I was a little surprised by his sudden interest. I hoped he didn’t think anything was going to happen. He was just walking me in.

Once we were in my place, I turned around to thank him and give him my “great time, good night” thing when he moved toward me and pushed me against the wall and started madly kissing me.

It wasn’t unpleasant; it was pretty nice. His lips were very soft and I could feel him through his pants as he pressed himself harder against me. After a bit of this, he pulled back to get a breath. His lips were pink and swollen and I was sure mine looked the same.

“Good night, Dani.”

“Good night, Troy. Drive carefully.”

“Okay, bye.”

After he left, I brushed and flossed, then went back to the bathroom to use the Listerine. Padding into bed, I pulled the duvet up to my chin. I felt the bed jiggle with the familiar weight of Lucy jumping up and settling into her spot. I hoped Troy liked garlic.

The next day at lunch, I ran to the mall and bought a new Black-Berry. My old one worked fine, but it was a few models out of date and using it was like holding a loaf of bread against my face. The new BlackBerry was sexy and svelte. I smiled, thinking that the next time Troy went out with his friends, he wouldn’t be able to stop texting me.

Back in the office I pored over the new manual. The buttons were awfully small, but it was a cool new toy to have. For once, it was an asset to have bitten-down fingernails; they maneuvered quickly over the keys.

After a couple of hours of fiddling with the BlackBerry and not writing a scene featuring double cadavers, I managed to figure out how to send and receive e-mail. I was smooth with normal-sized computers, but this was going to take some getting used to.

I IM’d Troy. “I just traded in my old BlackBerry for one like yours!” After an hour he responded, “Cool . . . I hope you like it.”

And then nothing the rest of the day.

I waited a couple of days, thinking maybe his battery had been dead and he couldn’t text anyone.

“What are you doing?” I texted.

I waited and waited. After three hours, I got a message back: “Just working, boring. Take care, T.”