| Something was bothering me all day, and finally toward evening, I realized what it was. At the SingInst annual ball, I think I slighted Jenna. I might have cut my eyes at her; I didn't mean to, I was thinking of something else and was pretty much oblivious to my surroundings at that moment, but intent doesn't matter much anymore; not when somebody's feelings can be hurt. I thought about the best way to mend things. I hardly got any work done that night, it was hard to concentrate. Finally, it was 4am, 9am in London, and I knew she'd be taking her calls. I picked up my chatter, knocked and was immediately admitted.
The ghostly lines of Jenna's mansion superimposed themselves over my own home, just as a ghostly image of me probably materialized someplace in her mansion. The fact that she took my call was promising; I would have concluded that things were truly bad if some filter had instead asked me to wait.
"Hello, Mr. Roan. What a pleasure to see you. How can I be of service to you, dear friend?" she said, with a shy, nervous smile.
"Oh, just thought I'd drop by, say hello, be social. No practical reason."
Jenna nodded and made an embracing gesture at me, and I responded. But did she pause just a little? It was hard to say. The resolution of 3D chatting is supposed to be better than that of the human eye, but nuances still get lost. Perhaps because they aren't visual at all.
Jenna and I chatted for twenty minutes or so. She seemed affable enough, and in good spirits, but I also got the impression that there was something she was not saying. I hinted that I might be travelling soon, to get a change of perspective, I lied. She took the hint and offered to meet in person. This at least was a good sign.
"Dear Robert, I do so look forward to meeting you. It must seem terribly rude of me, but I do have somebody knocking. Kio, I believe."
"Oh, no problem at all, Jenna, honey. I wouldn't dream of imposing. I look forward to seeing you in a few, okay?"
"I do too, Robert. Ciao for now."
I bowed, and she curtsied. Partially relieved, I called up my SMA and browsed through the gifts it had picked out for the birthdays, anniversaries, and other special days that would be happening this month. People say that I the special days of everybody alive, but really it's probably just a few percent of them. I feel that I have to-- better safe than sorry. I carefully checked the collaborative gift registry to make sure that none of my gifts would clash with any gifts anybody else was on record as ordering, nor be too similar to them. I went ahead with some of the orders, and sent the SMA back to reconsider the rest. I also bought my air ticket to London.
TOC Next
This mostly-finished non-true story is sponsored by:
The Unfinished Stories Metanode | 
