The business card forswore such traditional colors such as eggshell, bone, or pale nimbus, but was lavender instead. The edges were embossed, appearing to be interwoven strands of metallic blue, violet and silver. Shiny.

Jackie Aquitaine | Do-Gooder for Hire!

No address, phone number, email address or website. However was I to get a hold of her? I flipped it over.

“We’ll get a hold of you!” Maybe it was the royal “we”.

With the encounter having come to a close, I went home. I ate my barbecue chips, drank my sweet, sweet Cherry Coke, and watched Seven Samurai. Sunday came and went, and all of a sudden it was Monday. Even if I wanted to follow the traditional dating wisdom and call her two days later, I couldn’t.

Two days passed uneventfully, and now it was Wednesday. I’d left Jackie’s card on my dresser, and when I woke up I looked at it as if I were checking for a message from above. The front was the same, but when I turned it over—

“Answer your phone!”

Startled, I grabbed my cell. It was buzzing.