At First Sight by Catherine Hapka Read Free Book Online

too. Write back if you want to chat more.
    â€œThere,” I said, sitting back from the keyboard and shooting Britt a look that dared her to argue that my note was too boring and straightforward. “That should do the trick.”
    â€œAre you sure?” To her credit, Britt didn’t say anything else as she scanned the lines. But she definitely looked dubious.
    I took a deep breath, nodded, then hit the Send Request button. “Why play games?” I said, feeling a shiver of nervousness as I saw the message blink away into cyberspace.“If those sparks—or whatever they were—really were some kind of hint that this
guy and I are right for each other, he should be fine with the real me. If not, then oh well.”
    Britt shrugged. “I guess you’re right. Come on, I’ll give you a mani-pedi while you wait to hear back from him. Your nails look like hell.”
    â€œNo they don’t.” I held out my hands to check. “Hmm. Okay, maybe they do.”
    Britt rolled over and grabbed a bottle of pink polish off my bedside table. “You’ll want to look your best when you meet Mr. Right.”
    It was only a few minutes before my e-mail beeped to let me know I had a new message. I jumped a little at the sound. So did Chairman Meow. He’d returned to his spot on the bed by now, but the tiny little beep sent him bolting back under the bed. Crazy cat.
    â€œWhat’s with him?” Britt said, staring after him.
    I didn’t respond. I’d just clicked over to my inbox, carefully avoiding getting wet polish on the keyboard. My heart jumped when I saw that the new message was fromFacebook. Riley had accepted my friend request.
    â€œClick through!” Britt ordered, leaning so close that she was practically resting her chin on my shoulder. “See what he says!”
    I obeyed, clicking on the message link. It opened immediately, filling the screen. Mostly with blank space.
    Hi Lauren
, Riley had written.
Nice to hear from you
.
    That was all. No proclamations of love at first sight. Not even a proclamation of like, lust, or vague interest. Just hi-how-ya-doing. It wasn’t quite what I’d expected after that sweet, romantic “searching” post.
    â€œWow,” I said. “He doesn’t exactly sound thrilled and overjoyed to hear from The One, does he?”
    â€œSo what? Your thing was short and boring too. Just click through!” Britt bounced up and down on the edge of my bed. “OMG, this is so exciting! I can’t wait to see what’s on his page.”
    I shrugged. She had a point. Maybe Riley and I had more in common than our taste for MTIAB. Like not knowing what to type to a perfect stranger on a social networking site.
    Reaching for the mouse, I clicked on the link to take me to Riley’s profile page. It popped up on the screen.
    The first thing I saw was his profile picture. He looked even better full-size than he had on Britt’s BlackBerry. The photo showed him standing with a bicycle on a wooded trail somewhere, a grin on his face and the wind blowing his hair around. Nice.
    Next I turned to the text, scanning down the latest posts. And suddenly I started to understand why he hadn’t sounded more excited to hear from me. Because his wall was positively flooded with messages from girls who’d read his “searching” post.
    And almost every single one of them was claiming to be The One!

Five
    â€œI can’t believe this!” I exclaimed, outraged. I scrolled down the page. Farther and farther. There had to be dozens of entries on there from all different girls. I scanned a few:
    Hi Riley! I’m The One ur looking 4. Would luv to c u again!
    Riley: When I said we should stop meeting like this, I already knew we were 2 of a kind. Would luv to meet u again — and show u how much I liked meeting u. BB4N!
    Hi again cutie! Would love 2 get 2gether & hear the song u wrote after we met.