Trust Read Free Page B

hadn't read my gmail account since the date with Vic. But it wasn't right to let things sit any longer. I crafted a simple reply. I offered my phone number and the simple sentence, "I'm up most nights until eleven."
    Five minutes later, my cell phone rang. I was puttering in the kitchen, glanced at the phone, and didn't recognize the number. I almost didn't answer, but then, of course, I did.
    "Hello?"
    "Is this Sable?"
    "Yes. With whom am I speaking?"
    "This is Josie Baker, Sable. It's good to hear your voice."
    "Oh. Josie!" I smiled. "You must have been on your computer."
    "Oh, you know us old people," she said. "I was just engaged in a little online gambling."
    I stilled. A moment later, she began to laugh.
    "I got you with that one! Oh, Sable. I was just doing a little research, deciding where I'd like to have my next adventure."
    I laughed nervously. "You got me, Josie. But you know I'm going to check the browser history on your computer, and if you erase it, or if I find any gambling sites, I'm going to be very nervous."
    "Come on over," she said immediately. "I'll make dinner for both of us. You may snoop through my computer all you want."
    "And I won't find anything incriminating?"
    "Of course you will, Dear," she said. I could hear the smile. "But I don't mind."
    I walked out to the living room and sat down. "Tell me what I'll find."
    "Oh, no," she replied. "You're just going to have to snoop if you're that curious."
    "You'd really let me snoop through your computer?" I asked slowly. "Because I'm not sure I'd let you snoop through mine."
    "I guess I'm just a more open person," she said teasingly.
    "What would I find?" I asked again.
    "What would I find on yours?" she countered.
    "Nothing, because I'm not giving you the password."
    "There's a term, Sable," said Josie. "Perhaps you've heard it." Then she spoke each word carefully. "Quid. Pro. Quo."
    "You think so, hmm?"
    "It's up to you, Dear. I'm looking at quite the shocking web site as we speak."
    "I'm not sure I entirely believe you."
    "I am hurt!" she exclaimed. "Wounded to the quick no less, to suggest I might lie, and so early in our budding relationship no less."
    "You're not at all hurt," I said. "But you are very manipulative."
    "Hurt again, I say. Now you have to share."
    I laughed. "All right. Give me a minute." I leaned forward to the coffee table and retrieved my laptop. "I'm going to put you on speaker phone." I set the phone down, opened the laptop, then began checking my history, looking for something that was incriminating, but only mildly incriminating.
    "All right," I said finally. "My most recent activity has been boring, but I found one I can share with you."
    "Is it... shocking?"
    "Let's just say I'm going to blush when you see it. Now, you promise. I'll mail you a link, and you'll mail me a link."
    "Agreed."
    I cocked my head. "An incriminating link."
    "Of course."
    "All right." I pasted the address into an email to her and poised the mouse over the "send" button. "Ready."
    "Set..."
    "Go!" And I sent the email.
    I could hear her clicking her computer mouse, and I was clicking mine, refreshing my email, waiting for her mail to arrive.
    "There it is!" we both exclaimed at the same time. I frantically opened her mail and stared at the link.
    "Victoria's Secret?" I screeched. "You promised incriminating."
    "What can I say?" she asked sweetly. "I enjoy looking at the pictures."
    "Oh, I bet you do. I feel cheated."
    I heard her clicking in the background, and then she said, "Oh, my."
    "Who have you become?" I asked. "George Takei?"
    She didn't answer, but I could hear her tapping away at her computer. "Oh, my," she said again.
    "Josie!"
    "What does that one do?"
    "I might be able to answer that if I knew which one you meant? Come on. They're just vibrators. I feel robbed though. I give you a web site that sells self help devices, and you send me to Victoria's Secret?"
    "Self help devices? That's what you're calling these?"
    "Well, sure," I replied. "Is