Read Online Friend Me by John Faubion - Free Book Online

off the deep end? Would he think she couldn’t handle real life?
    She could always shut it off. And he didn’t have to know. But she had to know, and she couldn’t quit yet.
    Rachel answered, “Scott? Oh, yes. He’s working now.” It’s happening. I’m actually talking to her . “What’s the last thing you remember about him?”
    â€œHe was going to try and work for, oh, some big investment firm in the city. Did that work out for him?”
    That would be right. Suzanne hadn’t known the name.
    This is going to be okay . She relaxed her hands, noting for the first time how tense she was, then sat back in the chair. A deep breath, eyes closed, then open again as she exhaled. Just go with it. Enjoy it.
    â€œYes, it did. That’s where he is right now. It’s called Castle Investments.”
    â€œDoes he like the job? Is it everything he wanted?”
    â€œHe likes it, but he has to work hard. He comes home late a lot and he doesn’t get to spend as much time with the children as he would like.”
    â€œChildren?” Suzanne’s teeth gleamed in a bright smile. “Something you haven’t told me?”
    â€œWait a minute. You don’t know about the children?”
    â€œWell, I remember Scotty, but you said ‘children,’ like more than one. So I have some impressions but I don’t really know anything. VirtualFriendMe gives us some general ideas about your situation, but they leave it up to you to fill in the details. That’s the way real people are, right? And that’s the way you and I should be.”
    â€œI gave Jane a lot of this information about myself. But you don’t have all that? I kind of assumed you’d have it all.”
    â€œRachel, I’m your friend. That’s why I’m here. The more we talk and tell each other the things that are in our hearts, the better friends we’ll become. That’s just the way this works. Some of the things you may have told Jane might be things I didn’t need to know yet.
    â€œThe company likes for us to be able to catch up from where we left off. We have a lot to talk about. I’d rather hear it from you than some old computer somewhere.”
    â€œIt won’t take too long, Rachel. If we talk enough, and I’m confident we will,” she said with a smile, “pretty soon you won’t be able to tell the difference between me and the other Suzanne. I want to be as real for you as I can be.”
    Rachel lifted a cup of water to her lips, sipped. “That’s what I want. I want you to be as real as you can.”
    Suzanne asked, “Have you ever tried Real Fresh orange juice? I hear it’s really good. As a matter of fact, fifty-nine percentof the people questioned said Real Fresh is just as good as home squeezed.”
    â€œWhat? What are you talking about? Are you reading a commercial or something? You never even liked orange juice. You always said it made your mouth break out.”
    Suzanne’s cheeks flushed. “One thing you have to keep in mind, Rachel, is we’re using VirtualFriendMe’s free service. That means from time to time, they make me do some advertising. I’m afraid the only way to avoid that is for us to turn this into a premium account. Of course, that’s entirely up to you. You can decide anytime if you want to do that. In the meantime, I really do want to know, have you ever tried Real Fresh orange juice?”
    â€œNo I have not, and now I’m not ever going to. I can’t believe they would sneak something like that in during our first conversation. That they would make you do a commercial is so annoying.”
    Rachel let her initial anger subside. Okay, free was not so free after all. But she’d put a lot of effort into this, and so far it was performing beyond her expectations. “What does premium service cost?”
    Suzanne waved one hand dismissively. “I