A/N:

No, I'm not posting a new story that you'll have to wait for updates on, I promise. The whole thing is done, and I'm posting it all I once. I wrote this a few months ago as a o/s, then broke it down into chapters. It's light, it's fluffy, it's not meant to be taken as some awesome piece of work. Just a turn your brain off and enjoy story. So please do just that!

Thanks to FDM for beta'ing!

Chapter One - Diner Guy

The best day of my life was the day I discovered the Country Cruisin' diner. It was designed to look like an old time 50's malt shop. The waitresses wore blue jeans and t-shirts with the diner name printed on it, and were all as nice as could be. The diner itself was kept very clean, and you felt welcome and at home as soon as you walked in. It was the kind of place my Gran would have loved. Perhaps that was what made me go back day after day.

I owned and operated a used bookstore for a living. My good friend Maria and I ran it. We closed every day for an hour at lunch, and she would go have lunch with her fiancé, Alcide, while I had lunch at the diner by myself. I didn't mind eating alone, and would often read the newspaper, or a book while I waited.

One day I realized that there was a man who always sat in the booth next to mine. It was something I had absorbed, but not really noticed. Not until the day I found him staring at me. My waitress had brought me a refill of coffee, and I looked up from my book to thank her. I'm still not sure what made me look at him, but I happened to glance up at the next booth and all I saw were bright blue eyes staring back at me.

He was beautiful. Well, handsome really, but so heartbreakingly beautiful. His hair was the same color as mine, and it was just long enough to run your fingers through. He had high cheekbones, and perfect lips. The kind of lips that make you think of kissing just from looking at them.

We both seemed to realize we were staring, and I blushed and looked back at my book. I didn't read any more, of course. I couldn't. My heart was beating too fast, and my eyes were still seeing those bright blue eyes, instead of the words on the page in front of me. I resisted the overwhelming urge to glance up and see if he was still looking at me, and thankfully, before I gave in to temptation, the waitress came with my food. I risked a glance then, and found myself disappointed to find that he was completely focused on his own food. It didn't really matter though. I knew there was no way I would be confident enough to talk to him.

He was still there when I left, and as I walked back to the bookstore I wondered what his smile was like. Gran used to say that you could tell a lot about a person from their smile, and I found that to be a good way to measure a person. The last guy that asked me out smiled like it was the most unnatural thing in the world, and he ended up "forgetting" his wallet when he realized he wasn't going to get into my pants that night. It was in his smile, and I should have turned him down.

Maria was helping a customer when I got back, so I started sorting through the donated books drop box until she was through.

"How was your lunch?" I asked her after the customer left.

"It was good. I finally got him to agree with me on the band for the wedding," she laughed.

"So no more 'Wolf Boys' then, I take it?"

"God, no! They were so awful too, you have no idea. We're going with the one I picked. They're much classier."

I smiled at her. Maria had been planning her wedding since she was ten years old. She wanted a big affair. Huge church, five hundred guests, gorgeous white dress, seven bridesmaids, centerpieces … you name it, she wanted it. I was lucky enough to be her maid of honor.

I knew one thing for sure: Alcide sure as hell loved Maria. There was no way a guy would put up with the kind of wedding Maria was planning if he wasn't head over heels.

Me, I didn't want any of that. I wanted to wear Gran's dress, although maybe I'd alter it a bit to make it more "me." I wanted to be married outdoors, in a very small and intimate ceremony—just me, my guy, and our immediate family members. My brother would give me away, and Maria and Alcide would be there, but that's all. If the man that married me had parents and siblings, I would want them there. We could have a reception after for all of our friends and extended family to attend and celebrate, but the ceremony itself didn't need to be a big thing.

"How was your lunch today?" Maria asked.

"Good," I said, then remembered the man in the booth. "Actually, I saw a guy there."

"Anyone I know?"

"I don't know. I don't even know who he is. I think he's there every day at lunch, because he looked familiar, but I caught him staring at me today."

"Really? Is he hot?"

"He's gorgeous, but we didn't talk," I said, shaking my head. "Oh well, maybe he'll be there tomorrow."

"I hope so, and if he is you better come back here with his phone number."

"Maria, come on. Have you ever known me to be capable of getting a guy's number like that?"

"No, but you need to get back out there. Your last date was like three months ago with Wallet Guy, and you haven't gotten laid in almost… what? Ten months? Not since Sam?"

Sam had been my last boyfriend. We called it quits because the relationship just lost its spark. When I found that I thought of him more as a friend than a lover, I talked to him about it and he confessed to the same. We still saw each other from time to time, and while it had been a bit awkward at first it wasn't anymore. The sad fact was that he was the last sex I'd had, and at that point even the sex had lost its luster. Needless to say, I was definitely in need of some good lovin'.

"You know there hasn't been anyone since him. I just haven't found anyone I want to date."

"Do you want to date this diner guy?"

"I don't even know him."

"Do you want to get to know him?" She raised an eyebrow.

"Maybe."

"You do. I know that look. Whatever. If you're too chicken to talk to him, fate will do its thing, you'll see."

I just snorted and picked up the new stack of books to catalog.

"I'll be in the back with these if you need me," I said.

"Okie-dokie, boss!"

Maria was a big believer in fate. She and Alcide met when Maria fell in his lap after her heel broke while climbing bleachers at a local football game. In her mind, it had been fate since she hadn't wanted to go to the game, but did because her horoscope told her to. Then she claimed fate broke her brand new heel at that specific moment, landing her in the lap of her future husband. Yes, she even called him that back then.

Alcide was a big, burly, manly man. He was a construction worker, his wardrobe consisted of plaid and denim, and his face saw a razor maybe twice a year. But when he met Maria, the high maintenance girl who wore heels in the cold of winter and got her nails and hair done regularly, he melted into this teddy bear of a guy. It was sweet to witness actually.

If Maria believed fate would fix me up with diner guy, then I guess I could too. She said all you had to do was take a small risk, and fate would take care of the rest. I wasn't so sure I believed that, but it was worth a try.