"A Change in Luck"
by
LaDonna Cantrell

This morning I awoke to my puppy licking my face and droll plum up to my eyeballs. As I got up my nose was still stuffy, and my eyes were swollen because I was up watching those sappy love stories on the AMC channel late last night. It was the day before Valentine's Day and I had nothing else to do but wallow in my sweet sorrows.

While I was getting ready for work I turned the TV on to the TODAY show. They were all talking about that special someone. It made me sick so I turned it off. When I met my best friend Brandy to walk to work together she was telling me what all her boyfriend had gotten her. She made me feel worse than I already did. We had to take the bus this morning since I wrecked my car. It had a little accident. I sort of forgot to put it into gear. Things like that happen to a lot of people we just don't hear about it! It's just my luck. See, I always have the worst of luck. It started when I was little my boyfriend found another sweet heart on the most romantic day of the year Valentines Day. Ever since, it has been all down hill form there. Everything I have done or any relationship I have had went sour. I am twenty-three years old and have accepted the fact I will be an old clumsy maid for the rest of my natural born life.

I work at the local café as a waitress. It's not a bad job, and it's not a very good one either but I am able to pay my bills. Besides I am not a hard person to please. I live a simple life and in my own special way I guess you could say that I am happy. I go to work have hard day, everyday and come home to no one but my dog Scruffy. I wish that I could find someone who could love me for me and stay with me for the rest of my life. I don't know what it is like to be really head over hills in love.

After my shift at the café I was returning home. Brandy had left earlier so I had to walk home by myself. I accidentally, kind of, missed the bus. As I was walking home a man was jogging and hit a patch of ice and a second after that he fell right on his butt. He howled and screamed in pain. I started to laugh but he seemed to be really hurt. I approached him cautiously he was clutching his leg. I then went to his side to see if he was ok. He looked like he had a broken leg.

The nearest hospital was a few blocks away. So I helped him up and we both limped to the emergency room together. He asked for my name. I told him it was Beth Love. There was not much conversation due to the fact he was in extreme pain and was trying to walk with his good leg. After taking him to the emergency room he was swept up by the staff. Not a name or even a thank you was offered. Oh well I did a good deed. That makes me feel pretty darn good. I returned home late that night.

While I was at home I kept thinking about how handsome and young he was. His face seemed so familiar. A few hours later I called the hospital to see if he was all right. Not knowing anything about him made that task a little difficult. I couldn't find out anything so I left it at that. Oh well I thought I will continue living my non-loving life.

The next morning, I had the day off. So I slept late and got up around noon. Brandy had called and left a message on the answering machine but the answering machine ate the tape. As I was eating my cheerios and watching a little TV the doorbell rang. I went to open it and a dozen of red roses were there at my doorstep with a card stating, " Your luck is about to change". I thought it was a joke so I looked around to see if anyone was there, but no one was to be found. I knew this was a big mistake. Shocked I called Brandy at work to see if she had sent them as a joke she said no. I thought someone was just playing a practical joke and paid no attention. I kept the flowers but I know someone sent them for the wrong reasons.

A few weeks had passed and I received a phone call telling me to be at Café DeLou at eight o'clock that night. I was told that I would be filled in on the rest of the situation evening. I didn't know what to wear so I put on a nice simple red dress, fixed my hair applied a little makeup and was on my way.

At the restaurant I waited at the table for forty-five minutes before the man I helped arrived. He and his casted leg sat at the table with the grace of an elephant. I didn't know what to say. To not have heard a word from this man after his accident I was shocked beyond belief. So as boldly as I could speak I asked him "what he wanted" in a very polite way of course. He simply stated in his very masculine voice "to have dinner with you". I agreed what sane woman wouldn't have dinner with a handsome hunk of a man. While having dinner some young girls came up to him and asked for his autograph he gladly gave it to them. After a while I got up enough courage to ask him who he was. He told me his name was "Jake Summers from the New on Channel 11". I didn't know what to do; I kept thinking I helped the weatherman.

He asked me why didn't I have a boyfriend and why did I look so depressed. Very upset at his meek boldness I simply ignored his question got up from the table and left causally. Just the thought of a complete stranger asking those very personal questions made me sick to my stomach. It was none of his business to whom I choose to date or why I am depressed. After returning home I put on some angry chick music and was eating a big bowel of ice cream, which fell into my lap, as there was a loud knock at the door. I was trying to clean the ice cream off my lap as I answered the door; low and behold it was the bold weatherman Jake and he was mad as fire.

He looked at me with intense eyes that were blue as the sky. He asked in a very stern voice why I left him stranded at the café. I knew he wanted an explanation but I didn't feel very comfortable talking about my feeling with a complete stranger. So in a desperate measure I started yelling that I didn't want his pity and told him to get out. Hoping and praying to God that he would leave. He simply looked at me a smiled. He knew what I was trying to do so he flopped down on the couch and would not leave. By this time I was furious so I started screaming like a scorned lover I was hollering about how bad my love life has been for twenty three years and that I was going to be an old maid for the rest of my life.

Finally in a stern and most serious voice he told me to shut up. I closed my mouth and did not speak a word. He told me he knew almost everything about me; he had met my best friend while trying to track me down. He stated that Brandy just spilled the beans about me. He wanted to keep it a secret until he met me himself. He told me the kindness I showed him the night he got hurt told him that I was the type of person he want to get to know better. That I was the type of girl he pictured spending the rest of his life with. At this time my mouth was on the floor. Jake did not feel sorry for me. He knew I had a bad run with relationship and he wanted to prove my theory wrong. He just wanted the chance if I was willing to try. A couple of months have passed now and my luck has changed for the better. I am the one bragging now because I have found the man of my dreams. It was all because of a change in luck.