Page 13 of Foul Territory

“You look like you’re spiraling,” Lauren says, her voice laced with concern.

“Huh?” I glance at her as I walk into the living room. She’s frozen in the kitchen holding a slotted spoon in one hand. “I’m fine.”

“You don’t look fine,” Charlie says from our couch.

“What are you doing over here?” I ask.

“I’m bored and lonely,” she admits. “Wren went home for the weekend. Lauren said I could come over and help with Sunday dinner.”

“How are you helping cook dinner in the living room?” I ask.

“She’s helping by staying out my way,” Laurensays.

“Exactly. Now tell us why you’re spiraling.” Charlie pats the empty couch cushion. I exhale a long sigh, before taking a seat.

“I met someone.”

“Joe. I know. I was there. You’ve been texting, right?” Charlie asks.

“We have,” I say tentatively. Joe and I have exchanged a few texts. His schedule is just as busy as mine. He’s currently traveling with the baseball team as their athletic trainer. If he was here on campus, we might have hung out this weekend.

“He seems nice,” Lauren chimes in as she works her magic in our small kitchen.

“He is nice but I’m not talking about him.” I spare them both a quick glance. Charlie leans forward desperate for me to continue my confession. “I met someone online in theFiction Forum.”

“Oh,” Charlie says, void of emotion.

“Oh? That’s all you have to say.”

“Syd, you meet people in those chat rooms every day. You talk about your different book friends you’ve met online all the time. You know,your friend who’s not really your friend but the friend you know online,” Lauren says, while waving the spoon around in the air.

“Right. But this is different.Heis different.”

“He? Ooooh. How? Tell me more.” Charlie crosses her arms over her chest.

I shrug. “He just is. I can’t explain it. He reads a lot of the same books I do and he’s actually into them. Hepicks up on all the little details that a lot of people gloss over. But even more than that he pays attention to me.”

“Do you know anything about him? Where he lives? How old he is? What he looks like?” Lauren fires off questions at me. “You could be getting catfished.”

“Better to be catfished than capfished,” Charlie says.

“Capfished?” I question. “What is that?”

“It’s when you meet a hot guy while he’s wearing a hat. Particularly a baseball cap. Forwards, backwards, doesn’t matter. Then he picks you up for your date without one…and well, he’s not as hot. Capfished.” She shudders.

“But his face is the same,” Lauren says, slightly confused.

Charlie twists her body to face Lauren in the kitchen. “Picture Hart’s face,” she says. Lauren’s mouth curls. “Now imagine him wearing a hat.”

Lauren sways in place and flicks her tongue over lower lip.

“I rest my case,” Charlie says, turning to me and sitting back down in her original spot on the couch. “I won’t be deceived again by another man in a baseball cap. My grandmother always said fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me a third time, he had a big dick,” she says, with a shrug.

I bark a laugh. “She did not say that.”

“She still says it. That woman is an icon.” Charlie shakes her head. “Tell us more about this guy. When did you start talking?”

I readjust myself in my seat. “Last Saturday night after I got home from work.”