Awhile back I conducted a contest asking readers to share with me their worst dating disasters. The idea behind the Love & Other Disasters series was to use real life stories as the inspiration behind each of the books.

Below is the true story behind Xavier and Tessa’s Valentine’s Day date. Enjoy! And thanks again to M. Farley for sharing her disaster with me.

I had been crushing on a guy in my English literature class for a while, but he never seemed to notice me, so I had resigned myself to be hopelessly crushing on Mr.Cute, sexy, renaissance.

I decided to move on and go out with a guy my bestie Whitney had been trying to set me up with that following Friday.

Friday finally rolled around and there I stood looking in the window of the restaurant. Bob was the friend of a friend. I've never really been good at dating, to begin with, and blind dates are just the worst.

I walked in and looked around, and to my surprise, I saw Mr. Cute, sexy, renaissance sitting at a table in the corner. I was surprised, but I knew his name was Brice, and he wasn't my Bob. Bob had told Whitney that he would be wearing a blue dinner jacket and white shirt, Whitney had filled me in on his general looks, so I glanced around and until I see him. He was sitting at the table right next to Brice.

At that moment the floor could have swallowed me up, and I would have been happy. I slowly walked over to where Bob was sitting, and I noticed Brice looked up and his gaze followed me to the table where my blind date sat.

I looked down at Bob, and his blank expression, as I moved to stand next to his table. In my peripheral vision, I saw Brice smiling and looking me up and down. I steadied myself and addressed Bob.

"Bob"? He looked up slowly and smiled at me, but it was off, I just couldn't put my finger on it, but something was wrong. He held his hand out to and an empty seat, and I sat down.

Our conversation was strained, and I knew the conversation was lacking because of Brice being so close and for the mere fact that Bob was an ass. Bob was rude, vulgar, and chauvinistic. He wanted women to be seen and not heard, he wanted a trophy wife and had his whole life planned out 2.3 kids, 401k, the perfect house, job, and wife. I was so bored with the conversation and frankly tired of hearing what the little wifey should and shouldn't do.

I was trying so hard just to get through dinner and promised myself that I was gonna give Whitney a tongue lashing for this horrid date. I promised myself that I was never again going on a blind date. I had had enough of his sexist and perverse view of the world.

I injected that I neither liked or cared for his views and that I was tired of his company and I was leaving. His face was priceless he lost all color in his face, and slowly I saw the red blotchy rage work it's way up his neck. I stood to leave, and he grabbed my wrist and yanked hard making me falter forward. I looked down, and his eyes were cold and filled with rage.

To my surprise, his face turned white, and he dropped my hand. I looked at him wondering what he was looking at just beyond me. I turned to see Brice standing there with an older gray-headed lady who smiled sweetly at me. Brice had a furious look on his face and was directing it at Bob.

"Hello, Mistyanna," Brice said never looking in my direction his enraged gaze still boring into Bob's.

The old woman who I later learned was Brice's grandmother, said "Come dear," as she put her hands on my shoulders and turned me towards the exit.

When we hit the night air, I released the breath I hadn't known I was holding. I looked down at the little woman that now stood beside me and saw the kindness in her eyes. She was smiling at me and introduced herself as Minnie. Brice joined us and apologized for intruding and explained that he and Minnie had overheard Bob. He explained that he couldn't help but intervene. He went on to tell me that his mother, Minnie's only daughter had been beaten and killed during a domestic dispute by his father.

I was so relieved that he had stepped in and so sad that he had lost his mother in such a tragic way. I thanked him, and Minnie and I didn't know what to do I was overwhelmed. Brice asked if I would stay and wait while he said goodbye to his grandmother and I agreed.

When she left he told me about the horrible events that took his mother's life. I was stunned by his admission but I let him talk encouraging him to talk and vent. We ended up walking about twenty minutes in the little park across the way from the restaurant. We decided that we would go out the next weekend. I have to say it was crazy night to say the least.