Always the Bridesmaid

It's bad enough when your love life is going nowhere fast -- it's worse when everyone else's is soaring!

That's the personal tragedy that appears to have befallen Amy O'Sullivan, as she careens toward the "Big Three-O" with what she laughingly refers to as a "career" at a dead end. Amy's little sister has come home with her "Golden Delicious" Australian fiancé in tow. Amy's girlfriend Beth is also planning on tying the knot with her own Mr. Right in the near future. And another "friend" has just slept with the man Amy figured she herself might end up marrying! So what's a perennial bridesmaid to do . . . after she's spent more than enough time and energy lying in bed, wallowing in self-pity? Why, move on, of course! She's needed (sort of) at the bookstore where, as "Story Princess," she's expected to enliven young lives, even as her own sinks deeper in the mire.

Then again, perhaps there are actual Prince Charmings out there in the real world. And a pitiful princess never knows what -- or who -- is going to come walking in the door holding the hand of an eager little girl . . .