A Kickoff to Romance

by Mary Ann Joyce from the February 13, 2023 issue

Tagline: When Isabelle runs into an old high school friend at an annual Super Bowl party, she finds a fellow football lover and scores a new chance at love.

Observations: It's no wonder that the editors snapped up this story. It's absolutely perfect. And of course, it's by Mary Ann Joyce. She has one of the best track records when it comes to these 5-minute romances.

What follows is a list of all the good things in this story.

Joyce starts off by describing in great detail Isabelle's guacamole football field, which is the perfect set up for her stumble later. Stumbling so the hero can catch the heroine is a well-used trope, but this is not your run of the mill clumsy trip. Joyce had laid the emotional groundwork for the fall already so the reader feels a moment of panic that the gorgeous appetizer platter will splatter.

I love the use of the word serpentine.

There are oodles of description of the hero too. He's got a "sturdy pair of hands." Those "helping hands are connected to muscled arms, attached to a well built body..." He's tall, handsome, rugged and gorgeous. "His grin is toothy and broad, like a shark--a very attractive shark who's circling now." "His dark eyes, with their heavy lids and long lashes, are still the part of him that gets me every time."

There's plenty of witty banter to show that, if they got together, they'd have a lot of fun. They both love football, even though they're rooting for different teams, and that connection is told, not shown, but it is there in the story. 

I loved the moment when Joe confesses that he always looked for her in the stands and Isabelle wryly thinks, Well, this is news. 

Photo by Justin Russell via Flickr Creative Commons License