It’s your lucky day! A Lovely Man is waiting. And he will make you a proposition. Are you ready? You might want to pour yourself a glass. And pull the curtains, turn off the stupid show, toss the wretched cat. I have taken trouble in the telling, deserve your full attention.
A Lovely Man. I am sure full of myself? Well, they were the words of a woman, to set the record straight. And you will get all the proof you need. I am not only a writer, but own a bookstore, and put my fellow owners on notice—shelve me under Merrywood, alongside the legends of literature. But let’s not get too serious, I am also a whole of bunch of fun.
You will meet a young lady. Oh my goodness! She played me for a fool? Nonsense, she showed me great respect, just like you will! But it didn’t work out that great? Why don’t you wait and see! Although I will tell you right now, if you think I fell head over heels, you have another think coming. I am a man of good sense and composure. Love is blind? Please spare me the advice column!
How about the time and place? How about a little more patience! But I am also a man of forgiveness, will give you some direction. The story unfolds on the streets of San Francisco, at the turn of the millennium. So my contemporaries were already glued to the computer, if not yet addicted to the phone. I trust the same holds true of my readers!
And did I have some company! Not easy to keep track? You’d like me to tie your shoelaces as well! All right, all right, I will go to yet more trouble, post a list of characters. And that’s more than enough, already.
The proposition? Don’t worry, I had not forgotten. A lovely man is ready to propose, a toast.
Cheers!
(The list of characters follows. How do we open the page? Not again! Just see below.)