Virtually Mine: a love story (11 page)

“Welcome to the end of the first
trimester.”

“Huh?”

M.J. communicated experience in the way
she shook her head. “Most any guy can behave for that long, even the compulsive
ones.
 
Then, it’s like—to the day—the
real guy starts to pop out.”

Kate wiped her tear-streaked face. “So
much for my buffer boy making him jealous.”

“You made me jealous,” M.J. retorted.
“Does that count?
 
What with the flowers
and the whole cozy-schmozy phone call.”

Kate knew it was more than the flowers
Brad had sent. Those were part of her rental fee. It was the way Brad seemed to
go above and beyond that made Kate sigh. “I just wish Brad were real.”

“Well, he is real,” M.J. replied. “I
mean, you talked to him. There’s a real guy working your file.”

The tiniest speck of hope glistened in
Kate’s eyes. “That’s what I thought. You think so, too?”

“It wasn’t a robot, was it?” M.J. adopted
a mechanical cadence. “Did-he-talk-like-this?”

Kate felt herself smiling. “Not so much.
It’s weird. I was actually more comfortable in one conversation with him than I
was the whole three months with Dustin. Too bad I only had enough on my credit
card for a week. Too bad I had to buy his time at all.”

M.J. threw an understanding arm around
Kate. “I like to think of it as an investment. See, I’m investing in the
possibilities with Rob. I’m getting out there, pushing past my comfort
zone.
 
Hey, do you happen to know where
I could nab a couple of dogs?”

Walking along with her roommate, Kate
felt strangely comforted. She didn’t have Dustin. By the end of the rental
term, she wouldn’t have Brad.
 
But
side-by-side with a soon-to-be ex-Meter Maid, she knew she had the love of a
friend.

Long after she knew her parents would
have turned their phone ringer off, Kate thoughtfully dialed their number.
Three hours ahead in Eastern Time, they retired at ten p.m. like clockwork and
wouldn’t pick up her call. As she waited for their outgoing message to play,
she pasted Brad’s flower card poem into her journal and dated it. Whoever he
was, he had done his job well.

Kate’s reverie was broken by a tone,
signaling her to record a message. “Hey, Mom and Daddy,” she started. “Sorry
about the phone tag. The big news here is that Dustin and I are sort of...not
so much anything anymore. It’s, well...it is what it is, but I’m surviving
somewhat. Haven’t thought about ending it all for at least a few hours.
Hyperbole, guys. No need to jump on a plane, I just...I miss you.”

With that, Kate hung up the phone. She
wanted what her parents had, not only a romance, but also a best friendship for
life. She’d always dreamed of getting married back in Virginia at the same
place where they had gotten married. She wanted to walk down the aisle of their
old country church toward a guy who would adore her forever, just the way her
dad treasured her mom.

Wistfully, Kate looked up at her computer
screen and called up Brad’s photo. She thought about the real guy he was, that
guy who seemed to have gone the extra mile to help get her over the mountain of
sadness she’d felt in losing Dustin. As she gazed into Brad’s inviting eyes, it
occurred to her that there was still time left on her rental.
What a waste
,
she thought,
not to use it
.

eight

♥

D
eep in the recesses of the
Virtually
Mine
stock room, Charlie sifted through floor-to-ceiling shelves of
meticulously catalogued gifts, designated for the company’s clientele. He
passed by the
stuffed animals, baubles, and candies of the introductory level and ventured
beyond to the deluxe level shelves. The disparity nagged at him. Kate seemed
worth so much more to him than anything the lesser levels had to offer.

Charlie picked up a white velvet jewelry
box and opened the lid. Inside was a dainty gold heart on a delicate chain. He
knew he couldn’t jump this level for Kate, but as he admired it, he was sorely
tempted. He could offer to pay for the necklace himself, he reasoned, but then
again, he was sure that it would never pass muster with the company.

Charlie thought of his father, whose
words had a way of ringing in his ears in this sort of situation. His dad had
always taught that whenever a person was tempted to do the wrong thing, even
when it was for what seemed to be the right reason, a door would be thrown open
to provide a way out. Charlie believed it was true. He’d seen it happen before.
He just never expected that the way out would look anything at all like
Samantha Raznick.

As Sam pressed through the swinging doors
to the stock room, Charlie snapped the lid shut on the necklace. He quickly put
it back in its place on the deluxe level shelf.

‘Last time I checked, your client was
still on the introductory level.”

“Right. Definitely gives me an incentive
to up-sell.” Charlie crossed back to the introductory aisle and pulled a
stuffed polar bear from the lower level shelf instead.

Charlie could feel his boss eyeing him.
She was completely unnerving that way. He realized that the only thing worse
than having his boss wordlessly watch him was when she actually spoke.

“Not to diminish the triumph of landing a
lovely on your first day, Charlie, but one short-term client does not make you
worth my while.”

Charlie knew she was right. “I’m, uh,
working on that. Spreading the net.”

“In the mean time, I need you to assume a
position,” Sam continued.

Charlie’s eyes bugged. “Excuse me?”

Samantha plopped a stack of client files
into Charlie’s spare hand. “Scan these into your system and get started with
them ASAP. Archie is having his appendix out and he needs someone to take over
his roster. Fake laryngitis to cover the voice change.”

With that, Sam turned on her outrageously
expensive heels and clicked her way out the door.

Charlie leafed through Archie’s stack of
clients. The fact was, for the most part, Archie’s clients were an assortment
of average-looking women. In a way, his heart went out to them. He knew what it
was like to wear an unremarkable face. When it came down to it, he realized,
every one of their clients had a forlorn spot in her heart. An Imaginary
Boyfriend could help, he supposed, but deep down he knew the soul-level
loneliness, that longing to be noticed for oneself that only true love could
fill.

Suddenly, Charlie heard a familiar prompt
from his computer. “
You’ve got a customer.
” Charlie looked up with a
start. “I do?
 
Oh, I do.” Charlie
glanced at his screen and saw an Instant Message from Kate. It read:

Brad, are you there?

Charlie’s heart leapt. As he swiveled
over to the computer, the entire stack of Archie’s files cascaded off of his
lap. He started to gather the papers, and then abandoned them for the computer.

After a moment of thought, Charlie typed
out a reply IM, continuing his country boy persona as Brad:
Hey, there
country girl. I’ve been thinkin’ about you most of the day. How you doin’
tonight?

Charlie supposed he could have
multi-tasked. He could have gotten a thing or two done for Archie’s clients
while he waited for Kate’s reply, that is, if he could have torn his eyes away
from the IM screen.

Finally, Kate IMed back:
Not so hot.
Look, I know it’s technically against the rules, but I feel like we have this
amazing connection and... Is there any way I can see you?

Charlie’s hands flew up to cover his
gaping mouth. What could he possibly say, even if he could work up the nerve?
Reluctantly, he entered a reply:
See me? I’m really sorry, but the company
has a policy about—

Another IM from Kate popped up before
Charlie could finish. It read:
I need more than a picture of a face right
now. I need the person
.

Charlie took a deep breath. It was a
breath so deep that he nearly hiccupped. He squeezed his eyes shut for a
moment, then opened them, an idea dawning. Charlie bit his lip and tapped in a
response:
Sure, Katie Mae. Can you meet me at the Ferris Wheel at nine? It’s
my favorite place out here.

It wasn’t long after Charlie sent that
message that an inter-office memo appeared on his screen, a request from
Samantha to see him in her office. Charlie tried to convince himself that it
was only a coincidence, but the shake in his step as he crossed the cubicled
pool persuaded him otherwise.

Though he cleared his throat to alert her
that he’d reached her open door, Samantha coolly continued her work. It was as
if she were intent upon making him sweat, right through his twenty-four hour
deodorant.

“Did you need something?” Charlie asked.

Sam finally looked up. “It’s funny,” she
started. “Men get exponentially more press over being visually stimulated, but
the fairer sex is identically petty. Thick hair, a square jaw, broad shoulders,
eyes set just the right distance apart. It all adds up to getting noticed.”

Charlie wondered where Sam was going with
this line of thought. He knew her well enough to assume he was approaching some
sort of verbal guillotine that would drop onto his neck whether he waited
silently or somehow bade her to continue. “Which means?”

Sam smiled the kind of smile that wasn’t
really a smile at all. “I checked your IMs. You can’t see her.
 
More to the point, she can’t see you, not if
you want to keep this job.”

Caught, Charlie sputtered. “But she
really wants to see me.”

“She wants an image and a person which
simply do not coincide.”

Charlie’s ordinary face fell.

Samantha leaned forward intently. “Trust
me on this, Charlie. She wants to see the face we’ve sold her. She doesn’t want
to see you.
 
Even if she did, she’d
probably look right past you. She’ll only focus on men in her basic looks class
or higher. The rest are invisible.”

♥   
♥    ♥

Kate emerged from her room to find M.J. on the floor, dialing random numbers
from the local phone listings.

M.J.
signaled Kate for silence as she spoke into the phone. “
Hi, this is
M.J. Poster, Dog Walker Extraordinaire. Do you by any chance have a dog that
needs walking?” M.J. put the receiver down. “Apparently not.”

Kate threw a jacket over a gauzy top and
jeans. “Do I look okay?”

“When do you not?”

Kate didn’t usually put much thought into
what she wore, but something in her worried about it this time. “I’m serious.”

M.J. crossed yet another number off her
call list. “So am I. Where are you going?”

“To meet him.”

“Who him?”

A faint blush crossed Kate’s cheeks. “My
sweet little country boy.”

M.J. reeled back. “Shut up!”

Kate grinned as she flung open the door.
She was shocked to find Dustin standing there, his hand raised to knock.
“Dustin. Hi.”

Dustin lowered his hand sheepishly. “Hey,
can we talk?”

Flustered, Kate straightened her collar.
“Now?”

“Believe me,” Dustin pressed. “It’s
urgent.”

Kate glanced at her watch. That thing
about going with the bird in the hand over the bird in the bush came to mind,
only Kate wasn’t sure which guy was in which. Brad had agreed to meet her at
the pier, yet there Dustin was right in front of her, pleading for her
attention with those puppy dog eyes of his. As if things couldn’t get any more
awkward for Kate, Charlie rounded the corner into view, heading toward his
apartment next door.

As Kate exchanged glances with Charlie,
she couldn’t help but notice disappointment flicker across his face as he saw
Dustin standing at her doorway. It was easy for Kate to understand why Charlie
would be disappointed in her for even thinking about letting Dustin in,
especially after everything she’d confided to Charlie when he’d come to fix her
sink. She wanted to be strong enough to resist Dustin’s charms, but then again,
he had claimed an urgent reason for being there. Maybe this timing wasn’t as
awkward as it seemed, she reasoned. Maybe it was meant to be.

Dustin plopped onto Kate’s bed and leaned
back against her headboard. “I completely tanked. My first callback for a
national and I fully reeked.”

Kate stood just inside the door. A glance
at her nightstand confirmed the clock’s advance toward the time she had set up
with Brad. “Maybe it wasn’t that bad.”

Dustin grabbed a piece of candy from
Kate’s dish and popped it into his mouth. “They liked me quirky from the first
call where I was wearing this floofy kind of vest I bummed off some granny,
which of course I didn’t have today. So, I had to do something to set myself
apart and I thought—I know, a twitch.” Dustin’s eyes lit up as he reenacted his
own ingenuity. “Yeah, a twitch could not only be quirky, get it? It’s also a
possible side effect of their medicine.”