As I said, it started with the loss of the USB stick. Unfortunately (or fortunately) for me I did not notice that it was missing from my computer bag until I received that fateful email. Upon opening the email I saw it was a message from Sam asking if I had left behind a USB stick. At first it didn’t occur to me what it was, but a quick look into my bag showed me that I had left the one that had the pictures on it at his place. I surmised that he probably found it while cleaning the room.

As my heart pounded and the blood drained from my head I quickly typed out a message that told him not to put it into his computer since it contained a virus that would crash and ruin his computer. He should further throw the stick into the trash to ensure it didn’t get used. I apologized in the email saying I thought that I threw it into the trash myself but must have missed.

I sent the email and anxiously and waited for a reply. I was overwhelmed with relief when a few hours later he simply replied OK. Feeling relieved for having dodged that bullet I put it out of my mind and continued with my work.

I received a second message from him though that explained that he had already put the stick into his computer and he hoped that he didn’t infect it. He continued to state that he did look through the files to see whose they were and looked at some of the photos of an attractive woman. In his next line he stated that he thought he recognized the woman and would like to meet her if it was possible.

At that moment my heart leaped again, and all I could respond with, I will get back to you on that. For the rest of the day my head spun as to what I should do. I kept looking back at the message he sent and its implications were clear that he knew that the woman in the pictures were me. I had a sleepless night but my thoughts kept going back to the line saying that he would like to meet her.

In the morning I wrote a cryptic message back acknowledging that I too knew her, and that maybe we should talk about this. I felt that there was a slight chance that he might not have put me in the picture and this would give me an out if needed. I sent it and waited. He came back and said to give him a call when I was ready.