LITMIR.BIZ

      At the party

      Nick and Nelly Wilson were delighted to see Zara when she got there, and welcomed her warmly. There was a group of people standing around the fireplace, trying to get warm. And as they did every year, the women were wearing long gowns or dressy cocktail dresses, and the men were wearing black-tie. It was the one night of the year when all the Wilsons’ friends 30 ______to dress up. Zara tried to get in the 31 ______ but in vain. It was the coldest night so far that winter, breaking some kind of record for miserable weather, which made Zara long for her bed again. 32 ______ she only saw them once a year, she recognized nearly everyone there that night, but there was one unfamiliar face in the crowd. His name was Patrick Edison. Nick 33 ______ they had been college roommates.

      Patrick was a TV producer from Hollywood, Nelly whispered, and she told Zara that he produced several award-winning series, and coincidentally was single. She 34 ______ then why they had insisted that she join them. She was the only single woman in the room and she was being offered some kind of blind date. This thought made the evening seem even more difficult and tiring before it began. Zara didn’t 35 ______ trying to make conversation with him since she had noticed on the seating chart that they would be next to each other at dinner. She wasn’t looking 36 ______ to it, no matter how successful his shows were.