Practice Makes Perfect

Twenty-seven-year-old Annie Walker feels like marriage is the only thing missing in her life and plans to follow in her late parents’ footsteps by being happily married by 28. Her first date in years—with John, the “Hot Bank Teller” (4)—starts off horribly when she accidentally spills beer on his lap. She struggles to make conversation because she over-worries about offending others, saying the wrong thing, or being judged. After an emergency trip to the bathroom to reclaim her wits, Annie returns to overhear John calling her “unbelievably boring” and “sort of awkward and weird” with “zero personality” to someone over the phone (9). He begs the person on the other end to bail him out in five minutes with an emergency call.

Will Griffin, the former bodyguard of Amelia (Rae Rose), a famous pop star now engaged to Annie’s older brother, Noah, after a year of dating, enters the restaurant with a gorgeous woman on his arm. Annie can’t keep her eyes off him, even as John steps away to take an “emergency” call from his roommate. She’s “had a thing for Will since [she] first met him” but doesn’t expect him to remember her name because they’ve never interacted (15).