My So-Called Rom-Com Life by Julie Particka

December 3, 2018
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Guest Post, Spotlight

Adventures In Online Dating by Julie Particka

For Alexa McIntyre, the answer to everything comes down to numbers. Three sons. One divorce. One great life…except her boys are getting older and they really need a man around. Enter the number twenty, as in after twenty minutes with someone she knows whether or not she wants them in her life. So, she hatches a plan to meet any man who remotely strikes her interest—for a twenty-minute date at her favorite coffee shop. It’s the perfect way to find her perfect match in the most efficient way possible…

My So-Called Rom-Com Life by Julie Particka

While trying to think of fun and interesting blog posts, a friend suggested telling you all about a time when my life started looking like a rom-com. I loved that idea. But then I started thinking about the trailer for Rebel Wilson’s upcoming film, Isn’t It Romantic? And after examining all the details in that, all I could think was “Well shit, my life has never been that fun.”

No perfect house for me. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I like my house. I like it less when things break…which seems to happen about as soon as I get the previous broken thing fixed. Think I’m kidding? Just spent $800 on a brick/concrete problem—and now my bathtub faucet is dripping like mad. Hoping to fix that one myself because $800…

Closet full of all the shoes I could ever want? Please. I couldn’t even find a pair of black boots that fit and were comfortable last year. (I have a pair this year. Currently debating the wisdom of buying a backup pair or ten.)

Life set to a pop song? Not even if my kids are singing. In that case we’re either musical theater (don’t get me started on whether or not I would happily take a Squip because I’m thinking that might make the whole rom-com life thing happen for real.) or rock. I’m not even sure what constitutes pop music anymore. I have a friend who is a radio DJ and asked me to request something once. I couldn’t name a song that wasn’t “obscure.” Oops.

On the other hand, I do hit my head all the time. So far, it hasn’t resulted in an alternate reality though. Then again, there was that one time I dreamt my entire life was a coma-induced dream and my kids were by my hospital bed telling me to wake up, so maybe I’m wrong…

And, I mean, I suppose I sort of have a gay sidekick. But, not in the way they’re presented in rom-coms. Also, I don’t know how she’d feel about being called a sidekick.

It is also true that people around me do occasionally start breaking into song and/or dance. But that happens to everyone, right? Or maybe my friends are just the type of people who do that? *shifty eyes*

The thing is, on the rare occasion that a cute guy randomly hits on me (or in the case of the guy at the grocery store, I realize five aisles later that he was hitting on me—eternal regrets there, let me tell you), none of that other stuff is happening.

And yes, all too often, the seeming flirtation is actually a ploy to get something else.

Wait a minute…

I think I’m coming to realize that my life is just like a rom-com, but the damn thing is being written out of order. Just my luck to have a writer who is saving all the good stuff for the end, but is mish-mashing the hell out of the beginning and middle so I can’t figure out what’s going on. I mean, what if I already met my hero? What if it was grocery store guy? What if I was supposed to let him get the stuff off the top shelf for me, and then the house and the shoes and the pop songs would have all fallen into place?

*whimper*

Well, all I know for sure is whoever is writing this thing better have a damn good editor, because I’m still waiting for my dance number and happy ending.

Too bad coffee shop owner Marshall Calloway isn’t keen on her using his shop as her speed-dating zone, especially since she’s made it clear he’s too young to be a contender. But against her better judgement, Alexa finds herself drawn to Marshall in ways she can’t quantify. There’s no easy answer, and once the kids become involved, her well-ordered world threatens to fall apart—twenty minutes at a time.

Buy Adventures in Online Dating at…

♥

Julie Particka was told to get serious about her future in Junior High. Several years after getting a bachelor’s degree in chemistry, she realized being serious was over-rated and went back to her first love–writing. Now rather than spending her days in the drudgery of the lab or teaching science to high school students, she disappears into worlds of her own creation where monsters sometimes roam, but true love still conquers all. She can most often be located in the Detroit area with her favorite minions (the ones who know her as Mom) where she is currently hatching a plot for world domination. It involves cookies for everyone, so she’s pretty sure there’s no way it can fail…except the minions keep eating the cookies.

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