I've been playing Scrabble with an anonymous person online. After some Internet chatting, we realized that we two lived in the same town and decided to meet at a local coffee shop. What wasn't expected was to fall for it.
“I was supposed to be typing reports, as usual, but instead I was playing scrabble online.”
I shifted the phone more comfortably in the crook of my shoulder. Located two floors down in another department, Pranky’s job was just as boring as mine. A little online gaming here and there was about the only thing that kept either of us sane in this corporate wasteland.
“You know nobody ever beats me, not at Scrabble! But this guy, Scrabilator1040, he came out of nowhere and wiped the board up with me!”
“What?” Pranky exclaimed. “No way, it must have been a fluke.”
“That’s just it, P; he beat me again the next day! And he’s beaten me every day since for the last two weeks.”
“Who is this guy?” Suddenly Pranky gasped. “Oh my God, Sandie, what if he isn’t real?” She dropped her voice down to nearly a whisper. “What if he’s a mole, something corporate set up to catch us playing games at work?”
I was about to answer her when I heard somebody coming. It was Jay, my boss.
“I’ve got to go. I’ll email you.”
I hung the phone up and swiveled around to face my computer, where I quickly started typing. I smiled brightly at Jay as he breezed past, not that he noticed. It was so typical of him to show up just when I was getting to the good part of the story with Pranky.
The other women in our department all swooned over Jay. Sure, he was good looking, but I knew how little personality the man actually had. He was all facts and figures and statistics, and his eagle eye never failed to zero in on the one-and-only misspelling in even the longest document. Just thinking about it got my dander up!
I was about to email Pranky when an instant message popped-up on my screen. It was Scrabilator1040.
“Hey, you up for a game?”
“Can’t, boss is back.”
“Screw the boss! Meet me for a coffee later, then?”
I was stunned. Meet him for a coffee? What if he was a wacko, or like Pranky said, what if he was a mole, planted by corporate to weed out us game-playing slackers? Then again, he could beat me at scrabble, and he was so funny on IM.
“Sure.” I typed. “Inorbit , 5.30.”
I walked into Inorbit at 5:40 and looked around for a red baseball cap, which Scrabilator1040 said was how I would know him. There was almost no on in the place this early. Two older guys on a couch, a couple of office ladies at the counter, and then there was the red baseball cap . . . on my boss, Jay.
Jay looked up and his dark eyes met mine, eyes that burned with a passion that had nothing to do with statistics. He smiled and I felt a wide smile spreading across my face in return.
“Game on!” I said, but inside, I knew I had already won.
