Read Online Privacy Code (Shatterproof) by Jordan Burke - Free Book Online Page A

“Oh, my God!”
    Her incredibly excited reaction was due to two things: one, she’s always like that, always full of zeal and happiness ; two, she’d known me for a year and I’d barely shared anything about my personal life. This was the first time I was letting her have an inside look at my dating life.
    Dating? Is that what Watts and I were doing? Not exactly. Not at all, actually.
    She let me go and stepped back, putting a little space between us as we walked. “I knew it. I knew there was a guy. This is so exciting. Go on. Tell me all about him.”
    I took a deep breath as we made our way toward the building. We were walking slowly so we’d have more time to talk before we got inside.
    “Well,” I started, and then she interrupted me.
    “Wait. Important question. Let’s get this out of the way.”
    “Okay,” I said, almost laughing, relaxing a bit because I was about to share this with her. It would be an incredible weight lifted off my shoulders. Someone to talk to, someone who lived a normal social life.
    “So?” she said. “How big is it?”
    I stopped, shaking my head as I laughed.
    “Sorry,” she said, “I’m a slut. But a proud slut. Go ahead, I won’t interrupt anymore.”
    “No. Thank you. It’s the first time I’ve smiled in days.” As we walked, I told her the brief version of the story of Watts and me. I didn’t tell her his name, though.
    As I talked, we went through the security checkpoint and into the building. I stopped the story as we were wanded by the guard, and kept my voice to a low whisper as we walked the halls of the building.
    When I finished, she said, “Wow. Holy shit. Six months of just emails? I couldn’t have done that. But I can totally see you doing it.” She put a hand on my shoulder. “Wait, I don’t mean that in a bad way.”
    I shook my head. “I didn’t take it that way. It’s exactly the kind of thing I was looking for. It was perfect. Until…you know.” I left it at that. I’d already told her how the hotel encounter ended.
    “Yeah, shit. That was rough. I’m sorry that happened to you. Why do you think he’s so sketchy about his name, though? I mean, what’s the difference?”
    Those were questions I’d been asking myself over and over, and I had no answer. Other than the “privacy code,” which I then told Tara.
    “ Oooh, mystery man. They’re usually a good thing.”
    “Really? I thought that was only true in books.”
    “Well,” she said, “good thing in the sense of a good time. Not usually a good long-term mate, you know? We love to fix guys but the really broken ones can’t be fixed.”
    We were silent for a moment as we approached our work station.
    “So you think it’s better that all of this stopped before I got too wrapped up in it,” I said, matter-of-factly.
    Tara nodded. “Oh, yeah. I mean, maybe he would have been amazing in bed. Guys with problems usually are. At least in my experience. But—”
    “Hold on. You think he has a problem? Like what?”
    I lifted the first bin full of envelopes.
    Tara turned on the scanning machine and conveyer belt.
    “I don’t know,” she said. “Maybe…he’s married?”
    My stomach sank. It was the first time I’d even considered that. In all of the emails, Watts had never even once given me a reason to think he was married. But there was the no phone call rule, the no sharing of work details rule, the not knowing each other’s addresses rule...
    “And,” Tara continued, “that would kind of explain why he was only looking for one-night stands, right?”
    It just didn’t seem to fit. Sure, all the major clues were there, but Watts married? No, not the Watts I had come to know. “I really don’t think so.”
    “Okay.” Tara seemed to have no trouble dismissing her own suggestion out of hand. “You said he’s in sales, right?”
    “Yeah.”
    “And he won’t tell you what he sells?”
    I dumped the first batch of mail on the belt. “Right.” I was beginning to