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Chapter 28
"He's a bit control freaky but quite easy to get on with. He doesn't see himself as anything out of the ordinary. It's everybody else that's at fault and taking advantage of him. As far as he's concerned, he's easy going, kind and generous. Also, he's a really smooth operator. When I got back to Smokey's, I suddenly realized that he decided absolutely everything about the evening."
"What sort of things?"
"He specified the time and the place we would meet and decided we would go to the Zoo without any discussion whatsoever. He loved the Lions and the Tigers. They were ripping into some small animal that didn't look as if it had been dead for long and the fascination was written all over his face."
"Maybe he's got it right and Jennifer's ex really is a nice person!"
My sarcasm was lost on Gerda - or perhaps she just ignored it.
"He's called Bruno. He wanted me to wear that green dress again so I did. I reckon he would have told be what to wear under it given half the chance."
She slid up an emoticon showing a face looking coy.
Do you want to know what I was wearing?"
"Um, under your dress? No I don't - but what were you wearing?"
"They were tiny, green and matching with white polka dots!"
"And when you went back to his house did he find that out too?" My mouth felt strangely dry as I asked.
"Hey! Maybe that's my business. After all a girls got to have some privacy."
Then she relented.
"If you really want to know, he was a gentleman. He went out and got some provisions that he'd forgotten and then cooked me an absolutely great meal. He left me to play on his computer and I could have looked at anything in it that I'd wanted. Maybe we were wrong and he doesn't have anything to hide. It was then that I contacted you."
"Gerda, you're talking about someone who had the evening planned to the millisecond - and you say he forgot something! It's more likely he was looking for information about people you email. Details of any messages you sent will be faithfully stored in his computer now. If I were you, I'd tell anybody you contacted to close down the email addresses you used mmediately. Otherwise you'll never be sure what he will do with them when you aren't looking."
There was a stunned pause as Gerda considered this point.
"Sorry!" The emoticon picture looked like a little girl crying.
"Don't worry," I typed, reassuringly. "I'll sort it out."
It would have serve no purpose telling at her that my safe house was probably no longer safe. Anyway, she had probably already figured that out.
Gerda continued her account.
"We had the meal and chatted for a while. As I said, he was a gentleman. The closest we got to intimacy in the whole evening was when he told me to kiss him on the cheek before he dropped me off outside Smokey's. By the way, he's a cordon bleu cook!"
"What about next time?"
"It'll be different in one way. I'm totally positive that he'll want to tell me what to wear under my dress!" The coy emoticon was back.
"Why's that?"
"He's taking me on a shopping spree tomorrow ... to buy me a complete new outfit."
Suddenly, I didn't want to talk to Gerda anymore. She had moved on from being my personal friend and a kindred lonely spirit. She was now in the camp of the enemy and far too friendly with the opposition.
"I'm going now," I typed. "I'm glad you're still safe ... take care tomorrow."
It occurred to me that she'd been using the online web cam computer at Smokey's to talk to me, which completely ignored my written instructions. But the link was still working and the dim outline of the closed bar could still be seen on my monitor so I knew she'd caused no harm. I couldn't help smiling. Gerda was a true anarchist at heart.
As I fell into a restless sleep in my empty double bed, I thought about Gerda and wondered what Bruno's reaction would be when he discovered her anarchist tendencies and how he would react when she rebelled against him.
Then I thought about Jennifer and the life she and Bruno had spent together. Had she been rebellious and how had he retaliated. Perhaps she and Gerda should exchange notes.
It also occurred to me that I still knew so little about either of them.
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