Eventually they chatted only with each other and Joe finally mustered up the courage to ask for Sandra’s phone number—he told her he wanted to hear her voice. She liked that. Sandra told Joe she too was recently divorced with a three-year-old boy. Next, they did the only thing two strangers can do on the internet: exchange pictures. Sandra had beautiful long wavy-blond hair. In the picture she sent to Joe she wore a cream colored sweater that highlighted her green eyes. Joe liked what he saw. When Sandra got Joe’s picture, she could not believe he was 36. Joe had led a hard life but he always found time to take care of himself. He told Sandra, “I owe almost everything to my parents including how I look.”

What Joe could not know is how this medium called the Internet brought out the worst in people through lies and deceit. Joe was still naïve enough at this internet thing to believe in people.

 

Sandra and Joe talked with each other over the phone almost every night for two weeks. Joe did not want to scare her away by asking if he could come up and visit her. Eventually her curiosity got the best of her and she told Joe she wanted to meet him—she had to meet him was her way of putting it. Joe was flattered and at the same time worried because, not only did he have to drive along way, he also had to take a ferry and that meant if things didn’t work out between them, he would be stuck in a strange town where he didn’t know anybody. This was his first Internet date and there would never be another first. The optimistic side of him was excited about meeting Sandra. The cautious side of him was wondering if he was walking into a trap.