When my niece Louisa was dumped by her boyfriend, I generously suggested she come and stay with me as my guest, paying whatever she could afford. We had always gotten along as she was growing up and I saw no reason why we shouldn’t have a great time living it up in my flat now that she was an adult.
I had a fairly active social life and I knew Louisa had been down in the dumps, so I couldn’t wait to be the hip young aunt and show her a good time! I soon found, however, that Louisa had totally different ideas when it came to filling in time. While I liked going out for coffee or dinner, or going to see movies and dancing with friends, Louisa just wanted to stay at home. It got to a point where, if she didn’t have to work, I was sure she wouldn’t have even left the house! I couldn’t imagine what she was doing, but I decided she must just be depressed about her boyfriend, and to leave her alone for a few weeks.
You can imagine my shock when my quarterly phone bill arrived, and it was several hundred dollars more than usual. I suddenly realised what she’d been doing: my niece was an Internet junkie! I didn’t use the Internet much, so I never bothered to get broadband with unlimited downloads, and now all Louisa’s downloading had cost me a fortune. I showed her the bill, and suggested that she contribute some money towards it. She gave me a little, but what she could afford barely made a dent in what she had spent. I insisted that she would have to pay it off, but she refused, reminding me that she was a guest and that she’d been told to make herself at home. I couldn’t believe she was being so spoilt and immature, so I decided to teach my niece a lesson.
When she went to work the next morning, I was determined to see what she had been doing. I knew her e-mail address and it didn’t take me too many guesses to come up with her password either: her ex-boyfriend’s name! I logged into her account and with great amusement discovered the secret: Louisa had an Internet lover!
I read through Louisa’s messages and it soon transpired that they had never spoken or met, though they had been writing for months. I decided that it was time for Louisa and “Glenn” to break up! I quickly wrote Glenn a message, telling him that it was over. I didn’t intend to do any more than that, but before I had a chance to log off, “New message” flashed up on the screen. It was Glenn, begging me to speak to him. Before I knew it we were having an e-mail conversation — and I was calling in sick, so I could stay home and talk to Glenn! He really thought I was Louisa and he had decided it was time for us to meet!
Still enraged by Louisa’s selfishness, I decided this was my chance to get her back! Besides, Glenn seemed really great: he sounded intelligent and funny. I had no idea what he looked like, and I just hoped he hadn’t swapped photos with Louisa or my plan would never work. We arranged to meet up for a coffee the next day. I had no idea what I was going to say, or do, but I decided that, at the very least, I would ruin things for him and Louisa.
When I turned up at the café the next day, I met the man of my dreams. Glenn was kind and funny and gorgeous. I quickly realised I couldn’t deceive him, so I told him what I had done. Glenn informed me that he had known something was different when I started writing to him. He said he knew I wasn’t the same person and he wanted to catch me before I went away — that’d he’d never asked the real Louisa to meet him for coffee! It seemed like fate; too good to be true.
My niece’s Internet addiction turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me, as I found a life partner in Glenn. But neither of us has ever been able to tell Louisa that I stole her Internet boyfriend!
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