It was December 2002 and A. was my ambiguously undefined cyber-guy. We had been chatting (and flirting) online for months and finally declared over Yahoo Messenger that we really cared about each other. That we were a couple – you know, in an ambiguously undefined way.
Even more ambiguously undefined was how we'd ever be a couple in a clear and defined way. I was in Oregon. He was in England. I was bedridden. He was on the dole. I was praying just to get on the dole.
One afternoon – at least afternoon on my side of the Atlantic – we were doing the Nick Cohen End of the Year quiz at the Observer website. A. told me not to cheat by looking down at the answers. Which meant, of course, that I totally had to cheat.
"You really need your backside tanned, young lady," A. typed.
"Nuh uh," I replied.
"Hrm...well luckily for you, and your bottom, I am a few thousand miles away."
I grinned at first. But that longing to be together quickly stole my smugness and replaced it with grim silence.
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