Fiction Weekend Stories for 2/17/2012 - 2/19/2012. This week's prompt: Write a story involving an abandoned book in an unexpected place. 

Read the Man NOT a Book

   Desperate, alone, nearing thirty, and with a biological clock that was ticking faster than the timer on a homemade dirty bomb, Lori entered the bookstore. With long, purposeful strides, she marched straight to the store’s Relationship Section. She scanned the titles on the shelves. Calling in "The One": 7 Weeks to Attract the Love of Your Life by Katherine Woodward Thomas caught her eye. The book was directed at women. It boasted a 49-day plan of action that promised to help the reader find, get, and keep the love of her life. Quickly, she skimmed the book. Its chapter headings and the way the course was laid out appealed to her sensibilities. Lori purchased it on the spot.

    When she got home to her lonely apartment, she read the book cover to cover. Immediately, she set in motion the steps necessary for her to capture the attention of Phil, the IT guy.  The book’s plan worked. Albeit somewhat chaste, within days, Lori was in a romance with the man she felt was her Mr. Right.

    Ninety days later, she realized he was Mr. Wrong. At his best friend’s pool party, it was all revealed. Three margaritas into the party, she realized that Phil had disappeared. She went looking for him throughout the spacious, eclectically-appointed house. Coming from one of the rooms, Lori heard Phil’s voice. Lori grasped the doorknob and shly entered the room.

   She saw Phil and another man sitting on a big brown leather couch. They were playing a videogame on a big screen TV. Phil didn’t seem to notice her. She scanned the room; it looked more like a teenage boy’s dream game room than a grown man’s den. The shelves were packed with comic books (or graphic novels as men of a certain age liked to call them) and super hero dolls encased in their original packages (or collectible action figures as per fan-boy vernacular).

    More dismayed than dazed, Lori left the den. In the living room, she poured herself into a very comfortable tub chair. Next to it was a magazine rack; jammed between computer magazines and comic books, she noticed a book. She fished it out. The book seemed curiously out of place in this house. She pulled it out, and read its title. She let out a laugh. Back into the magazine rack she stuffed Greg Behrendt’s He's Just Not That Into You: The No-Excuses Truth to Understanding Guys book.

Read the Man NOT a Book © Trudge164, 2012