Chapter 1

I am not good at writing but hang on; it is a wild ride—cue in Minnesota’s dreary, damp, and foggy day. The phone rings, the caller ID shows a local call. I pick it up.

“Hello,”

A woman’s voice with a slight accent asked, “Is this King Computers?”

“Yes, it is.”

She asked, “Is that any way to answer a business phone? I have had your card for a while. I got it from a cafe’s bulletin board in town several years ago. I’m hoping you are still in business.”

“I sure am! How can I help you?”

She asked, “I took my laptop to Best Buy. They charged me $80 to say it is out of warranty and needs an expensive part to fix it. Is there a way to transfer my course work to a new computer, and how much will it cost?”

“Piece of cake, as long as the hard disk drive is good. If not, it’s going to cost a fortune for disk recovery.”

She asked, “Can you make a disk recovery?”

“Sorry, that’s way above what I can do. You need a clean room to take the disk apart.”

She asked, “Ok, so when, and where can you look at it?”

By now, my heart is racing, my palms sweating, and here comes a full-blown anxiety attack. I pop a Xanax.

“My truck is down for service. I am stuck at home.” Crossing my fingers and asked, “You could drop it off?” And give her my address.

She asked, “Cool, I don’t want to sound creepy, but I’m looking at the address on google earth. I can be the in a few minutes, or do I need to make an appointment?”

“I will need a couple of hours. How about 3:30? And I will need a sleeve of blank DVDs to do the hard disk drive backup.”

She said, “Awesome see you then.”

After a quick shower, I went about sweeping, dusting, washing sheets, and cleaning my house. A silver Camry pulls into my driveway. I am going to meet her. As I cross the driveway, we make eye contact.

OH, MY FUCKING GOD! A few feet in front of me is the most beautiful girl I have ever seen. This young woman is not from the good old U.S.A. She is from the middle east somewhere. Her emerald eyes take my breath away. Long deep burgundy hair in a ponytail thru a pink baseball cap, a tailor-fitted full-length doeskin leather duster, a tight hooters t-shirt, and pink fuzzy sweats with hiking boots. A few freckles show thru her olive-colored skin. She belongs in a Hooters commercial or Victoria’s Secret shoot! not in my dirt driveway. WOW! Where has this girl been?

As I start to lose track of time, I hear her ask, “Hi James, my name is Elizabeth. I hope I’m not too early?”

“Nope, right on time,”

All I can think of is her green eyes. I think to myself, how old is this girl? Please be of age. Is this happening? God, I hope this is not some kind of setup.

Snapped back to reality by her voice said, “Here’s my laptop.”

“How old is it?”

She said, “It is about three years old. I got it in the summer of 2009. Before I left for school out east.”

Ok, that would mean she has to be in the early twenties Now is when things start to get very intense. Elizabeth is way inside my bubble by this time as she hands me her laptop. Damn! she even smells hot! I do not know the scent, but it mixes well with doeskin leather. She is so close now that I put my left arm around her in a light embrace to keep my balance. Our eyes meet again only inches apart.

She asked, “Mind if I stay and watch you work? I don’t have any plans this evening.”

After a few seconds, I could not believe this was happening. I have never been this up-close and personal with such a beautiful woman. Like I am going to say no to this! Who or what sent this woman to me? She found me!

“You are welcome to stay.”

We turn and head inside. As we walk, thoughts start flashing in my head. I am happy I did laundry, cleaned my room, and sprayed some Febreze around. It is cozy, not much space with my computer in here. I get another chair for Elizabeth. She takes off her doeskin black leather duster and lays it on my bed. I now realize just how skimpy her t-shirt is, with her hard nipples poking thru the material. I handed her an oversized blue flannel shirt.

She gladly put it on and said, “It is kind of chilly in here. The shirt makes it nice and warm, thank you.”

“I can start a fire if it gets too cold. Just let me know.”

Elizabeth said, “I am fine.”

She sure is! I never knew my shirt could look so good! I start to look at her laptop. The first thing to check is the battery, and it checks out ok. Checking the power brick, it checks out. It must be the power supply board. On a closer inspection, I smelled burnt components at the power input.

“Here, smell this. The power input is your problem for sure.”

She wrinkled her nose and politely said, “Umm ... No, I think I will trust you on that one. You are the expert.”

The next step was to check the hard disk drive. It powers up, and all is good. I start the process to put on a new computer.

“It is going to take a couple of hours to complete the backup.”

She asked, “What is this going to cost me?”

“Nothing, other than time, it will take two and half hours to write the DVDs. It would help if you had less data on here.”

She got up and said, “I have the discs in my backpack in the car. I’ll be right back.” She comes back in, hands me the discs, and in a sexy voice, she says,” Mind if I slip into something a bit more comfortable.”

She ducks into the bathroom with her pack, a wink, and a smile. Oh my god! How much more relaxing can this girl get! She comes out wearing fuzzy slippers and my oversized blue flannel shirt. I like the direction this is going. She is so friendly, so beautiful and so close!!!! I have not been this happy for a long time.

With the backup going smoothly, Elizabeth sits down next to me, leans in, and asks, “How is the backup coming along.? What games do you play when you are not working on computers? It looks like you have a nice system there.”

Wow! she just complimented my home-built computer! I am on cloud nine. All my thoughts are now about this vixen that has come into my life. She wants me to show her how to play an online shooter game. We switch chairs, so it is easier for her to play. I log in and join a quick team deathmatch. She takes over and plays a few rounds as the last of the discs finishes.