A few months ago I won the book/ short story collection, Anticipated Results by Dennis E. Bolen from John at The Book Mine Set. He hosts the Canadian Book Challenge and had a mini challenge that I won.
In Bip, Bip, Bip, the un-named narrator hosts a dinner party for friends. She carefully selects who she invites. For instance, she chooses Nick because he is good at keeping conversation going. She recruits her friend Paul to cook the meal because he had gone to chef school.
Paul tells her how to get the main course started on her own. Things start to go wrong from the start. Her friends start arriving before Paul shows up to finish cooking the meal. Then she is told that Nick will be late and the conversation is awkward without him.
Paul finally shows up but doesn’t stay long, he just tells her how to tell when the lamb is done and leaves. Nick does show up but the evening went south already. The guests gossip about Paul and what might be wrong with him. Then the host figures out that one of her other guests, Damian was snooping in her office and she confronts him.
I really liked this story of quirky and damaged people. It was different then just about anything I’ve read and I mean that in a good way. I am looking forward to reading more of the stories in the book.
Short Story Monday is hosted by John at The Book Mine Set.
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Another unnamed character in your readings! Does the title refer to any particular thing? It’s kind of unusual.
It is actually in the text of the story but I can’t really explain it with out giving you the whole story.
I know all the stories in this collection have recurring characters so perhaps her name will come up in another story. Paul was in the story before this one as well.
Interesting sounding characters