When Fictional Characters Attack!

For those of you have read my blog before, I have mentioned that I am not smooth when it comes to the whole man/woman flirting thing. One would think that a confident, well educated, well spoken woman like myself would tear it up at social functions. Nope. You will usually find me in a corner sweating and hoping the look on my face will discourage anyone from starting a conversation with me – especially men. The more attractive a man is, the more nervous I get. I’m always afraid I am going to say something stupid, and I usually do. If my husband hadn’t found my social awkwardness endearing, I might still be single.

Flash forward to my post a few weeks ago for the Chael’s Luck blog tour (here). I responded to Mireille Chester’s invitation thinking I could do a review, author interview or something. I had told her before that I had a mad crush on her hot male character, Ian Murphy. She asked me if I wanted to interview him. Now that set off alarm bells for me; but c’mon, it’s a fictional character. It’s just Mireille pretending to Ian. How bad could it be? I got brave (strike one). I even asked her to do a live interview via Facebook messaging (strike two). We set a date and time, and I decided to approach the interview as a smooth and sexy fan girl ready to charm his pants off (strike three - aaaaaand I’m out). Who was I kidding? I can’t even charm my own pants off.

Everything was going well until I decided to be smooth and offered to hug him. I expected him to be shy and uncomfortable. What I got was “I can always use a hug. Especially from a beautiful woman. <grins> Your husband won’t mind?” And with that, he went from fictional character to hot, charming guy…my kryptonite. It was all downhill from there. I started to sweat, my cheeks were flaming, and my mouth got dry as I stared at the screen. My fingers frozen on the keyboard as I struggled to come up with something witty. My carefully planned notes and questions went out the window. It quickly went from fictional character interview to Case Study: Social Awkwardness. Logically, I knew I was being ridiculous, but it was similar to the reaction I have to Mickey Mouse at Disneyland. It’s some guy or girl in a suit, but I still yell “Mickey!” and get a little misty. Ian had become real.

I finally ended it abruptly to stop my pain and embarrassment. My sweaty pits becoming uncomfortable. Here is some of the conversation between Mireille and myself immediately following the interview.

Me: Ok, have to say that did not go the way I thought! LOL, I did not expect him to flirt back. That totally threw me off  hahahahahaha

Mireille: LMFAO

Me: Couldn’t get my questions in because he didn’t answer the way I thought. So frickin funny! I actually blushed!

Mireille: Shit!! Sorry.

Me: No! That was hilarious!

Mireille: Hahaha he’s a sexy man. He loves “his woman” but he knows he’s hot.

Me: I know, and I should have known better!

Mireille: What other questions did you have? Do you want to try to work them in? LOL

Me: I am not smooth. I should have known he would easily out-smooth me LOL

Mireille: omg I am laughing so hard right now… I actually just snorted

Me: Dude I am cracking up! I just got upstaged by a fictional character Bwahahahahaha! That was awesome! I am actually sweating!