Creative Writing Prompt: The Dinner Party

I got this creative writing prompt from a blog linkup. Everyone uses the same first sentence and writes a short piece of fiction. You know I'd be all over this. It's been a while since I actually sat down to write a fiction piece, and the exercise was quite fun even though I can tell I'm out of practice. Writing fiction is no joke. Let me know what you think!

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To say I was dreading the dinner party would be the understatement of the century.

I had been looking forward to it. That was before I knew he was going to be there. 

I’d never been to the Richardson house, but ever since I moved to Summerset, I had heard stories about the dinner parties that were hosted there on the third Thursday of every other month.

For as much as they were talked about, the dinner parties were a mystery to the townspeople. Talk was, the Richardsons didn’t invite just anyone to one of their dinner parties, but no one knew the exact criteria required for an invitation. I was delighted yet surprised when the envelope arrived. After all, I’d only been living in Summerset for four months and didn't know many people. Still, I'd heard rumors about Richardson parties, and when I saw the scrolling cursive addressed to Miss Evangeline Harper, I knew an invitation was inside.

For three weeks, I counted down the days. I bought a new dress and practiced what I was going to say to Mrs. Marla Richardson. I pictured making my grand entrance to the stately old house on the hill at least a hundred times. Everything was going to be perfect.

Then, the day before the party, I got a phone call. It was from him, telling me he was going to be at the Richardson dinner party too. After we ended the call, during which I had barely been able to say anything beyond a few mumbled words, I stood in my kitchen and stared at my phone in shock as the setting sun wove twilight shadows across the tiled floor.

“How did you find me?” I whispered to the empty room.

The sun suddenly dipped below the horizon. Then the light vanished, and I shivered.