A Conversation with Dr. Michelle Dennis, Heroine of Alice Gaines’ New Release JUST ONE WEEK (with a giveaway!)

Interviewer:  Today we’re be talking to Dr. Michelle Dennis, the heroine of Alice Gaines’ new book, Just one Week.  Hello, Michelle, and welcome.

Michelle Dennis:  Happy to be here.

I:  How did you feel when you discovered you were to be the heroine of a romance novel?

MD:  (Laughs)  A little odd, to tell you the truth.  You don’t normally think of yourself as a character in a book.

I:  But you and your husband have a real love story, don’t you?

MD:  We do, but it was a long road to get here.

I:  Tell us about that.

MD:  I’ve been in love with Alex Stafford my entire life.  He’s my older brother’s best friend, and the three of us trooped around everywhere together when we were kids.  I always thought of the two of them as my knights in shining armor.

I:  You had a difficult relationship with your parents, didn’t you?

MD:  Tell me about it.  My father was a real…I’ll use a calm word so you don’t have to bleep me…a nasty person.  He dominated everyone, especially woman.  He bullied my mother, and he put me down constantly.

I:  He wasn’t abusive, was he?

MD:  Not physically but emotionally.  I didn’t know what a family was supposed to be like until I met Alex’s.  His parents, Jim and Emma, took my brother and me into their household and showered us with love.  We ate well there, too.

I:  But you had a falling out with them, didn’t you?

MD:  Not Jim and Emma.  I always loved them.  But then something happened between me and Alex.

I:  Can you tell us about that?

MD:  Not the details.  It was too embarrassing.  But I will say that I was totally infatuated with Alex by the time I was in high school.  Of course, I was the bright girl, taking chemistry, anatomy, and math, while he was the star of the football team.  He hung out with the popular crowd, while I was a nerd.  I never thought he’d even notice me as a woman.

So I made a really dumb decision about another guy on the football team, and Alex happened on us.  There was an enormous ugly scene, and I was totally devastated.  I left for college a couple of weeks later and didn’t come back.  I never wanted to see Alex again, I was that humiliated.

I:  But you did come back, didn’t you?

MD:  Emma and Jim had planned a huge party for Jim’s sixtieth birthday and their thirty-fifth wedding anniversary.  I couldn’t turn down that invitation.  That meant I had to face Alex again.

You know that awful sinking feeling you get in the pit of your stomach when you’re forced to face someone who embarrassed the hell out of you?  I had that to the max.  Plus, I’d never stopped loving Alex, and by then he was playing in the NFL and dating actresses and models.  I was still a nerd with a PhD and an academic job.  Little did I know he was hiding something from me that made him feel he wasn’t good enough.

I:  What was that?

MD:  You’ll have to ask Alex.  I don’t talk about it unless he’s present.

I:  But eventually, you worked things out between you.

MD:  We did, thank heaven, and Jim and Emma really are my parents now.

I:  Can you tell us about the first time the two of you made love?

MD:  Heavens, not the details!

I:  You’re blushing.

MD:  You would, too, trust me.  It was fantastic.  So was the next morning.  And the next night and the next.

I:  Wow

MD:  Yup.  You’ve probably seen some of Alex’s moves on the football field.  He knows how to move in bed, too.

I:  I guess we’ll leave the interview here.  Is there anything you’d like to add?

MD:  The book is fun, even if it is my own life.  And by the way, Alice Gaines loves to hear from readers at authoralicegaines@gmail.com.  Her blog is http://www.alicegaines.blogspot.com.  You can sign up for her newsletter there and enter to win one of her hand knitted projects.  I signed up.  I hope I win the wrist warmers.