A Choice of Words

Ellie alexander has a new motto: Better single, celibate and sane. She's sworn off the impulsiveness that characterized her past and settled into a life of routine filled with long hours at the office, lunch with the girls, friendly visits with a twelve-year-old neighbor, and Thursday evenings alone, with only a bowl of popcorn and a video. That is, until an impulse sends her into a writing class where the teacher reads the words of an anonymous male classmate, words that will haunt her in the weeks to come and push her to find the courage to be herself again.
Who is this unnamed writer? The class holds only four possibilities: the shy engineer who sits next to her, the blue-eyed gentleman at the end of the table who sketches in the margins of his papers; the accountant eyed by the women in the class, and the attorney who electrifies the room with his booming voice.
Ellie is certain of one thing. The more she hears, the closer she feels to the writer. "Is it possible to fall in love with somone without even knowing his name?" she askes her friends.
"The Beatles were wrong. Love isn't all we need," declares the writer. "We need guts." And that's just what Ellie will need if she is ever to make peace with herself and find the answer to her question.