The Spanish Love Deception begins with the sentence, “I’ll be your date to the wedding” (1). Elena Armas allows the reader to overhear a conversation between first-person narrator Catalina “Lina” Martín and her best friend and coworker Rosie, in which Lina says she is desperate to get a date to accompany her to her sister’s wedding in Spain (as she’s going to be the maid of honor). The opening quote comes from abhorred coworker Aaron Blackford, who eavesdrops on Lina needing a wedding date.

In a stream-of-consciousness flashback, Lina explains that her sister, Isabel, is marrying Gonzalo, the brother of her former lover Daniel. Lina felt hurt and unsupported after the breakup. She fears seeing Daniel at the wedding, especially since he is now engaged. As a way of demonstrating closure, Lina tells her family that she is dating an American and will bring him to the wedding.

Lina scrambles to find a man who will travel with her to Spain in a few weeks. The one person who volunteers, Aaron, has antagonized Lina for their 20 months of working together. Lina refuses to look at Aaron, whom she finds attractive and distracting despite his treatment of her.