Free Invasion of Privacy: A Deep Web Thriller #1 (Deep Web Thriller Series) by Ian Sutherland Page B

at all. Anna was completely blasé about it all. When talking about it with Kim, she openly shared the sordid details of these nights of passion, with no apparent regret and certainly no desire to form a more substantial relationship with any of her partners. 
    Kim backspaced through the message she hadn’t sent and replaced it with, You could be right. I hope that’s all it is.
    The year before had been different. It had been their first year at Trinity College and she and Anna had met as neighbours in the halls of residence. They had quickly become firm friends. The relentless studying and practice associated with their respective courses — Kim’s was dance and Anna’s music — kept them apart during the day. But most evenings, when the social side of university life kicked in, they went everywhere together. They mixed with larger groups of friends, but it always came down to the two of them at the end of the night, frequently propping each other up as they giggled and staggered their way home from the campus bars. Their first year was relatively tame as far as the other sex was concerned. Just the odd brief encounter, not much to speak of. Then in the second year, they had had agreed to move off campus with three other friends. Five girls. They had found the delightful five-bedroom house near the centre of Greenwich that they now shared. It was a far better standard than everything else they’d seen for the same money and so, deposit paid, they moved in immediately. The three other girls turned out to be much more studious and so it was still mostly Anna and Kim that partied regularly.
    After a few months of a similar lifestyle to when they’d been in the halls of residence, Kim had met Patrick, and everything started to change with Anna. Whenever Kim and Patrick stayed in Anna would go out, coming home very drunk or stoned. She and Kim even began to argue, usually over Patrick. 
    Patrick Harper was not Kim’s normal type. Most of the men she went out with were other dancers, fit and incredibly strong, but mostly dull. She found she’d been drawn in by his intelligence but had been captured by his intenseness. His unwavering focus on her needs and wants. He seemed to innately know her innermost desires. And they had so much in common. Everything from their taste in music, ballet and opera, to their political views, to the places they wanted to visit someday, to walking across Greenwich Park, and even down to their sexual likes and dislikes. Anna often joked that Patrick must be a closet homosexual to have so much in common with Kim.
    Even the night Kim met Patrick was based on a common interest. She and Anna were in a karaoke restaurant in Plumstead with a group of friends, taking turns with the other diners to sing. At one point, she heard the introduction to Natasha Bedingfield’s ‘Unwritten’, her favourite song. She looked up, surprised to see a young man, instead of a woman, holding the mic. He was average height and quite plain-looking, with pockmarked skin, dark cropped hair and round wire-framed glasses. He must have noticed her staring because he overtly began to sing to her, ignoring the rest of the restaurant. His voice wasn’t bad, considering the song was an octave higher than most men’s voices could reach. She found herself captivated by his singular focus and the passion in his smile. As he finished, Anna, who knew it was Kim’s favourite, pushed her up onto the floor and she fell clumsily into his arms. Initially embarrassed, with everyone staring and clapping, he led her by the hand to the bar area and they began chatting. He explained that it was his favourite song of all time. She couldn’t believe the coincidence. And over the rest of that night, and the year since, she and Patrick discovered they had so much more in common. 
    Would you like me to come over? messaged Patrick.
    That was so like him. He was supposed to be allowing her time to rehearse for her final end-of-year dance