The Accidental Hacker

Chapter Two

Chapter Two

A few times a day I would look at the program and wonder if I should call Captain Hammer again. I had come up with a myriad of reasons for calling, such as asking his opinion on things from the perfect date outfit, or simply calling to apologise for all the accusations I threw at him.

Each excuse seemed transparent though, so I resisted. I hoped he might call me but as the one week anniversary of our odd chat was upon me, I had to conclude that he wouldn’t.

I wasn’t really surprised, my dating life recently had been one disaster after the other. My job doesn’t really allow me to meet many new people, so I’ve been using dating websites, which seem to be filled with time wasters, sex addicts and cheaters.

Were there no good men left out there?

At this rate, I was pretty sure that I would become a crazy cat lady. Well, crazy dog lady; cats don’t really like me.

I photographed my latest work and uploaded the pictures to my computer, ready to list them on my site, when the YouChat window opened, asking if I would accept a call from Captain Hammer.

My heart fluttered like the wings of a hummingbird as I clicked ‘accept’.

“Hi,” I said, hoping to sound cool but instead, it came out as a breathy sigh.

“Good evening, darling.” His face was still mostly in darkness so I couldn’t see many details.

“Its ‘darling’ now, is it?” I asked.

“Well, it’s an improvement on calling me an ass.”

“Ass’s ass,” I corrected him, my tone teasing. “So, Captain Hammer, what can I do for you this fine evening?”

“Oh nothing much, I just felt that my ego might be getting a tad out of control and I was hoping that you might help me deflate it a little.”

My cheeks burned from blushing. “Yeah, sorry about that.”

“No need to apologise, it was highly entertaining.” He laughed. He had a lovely laugh. “So, how is your mother’s dating life?”

I shrugged. “Same as.”

“Forgive me if I’m talking out of turn, but you seem rather cynical and it strikes me that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree so…”

“Why can't my mother see through these losers?”

“Well, yes.”

I sighed. “I probably gave you completely the wrong impression last week. My Mum is actually pretty great, she’s intelligent, assertive and kind. The only areas she’s not great with are computers and men.”

“Well computers I can understand, especially for someone of her generation. My father was an executive but even he can hardly do anything more than email.”

“Yeah, well my Mum has even less experience with dating than with computers,” I answered. “She and my dad met when they were 13, they married when they were 18, she put him through university, then they had a family and after we kids were school age, she went back to college and got a history degree. They were a real team, you know, each supporting the other, the way love should be.”

“I’m almost afraid to ask what happened to your father.”

I nodded sadly. “Lung cancer. He was a great guy but he smoked like a chimney. So now my mum, who has never really been on her own, doesn’t know what to do with her life.”

“Does she have to meet someone?”

“I keep telling her that but her whole life, she’s been single for a total of fifteen years, and married or part of a couple for forty two. I get why it’s hard for her, she wants what she had with my dad again, but dating, especially in this day and age, is a minefield.”