Cass Armstrong logged on to her laptop and launched her email and instant message programs, and there it was in her inbox. An advertisement for the Hunter’s Moon Ball, sent by her online chat buddy, “TaxMan4U”, aka Darien. A suggestion they meet in person? She’d heard of this happening with online dating services, of course, but that wasn’t what she’d signed up for when she’d gone looking for someone like Darien one late and lonely night. Cass hadn’t been searching for in-person companionship at that point, nor was she interested in using video chat programs—she preferred a measure of anonymity. Given the hours she put in at the accounting firm where she worked, she didn’t have much free time to date or get overly involved with someone. Nor did she excel in social environments, so the web had appealed to her. Others at her firm had casually mentioned chat rooms over the years and it had taken that long for Cass to gather the nerve to seek one out herself. The first few interactions online had been overwhelming, what with trying to find a chat room of interest—she’d inevitably selected one for single professionals in Seattle—and then seeing dozens of people with unique usernames all posting comments almost simultaneously.
