Nikki's Secret

by William Malmborg

  “Huh, I never really considered that.”

  “And then maybe whoever found out the address came and watched the place and saw me and just assumed I was Nikki.”

  “Wow, seems logical to me.”

  His statement brought her a sense of satisfaction.

  “Now we just need to find out if it’s plausible. Know any tech heads at NIU who could help out with this?”

  The satisfaction faded. “Not really, but I could ask around.”

  “Good idea. There has to be someone there that knows a thing or two about this stuff.” For a moment it looked as if he was going to say more, but then the food arrived and his focus shifted to that.

  “Can I bring you anything else?” the waitress asked.

  Bill looked at Kimberly who shook her head and then said, “Just more coffee when you get a chance.” With that the two dug in, the sounds of their chewing the only thing that broke the silence in their little area of the restaurant.

  3

  Hey. I’m new in DeKalb and was wondering if you would like to get together one day for drinks or something. Like many others, I’m here for school and while that will be my main focus, I would like to find a nice guy to hang out with and maybe more if things take that route. Please let me know if you are interested. BTW, I don’t always have good access to the web, so my number is below if you want to call or text me. Looking forward to hearing from you. Amy.

  Mark stared at the message for a long time, his mind completely caught off guard by the fact that a girl had messaged him. Normally things went the other way. He would message a girl and eagerly await a response, the days growing longer and more agonizing as time without one grew. Hope was what caused him to send the messages, hope that the girl would see it and then visit his profile and realize he was just what she was looking for. Countless hours of sex would follow. It was a fool’s dream, he knew, but one he couldn’t get away from. Who in his situation could?

  This time, however, he didn’t have to hope that a message would instill interest because it seemed interest was already there. She had messaged him. She was now the one waiting for a response. Everything was up to him.

  Just don’t screw this up, he warned.

  To help prevent such a screw up he did not reply right away despite a deep desire to send off a message letting her know he was very interested. Instead, he headed into the kitchen to eat some breakfast and drink some coffee, and then, once his mind had calmed down enough, went back to the computer to send a reply. Before doing that, though, he looked at her profile to see if there was anything written in the About Me area that would help him think up a response. Nothing. That was okay though. Some chose to go this route from time to time. Or maybe she wanted to write something but couldn’t find the words. Whatever the case he didn’t let it bother him and moved on to the pictures she had uploaded to see what she looked like.

  Wow, was all his mind could think. To say she was hot was an understatement.

  And she contacted you!

  The inner statement caused his heart to race once again. He also started to worry that he might not have been the only guy she messaged and if so what if someone else had already responded. After all the message had been sent several hours earlier, before midnight actually, so during that time she might have already agreed to hook up with someone else who was quicker on the reply.

  With this on his mind, Mark typed up a response and hit SEND, his fear of missing out making it so he didn’t spend much time on the actual wording or content. Naturally, concern about this followed, especially when he went and re-read what he had written and realized it sounded desperate.

  You also forgot to give her your phone number.

  This thought led him to wonder whether or not it would be okay to send her an introduction text.

  What if she is reading your message right now and then gets the text.

  Such a moment might make him seem even more needy, which wasn’t good. Girls didn’t like guys like that.

  But she sent you her number.

  She had also said something about not being online all the time.

  What if someone calls her first?

  Being the first to reply to the message might be voided out if others had her number, especially if she didn’t sign online again until tonight.

  Send her the text. It will help her see that you truly are interested.

  After that he would be cool and wouldn’t overload her with messages, which would help her realize he was not an obsessive guy who would overburden her with need.

  Phone in hand Mark typed up a message that read: HI. THIS IS MARK FROM OK CUPID. JUST WANTED TO INTRODUCE MYSELF AND GET MY NUMBER TO YOU. FEEL FREE TO CALL OR TEXT ANYTIME.

  Afterward he realized he should have sent her the name he went by on OK CUPID as well, but then figured it wasn’t a horrible mistake. If she wanted to know, she could always ask.

  Don’t hover, he told himself a minute later after realizing he was going back and forth from staring at his phone to staring at the email icon on the OK Cupid site. And don’t forget to send Kimberly that latest message from Nikki.

  Once sent, he decided to withdraw himself from his room and computer. Sadly, he couldn’t really withdraw himself from his phone, which was in his pocket, and kept waiting for it to buzz with a message. Sometimes he even checked it to see if he had failed to feel the buzz, past moments of not realizing a message or call had come through guiding his actions. No messages were ever waiting during these checks. Even worse, once a message finally did come through it was from his mother asking if he would be home for dinner that night.

  Anger at her developed even though he knew it was silly. Her question was valid and it wasn’t her fault the buzz had induced excitement followed by a serious let down.

  Hmm, will I? he wondered, his mind thinking of the lie he had told Nikki the day before about going to dinner with Kimberly. It seemed the best way to add realism to the deception he was trying to pull would be to actually go to dinner with her and then make it look like they went back to her place. That way if Nikki was watching, which he was sure she was it would look genuine.

  But will Kimberly go for it?

  The answer to that would not come while wandering the mall, so rather than continue that he headed home to send her a message. While doing that his phone buzzed. It was a message from Amy.

  I’M SO HAPPY YOU REPLIED! I HOPE WE CAN GET TOGETHER SOON! MAYBE SOMETIME TODAY OR TOMORROW IF YOU AREN’T BUSY? LET ME KNOW.

  Within seconds another message came.

  PS: WHAT IS WITH ALL THE GUYS ON THIS SITE SENDING ME MESSAGES EVERY TEN MINUTES? IT’S CRAZY!!!

  Not wanting to leave her hanging, Mark pulled into a parking lot and typed up a message.

  I HOPE WE CAN GET TOGETHER SOON TOO. THAT WILL BE FUN. TODAY IS GREAT IF THAT WORKS FOR YOU. WHEN AND WHERE? BTW, SORRY ABOUT ALL THE GUYS ON THE SITE. IT’S AMAZING HOW DESPERATE FOR SEX MANY OF THEM CAN BE. DON’T LET IT GET TO YOU.

  Message sent, he continued toward his parents’ house, his mind trying to figure out whether or not he would even try to get together with Kimberly tonight or just leave that all alone for a while now that he could focus on Amy.

  4

  “You know, since we’re right here, do you just want to head over to NIU and see if anyone can help with our IP address question?” Bill suggested as the two left The Junction.

  Kimberly seemed to consider this for a few seconds and then said, “Okay why not. Might do me some good to get familiar with the place a bit too since I start on Monday.”

  “Oh yeah, good idea.”

  “I kinda meant to do that during the week but totally dropped the ball.” She then shifted gears. “Do you think anyone will be there that can actually help us?”

  “I really can’t say. If nothing else we can at least get some names on people to contact and make an appointment or something.” Truth was he had no clue. When he had suggested she contact someone at NIU earlier he hadn’t re
ally pictured himself with her and instead he just saw her going to some computer lab or department between classes. Now, however, he figured it was important that he be a part of this as well. “It will be a good way to get the ball rolling so to speak.”

  Kimberly nodded.

  Less than a minute later the two were in the car waiting to turn onto Lincoln Highway, a seemingly endless line of cars coming from the Annie Glidden direction making it look like they would be there a while.

  “Do you have any idea where we need to go?” Kimberly asked.

  “Not really,” Bill admitted. “I figured we’d just head to the main entrance and go from there.”

  “Oh . . . hmmm.”

  “What?” he asked, sensing something in her tone.

  “Nothing,” she said. “For some reason I was under the impression that you had gone here, that’s all.”

  “Ah, no, sorry. I did my time at a community college for a couple years while waiting for my novels to take off and then moved out here due to the low rent when it seemed like I had finally made it into the big leagues.”

  “What happened?”

  Bill saw a small opening in the traffic and took it, his hands fighting the wheel so that he didn’t throw the back of the car into the second lane where cars were present. “I spent all summer doing rewrites on a novel for Dorchester Publishing and then one day learned from Facebook that the entire editing staff had been let go. After that I figured that publishing with them would be a bad idea given how shaky they seemed, and given the growing statements by authors that they hadn’t received any payments for quite some time, and took my novel elsewhere. Sadly, no one was interested in it, which is why I set up that blog and then eventually self-published.”

  “Wow, that really sucks.”

  “Yeah, but I’m just glad I learned of how poorly the company was doing before I signed anything.” He couldn’t even begin to imagine how awful and stressful it would have been having had his first novel with them while they were in such a situation.

  “True. Why didn’t anyone else want to publish it?”

  Bill shrugged. “That is a question I will never know the answer too. It was funny though because one publisher did tell me there was no market for my fiction. Guess I proved them wrong on that front.” He shifted into the left lane and got ready to turn into the main area of NIU. “I do hope that I can make a deal with one of them one of these days though. I hate doing everything myself.”

  “I bet that is a pain, especially without having good access to the Internet.”

  “Yeah, but I manage.” He thought about sharing with her the fact that he was getting more work done now without it and how he planned on never hooking it up again no matter what, but then realized this was all stuff she didn’t really need to know. Plus, he had no idea where the two were going and needed to focus his attention on finding a parking spot. “Do they have like a visitor lot or anything?”

  “Yeah, but you have to pay for it.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah, sorry, I completely forgot about that until just now. I looked at their website about two weeks ago while trying to figure out if I could come visit and see the layout and everything, but then, like I mentioned earlier, didn’t follow through with anything.”

  “Is that common for universities like this?” At the community school he had gone to everything had been free. Of course, during the winter he would have gladly paid for a parking spot if it meant not having to walk a mile through the snow piles and slush to get into the building.

  “Um, I don’t know. I didn’t have a car when I went to U of I. Once I moved out of the dorms I took a bus to the campus.”

  “I didn’t know you went to U of I,” Bill said. “Why’d you change schools?”

  “Um . . .” she started, then “. . . there’s the parking garage if you want to use that, or we can pass that and hit the visitor lot. I’ll cover the fee.”

  Hmm, sore spot? Bill silently questioned. He was no detective, nor could he write detective characters very well, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t easily spotted that topic shift. Hell, even the dumbed down bumbling idiot version of Watson that TV shows and movies had frequently produced before the respectable Judd Law version had come about would have been able to spot such a misdirection without Holmes pointing it out to him.

  Leave it alone, his mind urged. It’s none of your business.

  As curious as he was to know what had happened, he decided to listen to the rational part of his mind. In time, if she wanted to, she would share her experience with him.

  Why? the rational part asked. You think something is brewing between you two?

  Rather than debate this within his head, Bill focused on finding a spot within the visitor lot. While doing this Kimberly said something about needing to pay with a credit card since she didn’t have any cash on her.

  “You know what, I’ve got plenty in the armrest,” Bill said, his right elbow tapping the lid. “Grab what we need.”

  “You sure?” she asked.

  “Yeah. If it wasn’t for my blog we wouldn’t have to be doing any of this, so . . .”

  “But you just paid for breakfast.”

  He shrugged.

  Kimberly didn’t say anything more and reached inside the armrest between the seats. Though he didn’t know how much was in there he guessed it had to be around twenty to thirty dollars, all because he used to stockpile singles in it before he had gotten an I-Pass. Now he used them for coffee at Dunkin’ Donuts whenever he felt like an extra cup while writing or for the occasional hot dog when he didn’t feel like cooking.

  “Well,” Bill said once the two were standing on a sidewalk. “Let the search for some sort of computer science department -- ” a thought suddenly arrived, one that would have been even more helpful if it had made itself known about ten minutes earlier. He pulled out his phone.

  “What’re you doing?” Kimberly asked.

  “You know the girl in the pictures on the Nikki blog,” he said.

  “Yeah?”

  “She’s a senior here. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it earlier. I’m going to call and see if she can help.”

  “Gee, that might be helpful.”

  “Tell me about it. I can’t believe I -- ”

  “Hello?” Nicole said in his ear.

  “Hi, Nicole. I got a favor to ask. You busy right now?”

  “No, not really.”

  “Great. I’m at NIU looking for the computer science department in hopes of seeing if anyone there can help me find out how someone learned my address through the Nikki blog. Do you have any idea where it’s located or who I should talk too?”

  “Yikes, that isn’t really my area. Hang on a sec. My roommate’s boyfriend will probably know. He’s does web design. In fact, he might be able to answer your question for you.”

  “Really, that would be great.”

  “Okay, let me go get her.”

  Bill felt the phone being carried into the next room, his mind creating all the necessary sensations from the visuals he already had from past visits to the apartment she lived in, and then heard Nicole talking with her roommate Tammy. A moment later her voice appeared in his ear again. “She’s calling him right now.”

  “Okay.”

  Nothing else was said between them as Nicole waited for her roommate to reach her boyfriend. During this Kimberly quietly asked, “Anything helpful?”

  Bill nodded and then whispered back, “Her roommate is calling her boyfriend.”

  “Okay?” Kimberly asked, voice making it known that she wanted more information on how this would help.

  Bill would have filled her in but Nicole came back and said, “Okay, he’s on the phone. What do you want her to ask him exactly?”

  “Can you find out if it’s possible for someone to find out my address through my blog, like through the IP address or something?”

  Nicole repeated this to her friend.

  Several seconds pas
sed.

  “He says the only thing they could learn would be your city, and that’s if they were pretty sophisticated. It would take a court order to learn your name and address.”

  “Really?”

  “That’s what he says.”

  “What about hacking the site to find out information about me? Is there any way someone could learn my address that way?”

  Kimberly took a seat while he waited for an answer to this and pulled out her phone. Bill would have joined her, but couldn’t hold still when talking on the phone. Instead, he paced. It was something he couldn’t help.

  “He says it’s possible but very unlikely and that chances are they learned your address another way, like through a phishing scheme or email fraud or something. You didn’t give any information out in an email, did you?”

  “Of course not,” he said, frustration rising.

  “Hey, what about through the wish list we had?”

  “I don’t think so. That company is very secure and wouldn’t have sent out the address to anyone.” He sighed. “It had to be through the IP address. It’s the only thing I can think off.”

  “NO!” Kimberly snapped catching Bill off guard. She was talking on the phone, anger spreading across her face. “I don’t care if you came out here, we’re through. You should have called before making the trip.”

  “Bill?” Nicole asked. “You still there?”

  “Yeah,” he said, turning away from Kimberly. “Sorry. What’d you say?”

  “I said that he says that unless someone got a court order there is no way they could find out your address, especially if it was a Google blog, which I told him it was.” She hesitated. “It was Google, right?”

  “Yeah,” he said. “And he’s positive about this?”

  “Yep. He said chances are you accidentally gave out your address to someone. Did anyone ever ask for it?”

  “Tons of people did. Everyone wanted to hook up with you, well, with Nikki. But I never gave it out to -- ” he stopped, a sudden memory from a few weeks earlier occurring. “Oh shit.”