage. On our twentieth anniversary, we were sitting around the dinner table with our three sons. We had finished dinner and were just chatting. My husband asked me to get out the Halloween candy.
“Stay out of the kids’ candy,” I told him.
The boys laughed, and said, “Dad can have some candy.”
I sighed. This is the last of the Halloween candy dumped all into one bowl. I got up, pulled the bowl of candy out of the cupboard and handed it to my husband.
Dan handed the bowl back to me. “Pick what you want first.”
Okay, so yeah, I might have a little problem with chocolate. I had been avoiding looking in the candy bowl to resist temptation. Dan and the boys know this, and of course, they are Chocolate Enablers. I gave in, looked in the bowl and blinked in surprise. A small square wrapped box sat on top of the candy. Suspicious, I looked up at Dan. “We said no gifts! We went to dinner and the comedy club to celebrate our anniversary! No gifts!”
By this time, the boys are squirming all over. “Open it Mom!”
I pulled out the box and opened it. My husband got me a beautiful anniversary ring inlaid with diamonds. I was shocked, overwhelmed and I loved the ring. I put it on and it fit perfectly.
When we married, we were buying a house at the same time and so we skipped the diamond engagement ring to get matching gold bands. I tried to tell Dan how much I loved him and the ring.
“I wanted you to have a diamond ring,” Dan said simply.
The boys were so excited. They had been in on this all along. They knew their dad was buying me the diamond ring that we hadn’t been able get when we got married. We sat there at the table that evening and told the kids the story of the dog pound and our first date at Burger King. They’d heard it before, but it still cracked them up. As for me…
I may have met my husband at the dog pound, but I got a real gem of a man.
Jennifer Apodaca is the author of The Sex on the Beach Book Club and the Samanta Shaw mystery series. You can find her at www.jenniferapodaca.com.
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