Enchanted Dreams (32 page)

"Yes!" Georgia cried.

And so it went, for the next hour or so, until Cassie—with Georgia watching every step of the way, cursing the computer when a decision was made that she disagreed with—bookmarked the profiles of no less than thirty-seven groups of men. Most of the groups consisted of three, but there were a few that contained four and even five men.

Once the preferred profiles had been bookmarked, Cassie, with her usual organized and methodical way of doing things, sent each of the groups a message. To Georgia's surprise, she didn't even personalize the message for each individual group, but rather, simply cut and paste her first message and sent it to each of them.

Her message read,
Hi. I saw your profile on the site for the incentive program. I just signed up today. My profile has been created if you would like to check it out. Have you received many responses so far? Cassie.

Cassie leaned back in her chair with a sigh. Her sigh seemed to say,
Now I will have to wait for the responses to come in.
But Georgia smiled, because nearly two days had passed in Cassie's virtual world during the time they had spent perusing the profiles. She hit Update and waited excitedly.

Dawn was breaking in cyber world when the update was complete. Georgia saw that they were once again in Cassie's apartment. She could see the light slowly penetrating the blinds. She maneuvered her view to Cassie's bedroom, to verify that she was, in fact, still asleep in bed.

Satisfied that nothing significant was happening at the moment, Georgia tracked backward in the program to where she had only a moment before left off. Then she perused Cassie's activities in fast-forward mode, until she next saw Cassie settle in front of her computer. Then she stopped to see what was happening.

Just as Georgia hoped, Cassie was logging back on to the incentive program.

And there were responses!

Every profile, it seemed, or nearly so, had responded to Cassie's message. A few had responded twice. The men were clearly eager and they didn't make any effort to hide it. Georgia read their responses along with Cassie and watched as she replied, but there was one message in particular that she was looking for. And there was nothing exceptional in any of the messages that diverted Georgia's attention from the one she awaited. She waited impatiently for Cassie to get to it.

At last she caught sight of his name in the heading of the next message, and she squealed excitedly as Cassie opened it.

Georgia read Craig's message several times over. She felt a little disappointed. It was a very nice message, and yet it lacked the enthusiasm of some of the others, which were filled with personal information or pressing for an immediate meeting. But on second thought, she felt that perhaps this was a good thing. The men in this strange new world had become a bit too desperate. Yet given the circumstances, it seemed rather cheeky of this one to act as if he had all the opportunity in the world when they both knew that he did not. Georgia was even more intrigued.

Cassie seemed intrigued, too. She went back to Craig's profile page and took a good look at the picture of him and the other two men in his group. She zoomed in to get a better look at Craig. Georgia's heart beat a little faster as she watched.

Georgia and Cassie read the three men's entire profile this time. Craig was a civil engineer who went on the road to visit customers for servicing and maintenance. He appeared to be the spokesperson for the group. He described himself as "self-assured but not self-confident." He said he was easygoing, but Georgia had already surmised this from his e-mail. He said he valued women, even before the shortage, but he stressed that he was not willing to settle. His was the only profile that "strongly agreed" with the statement that he "had high expectations." Georgia raised her eyebrows at this.

Craig's best friend was Steve. Steve was described as "a good guy" with a "great sense of humor" and as the "best-looking out of the bunch." Like the larger portion of the population, he worked in a computer factory, programming various systems from a small cubicle. In his free time, he was into sports and playing poker. Steve and Craig had grown up together.

Peter, Craig's brother, was a pilot. Craig described him as "a good guy" who was "serious" and "reliable." Overall, the least was said about Peter.

After reading their profile over several times, Cassie went back to the message page. She replied to Craig as follows:

Georgia felt this response was rather unexciting, as well, but on the other hand, what did one say in this situation? She sighed dreamily, wondering how Craig would answer Cassie's questions. Then she suddenly remembered that more time had elapsed while she had been looking over their profile with Cassie! And, too, she had backtracked in time to get there. She hit Update and waited, noticing now that time was quickly passing in her real world as well, and she had done nothing but watch Cassie all day. But she had to see what Craig would answer next. So she followed the same pattern as before—updating, then going back to where she left off and fast-forwarding in motion so she could pick out the parts she wanted to watch in real time.

It didn't take Georgia long to find what she was looking for. She hit the real-time button just as Cassie was opening her message from Craig.

Georgia was taken aback by Craig's honesty. She smiled as she read his words again. She waited impatiently to see what Cassie would reply.

Georgia was equally surprised by Cassie's candid remarks. This was going to be interesting. She fast-forwarded through all of Cassie's other daily events until she found her reading another message from Craig.

Georgia found herself smiling as she read Craig's message. She watched with interest to see what Cassie would write back.

There were so many things that Georgia wished Cassie would write, so many questions she would have liked Craig to answer. She sighed in frustration to only be a spectator in this. Meanwhile, there were many other e-mails from the other men in the program, and Georgia watched halfheartedly as Cassie answered each of them. But all of her thoughts were of Craig and Steve and Peter. She continued to watch the other correspondence mostly just to gauge their importance to Cassie, and to ensure that no one was moving ahead of Craig. She was pleased to find that Cassie appeared to prefer Craig, as well.

After answering all of the e-mails, Cassie went to bed. Georgia once again jumped ahead to Craig's next message, which Cassie discovered upon waking the next morning.