"Mr. Romance", a short story by Gratiana Lovelace, 9/15/13

Chapters 1-3: Hope and Kent and Their Work Friends, 9/15/13

“Mr. Romance”, Chapters 1 - 3:  Hope and Kent and Their Work Friends, September 15, 2013 Gratiana Lovelace

(An original fiction story copyrighted by Gratiana Lovelace; all rights reserved)

[(1) “Mr. Romance” story logo, left]

[I like to “illustrate my stories--to help visualize the story for myself and for my readers.  So, I incorporate  publicly found images of actors as my “dream” cast to represent the characters in my story.  And images of the brilliantly talented British Actor Richard Armitage--as my muse when I write my stories--will represent the lead male character here of Kent Barron.  And the lead female character of Hope Maria Springfield is represented by images of the lovely and wonderfully talented U.S. actress America Ferrera.  Other actors in my dream cast include:  John Krasinki as Bob Phillips, Kelly Preston as Shelly Koch, Katey Sagal and Ron Perlman as spouses Phyllis and Boyd Caldwell.]

Author’s Mature Content Note:  "Mr. Romance" is a story about finding and embracing true love, friends, and family. This story has some humorous elements in it. But it also has several deeply felt loving moments.    The chapters' ratings are mostly a PG or a PG-13 rating.  However, since “Mr. Romance” is a love story--and love is passionate--some of the chapters involve love scenes.   My goal is to sensually describe the lovers in a tender and heartfelt way.   And I have labeled those chapters with an R rating.  However, if you are unable or unwilling to attend a movie with the rating that I label a particular chapter, then please do not read those chapters.  That is my disclaimer.     

Prologue:  The themes of “Mr. Romance” involve waiting for true love, discovering what true love is, and family--be they colleagues and friends, or blood relatives.  Life is what we make of it.  We can choose our own paths sometimes.   And life is always sweeter, when we can and finally do choose to love.    If we had just one chance to act impulsively, to live differently, and to love completely, would we take it?  And if we did, what would happen after that?   Read on to find out.

“Mr. Romance”, Ch. 1:  Nite Caps Friday Night

Hope Maria Springfield [(2) right] and her work colleagues writing group go out for drinks and dinner ‘after work’ on Friday night, November 12th , 2010 while they are on location in Galena, Illinois as features writers for a regional vacation magazine, Midwest Getaways.  They’re all staying at the Galena Grand Hotel.  The Galena Grand Hotel is a beautifully  restored Victorian style hotel with hallmarks of dark wood accents—and questionable large floral red wallpaper in the lobby.  If Hope and her colleagues didn’t know it was an upscale hotel in modern times, it might look like a turn of the century  house of ...  Well, we won’t go there.   

It has been a long week of researching and putting the finishing touches on their regional vacation magazine’s--Midwest Getaways--first segment of feature articles about romantic wintery vacation spots in the Midwest for the February Valentines’ Day issue and now they can just play this weekend before heading to home base in Chicago on Sunday. 

These six writers gravitated to this vacation magazine because it allows them to travel as they review and test out the various vacation destinations.  They each have their own areas of expertise that they write columns about for each feature issue.  The youngest of the group at twenty-eight, Hope writes about antiquing and special arts opportunities.  Mid thirties Bob Phillips [(3) right] writes about novelty hardware and electronics venues.  Later forties Sherry Koch [(4) right] writes about wines and food, of course.  Kent Barron writes about romantic restaurants and hotels.  Finally, Phyllis and Boyd Caldwell [(5) left)—the only married couple of the group—write about living and recreational options.  They are a tight knit group of colleagues and friends since they spend so much time together on the road.