Newbies
Beth sat in her cobalt jail, listening to opera, and emailed her latest status report to Sosa.

Almost instantaneously, he chatted her on Yahoo:
“So I’m full time on this multiple homicide now. ”

She turned down the opera and picked up the phone. He kept talking where he left off in chat. “The evidence is at the lab, we don’t have a suspect, I’m in deep shit. So I hope you found something on that Internet you love so much, because currently we have jack.”

“Well, there’s good news and bad news. I just sent you all of the info I have, but here’s the essential stuff. I’ve found them on the major social networks. And other random internet evidence they left around. I’m still sorting through it all.”

“Biggest issue now is that we can’t figure out how they’re related, if they are.”

“Yeah, they’re so similar online I keep on mixing them up. I mean, what sets them apart essentially? If anything. So they have the similar white collar jobs, the same living situations, single, all dark-haired, newbies…”

“What?”

“Like, they’re not that technically literate. Like you.”

“L-0-L” Sosa said, without cracking up.

“OK, maybe I’m wrong.”

The Rules

Jane had been playing SMS tag with Tony all week. She couldn’t make the impromptu dinner he suggested 5pm at L’Osteria on Wednesday. She reciprocated a few days later with a tepid invitation along with her coworkers to go to trivia at Elephant & Castle. She was beginning to think he was just not that into her. Calling her on the same day as a date was a classic violation of The Rules.

It would be so much easier if he just joined Socialzr with her other friends and she could coordinate all of her outings with him that way, instead of this old school phone business. She hated the phone and was worse at SMS. It took her fifteen minutes to say she was going to be fifteen minutes late, making it 30 minute late, because when she walked while SMSing she walked half the rate.

Funny, that Bravo thing was to meet guys. And she had, Tony & Eric. She liked Tony more, but he was so… so… offline! As for Eric, he clammed up when she asked him what he did for a living. Obviously he was unemployed, and he was wearing so much cologne she thought he was gay, and he made those sex club jokes so he was either polyamorous or a burner, or who knows, both! Unlike Tony, though, he had no problem, picking up the phone and asking her out for a respectable date a few days in advance.

Next –> Handling the Competition