Jane met Ezra online and never considered him anything but a rebound guy, someone to help her get over her last boyfriend. She always met him at a restaurant in the financial district, where Ezra worked as a software engineer. She bought a pregnancy test one morning after she missed her period.
“But you’re at work,” Jane said. She looked around her small studio apartment, the mess in the corner, the cats on the bed.
It was sweet for him to offer, but she wanted to control things the way her last boyfriend had controlled things with her; it was like that bad breakup inspired her to write a personal manifesto of her ideal rebound relationship
“I could drive over to your place,” he offered. It sickened her to imagine his male presence in her studio.
She sat on the toilet and took the test, but then she experienced an unexpected wave of something like intuition. It was like a sixth sense, which made her feel ashamed to suddenly want to know more about this man who might have gotten her pregnant. She knew so little about him: he made good money, lived two blocks from his sister and niece, and even helped support them. Now she wanted to know more, so much more.
In red, small letters toward the top of people’s profiles, the site reported the exact minute when the user last logged in, and now Jane could see that Ezra had logged in only one minute ago. He was using the site presently. She felt stunned by this fact: he was logged in now!