Page 68 of Latte Girl
While I have more technical skills than most people, my knowledge of hacking is next to zero. I follow basic security guidelines with my own work passwords and use a random combination of numbers and letters that I change every month. My luck today depends on Ludo not being as smart. I try typing in ‘password’ and ‘12345678’ just to cover the obvious, then curse myself for not being able to remember hisbirthday.
If I were a chauvinist, what would mypasswordbe?
I try ‘ladies.’ I try ‘girls.’ I picture Ludo cupping his hands in front of his chest to indicate boobs as I type in theword‘jugs.’
His inbox pops up in frontofme.
I feel moved to do some kind of celebration dance that involves whipping my shirt off and swinging it around my head, but time is limited. I pull up the search feature and type in mymom’sname.
The word ‘Rosalind’ brings up dozens of messages from what appears to be about three years’ worth of email history. I scroll through the results and scan the sentences that show her highlighted name. The older ones all say things like “Rosalind will be attending the dinner. Please bring someone to accompany you as well,” and “I will need to postpone the banquet as Rosalind is indisposed.” The more recent messages all contain variations of “I will be visiting Rosalind,” but I can’t find any mention ofwhere.
I glance up at the doorway. Ludo will be back any second. I double check all the messages around the time of my mother’s stroke, and my eyes land on a sentence I must have skipped overbefore.
I will not be at the department head meeting as Rosalind is being moved to the Bernstein Centrethatday.
I hear footsteps in the hallways and jump up, closing the search page and stepping away from the desk just as Ludowalksin.
“Couldn’t find her anywhere. What a shame,” he mutters, and then notices I’m standing up. “Going somewhere?”heasks.
“Yes,” I answer, heading for the door. “There’s something I havetodo.”
