Prologue
Margaret absently tapped the delete key, erasing her fourth attempt at an introduction.
What to write…
Margret looked up from her laptop. Her roommate, Kristen, smirked at her from her bed across the room. Margret cocked her head to the side, “What’s up?”
“Don’t give me that! What are you writing? You’ve been at it for an hour now.”
“Oh… it’s for a class.”
Kristen swung her leg off the bed and started to get up. “Uh-huh. Sure, whi-”
“Macro econ.”
That was probably a little too fast.
Kristen cocked her head again. “Riiight. Because Odenkirk always assigns papers over breaks. What is it really?” She had just reached the side of Margaret’s table when the laptop was slammed shut. Odenkirk had a reputation for being a push over. Seniors flocked to his classes their final semester so they could drink in peace.
“Okay, okay! Look. I was just filling out a profile.”
“Fooooor?”
“For… a dating site.”
“Ooooooh! Let me help!” Kristen reached to open the laptop.
“No no no! It’s private!” Margaret pressed her hands onto her laptop, clamping it shut. “I mean, it’s one thing to meet people with a bit of anonymity. It’s a whole other thing to have you read it over my shoulder. I don’t think I can handle that.”
“Fine, fine,” Kristen relented and glided back to her side of the room, dropping onto her bed. “I think it’s good that you’re getting out there, even if you start online. But you think too much, that’s your problem! What about this, I’ll set a timer for 30 minutes, you start typing, and we post whatever you have when it goes off.”
Margaret didn’t like the idea of rushing this but she had to admit there was a certain degree of elegance to the idea. “Okay, just don’t come over here trying to sneak a peek!”
“You got it doll,” Kristen said with a laugh and a smile.
---
“Only a minute left!” Kristen smiled from across the room.
Margaret looked up and and sighed. She’d deleted and restarted her profile two more times but she had something passable.
“Okay send it in.” Kristen quickly approached.
“Hey, hey, I am!” Margaret rushed to click and submit the changes before angling the laptop’s screen down and away from her roommate. “You said you’d butt out!”
“How am I supposed to know you actually followed through if I can’t at least spot check your profile?”
“…uhmm…” Margaret couldn’t let Kristen see what site she was on. There’s a reason she went online, outside of being a little shy. Margaret wasn’t looking for a partner; she was looking for an owner.
“What’s the big secret? Are you a lesbian? Who cares? Just let me see!”