Jerrie Oneshot Book

Love Came Out of Nowhere

Summary: Perrie is in her mid-twenties, single and sick of people interfering with her love life. She watches her friends fall in love and silently wonders why she can't seem to connect with anyone on that level. However, a chance encounter with a beautiful stranger and a case of mistaken identity could change all that.

Friday, 7pm

Perrie

Perrie was not having a good evening by any means. The TV in her hotel room only got reception on three channels, her hair was refusing to curl the way she wanted despite her best efforts, and she would have rather been anywhere else than here.

She could've been at home, curled up on the sofa in her cozy little one-bed flat watching Netflix. She could've closed the curtains, prepared a bowl of popcorn entirely too big for one person and ignored that a world existed outside those four walls. That was her go-to routine just lately.

Instead, she found herself sitting alone in a swanky five-star hotel room, sitting alone in a cocktail dress and heels far too high to walk in. Sitting alone and turning the engagement party invitation over in her hands as the party itself began downstairs. Here she was all because her cousin had done something as preposterous as fall in love.

No, she wasn't heartless or jealous or even bitter. She was just... dubious about the whole notion of love. For Perrie, true love – like the kind you see in sappy movies and read about in Nicholas Sparks novels – just didn't exist. She watched other people in her life make these amazing, romantic connections but it just hadn't ever happened for her. Not through lack of trying though.

What really caused the churning sensation in the pit of her stomach was that her cousin had been threatening to set her up with one of her soon-to-be-husband's friends for weeks now. Tonight was the night they met.

Perrie couldn't remember her name. Naomi? Nina? Something like that. Apparently, she worked for an advertising firm, loved yoga and was newly single. Perrie couldn't have cared less.

She crossed the room to the mini-bar and pulled out a small bottle of chardonnay, twisting the top off as she sat down in front of the vanity. She took a long sip and then looked hard at her reflection in the mirror.

"Come on," she said aloud in an effort to psych herself up. "Just pull it together for one evening for god's sake. You are a strong, attractive, intelligent woman and you are not afraid to go and make small talk with a pretty stranger at a party."

Except she really was afraid. Afraid or just plain unwilling. With a sigh she set down the bottle of wine and held her head in her hands, admitting defeat. She would not be leaving this room.

'No! No, you are going,' said the voice in her head which had for one reason or another adopted the tone of her best friend, Leigh-Anne. 'Put on your big-girl panties, march out that door and just see what happens. You can do it.'

Yes, I can, Perrie thought, smiling to herself. She took another sip of wine for courage, tucked her bag under her arm and headed straight for the door.

She got as far as the elevator before she ran back to her room and slammed the door shut, leaning bodily against it. She absolutely could not do this.

----

Half an hour later she was still in the hotel room, lying on the bed in her sweatpants and sipping from her second miniature bottle of wine. Mercifully she'd managed to find one of her favourite movies on the hotel's on-demand service. She's mouthing along to Fat Amy's 'lesbi-honest' speech when there's a knock at the door.