Free Virtually Mine: a love story by Susan Rohrer Page A

me, and all my friends back home in Virginia.”
    “Then Katie it is. Katie and Brad. Has a
nice ring, doesn’t it?”
    Charlie couldn’t see Kate’s expression,
but he could hear the smile curling in her voice. He was glad he’d paid such
close attention whenever they had spoken.
    “Yeah. You sound so...familiar to me.”
    Charlie straightened, worried. “I do?”
    “Yeah, you sound like almost all of
Crozet. Everybody’s so warm and friendly there. I had to work to lose my
accent, coming here. I’m liable to go back to it talkin’ to you.”
    Greatly relieved, Charlie eased into the
country boy persona. “Never met a gerund dropper I didn’t like.”
    Again, Kate paused. “That’s... You
actually know what a gerund is. This is crazy. Most people don’t know this, but
I’m a total grammar geek.   It’s kind of
my secret obsession.”
    “You, too?”
    “Yeah. Me, too.”
    ♥   
♥    ♥
      There was always something about washing her
face before bed that felt good to Kate, but on this particular night the
sensation of the warm water and suds was all the more soothing. She didn’t know
exactly what was happening inside her, only that something in that satisfying
phone conversation had seemed like more than a compensated exchange with an
Imaginary Boyfriend. Her mind ran with the prospects.
    Brad’s picture, Kate knew, was of a real
guy. She reasoned that he also knew what she looked like, since he had the real
photo she had submitted of herself. Even if he were being employed to call her
among his stable of clients, she felt special. She decided that it was
somewhere in the remote reaches of possibility that something genuine was at
play.
    Though they stood at their side-by-side
sinks wearing pajamas, Kate noticed as M.J. began to apply eyeliner. “You going
somewhere?”
    “Nope,” M,J. answered. “Just wondering if
maybe I should change it up. For Rob. You think?”
    Kate toweled her face dry. “I’m probably
the wrong person to ask about makeup.”
    M.J. leaned close to the mirror. “Since
you don’t need any.”
    Again, it was hard to know just what to
say. The closest thing to cosmetics Kate ever wore was lip gloss, and that was
mostly for the sunscreen. “I just mean...I think you look great without it. Any
guy you get is going to see you without it eventually anyway.”
    M.J. capped the eye pencil. “Not if I get
the permanent kind.” M.J. stretched her mouth open and smeared the liner on her
lower lid. She backed away from the mirror, checking the results. “So, are you
going to tell me about your call, or do I have to install a bug?”
    Even though it was only M.J., Kate could
feel a blush rise to her cheeks. “I don’t know. He’s... It’s almost like
he’s...real.”
    M.J. sighed nostalgically. “So was Jimmy
Carmichael.”
    “It was the first time I talked to him
and it’s like...he completely gets me.” Kate reached for a towel. “He sends my
favorite flowers, he’s got the cutest little accent, which you know I love and,
okay...guess how he puts himself to sleep at night.”
    “He names all the prepositions in
alphabetical order.”
    Kate looked at her roommate, agape. “How
did you know that?”
    “Because that’s what you do. He probably
got it off your profile.”
    Kate took M.J.’s suggestion in, more
puzzled than ever. “That’s what’s kind of wigging me. Most of it...I never put
it on the profile.”

 
     
     
     
     
    seven
    ♥
    K ate was purposely late for
Antonio’s class. It wasn’t like her to be tardy. By and large, she made a point
to be punctual, if not early. But knowing that Dustin and Wissy would be
putting up their scene didn’t make the idea of showing up at all for this
particular class attractive.
    Still,
there was something that drew Kate to the theater. Whether it was a sense of
responsibility or a punishing curiosity, Kate found herself wandering into the
darkened space and easing into a seat behind her teacher and peers,