“Thank you,” Noah said.
While trailing Ava as they headed up the second flight of stairs from the kitchen level, Noah worked up his courage to ask: “Hey, do you take your trips solo or with friends?” He made it sound as if the idea just occurred to him, whereas he’d been wondering about it since he’d heard about all her travels the previous evening. He didn’t know what answer he wanted to hear.
“It depends,” Ava said. “My fun trips like to New Zealand and the previous one to India I went alone. With my business travel, I’m usually accompanied.”
“Seems to me it would be more fun the other way around,” Noah said.
“You have a point,” Ava said. “Are you interested in going with me when I go back to New Zealand for a repeat bungee-jump?” She laughed in her unique and charming fashion.
“I wish,” Noah said. “If you don’t mind my asking, are your business trips because of your nutrition background?”
Ava stopped several steps short of the landing outside the study and turned around to face Noah, who was forced to stop as well. She was smiling, but her tone was accusatory. “Have you been spying on me?”
“In a fashion,” Noah confessed. “I looked at your LinkedIn page. I was impressed that you majored in nutrition. I think it is a neglected area of expertise when it comes to doctors.”
“I agree,” Ava said. Her voice had returned to normal. “That’s why I chose it as an undergraduate major. But to answer your question, my business trips do involve my background in nutrition, at least indirectly.”
Ava didn’t elaborate, but rather turned back around and continued up the stairs. Noah followed her into the study. He was dying to ask her more about her business, which he assumed had to be remarkably successful, but he felt reluctant. He didn’t want to push it. While she went over to get a bottle of Grand Marnier and a glass from a bookshelf, he took the same velvet club chair he’d occupied the night before. He watched her, fascinated by the way she moved, which was accentuated by her flared dress. He was hypnotized by her entire persona.
“Are you sure you don’t want just a nip?” Ava said, holding up the liquor bottle in Noah’s direction. She took the other club chair.
“Thank you, no,” Noah said. “I also visited your Gail Shafter Facebook page and the fan page. I was truly amazed at the number of your followers.”
“I have to admit I have a lot of fun with it. I’ve even gotten some offers to advertise products.”
“Have you done that?” Noah asked.
“No, I haven’t,” Ava said. “I do it for pleasure, not for business.”
“I got a chuckle when I saw that Gail Shafter endorsed you on your LinkedIn page.”
Ava treated Noah to another one of her laughs. “Guilty as charged,” she said. “I just couldn’t help myself.”
“Last night you offered to explain to me why you use a fake name on Facebook. If you’re willing, I’d like to hear.”
“Purely for a sense of freedom,” Ava said. “The beauty of the virtual online world is anonymity. Using a made-up name magnifies that and enhances my freedom. I’m sure you have heard the expression: On the Internet no one knows you are a dog.”
It was Noah’s turn to laugh. “No, I haven’t heard that. But I get it.”
“Using a made-up name allows me to avoid my own hang-ups,” Ava explained. “I don’t have to be me. I can project onto Gail Shafter whatever identities I want. And using my avatar, technoself, I can do it without fear of being judged. If someone doesn’t like my digital me and acts like a troll, I can block them. In real life I can’t do that. And social media can be wonderfully dynamic, whereas real-life social interaction tends to be static.”
“I’ve never heard the term technoself. Is that something new?”
“In the tech world, nothing is new. As soon as something is out, like a new app, the next day it is old. Things are changing at warp speed. So no, it is not new. In fact, technoself studies have become an entire interdisciplinary domain of scholarly research. It is where our culture is going. We are all becoming cyborgs with our devices, particularly with our phones.”
“You’re making me feel old.”
“In the teenage mind, you are old. They are the ones who are driving the pace.”
“You mentioned you were addicted to social media when you were a teenager, and it was a disaster. How so?”
“I became obsessed with my digital reputation to the detriment of everything else, including my schoolwork. At one point, I got cyberbullied on SixDegrees to the point I couldn’t go to school for a week. Well, it wasn’t called cyberbullying back then, just harassment. But it was a disaster. I did so poorly academically that I didn’t even think about going to college after high school. I had to work, so I worked for a dentist. Luckily, I quickly saw the light.”
“Is that why Gail Shafter works for a dentist?” Noah asked.
“You got it. It’s something I know about.”
“What about dating apps and websites? Do you use them?”
“Of course. Why not? They are particularly fun. Especially now with the swipe-right-or-swipe-left feature. Hot-or-not, what a great game! It empowers even the most pitiful creeps. Online, anyone who is digitally clever can be popular or even famous. Look at the Kardashians.”
“Have you ever met anyone in real life that you met on a dating app?”
“Hell, no! I’d never in a million years do that. Everybody lies on those sites. I like to play around with them, but I’d never actually look for anyone on Tinder or any of the others. We’re all becoming narcissistic charlatans to one degree or another. Meeting up with someone you met online would be too risky. Besides, it would defeat the whole anonymity thing.”
“Aren’t you worried somebody sufficiently enamored with Gail Shafter and armed with technical knowhow could get Gail’s address here on Louisburg Square?”
“There was a time when that might have happened because I had a proxy server that turned out to be almost worthless. But my computer people set me up with a proper encryption. There’s no worry now. And what about you?”
“What do you mean?”
“Have you ever used a dating app or website?”
Noah didn’t answer right away. Like most people, he had, but questioned if he should admit it to Ava. What convinced him to come clean was that she readily admitted she’d used them herself so there would be no judgment. “Actually, I did use OkCupid for a couple of weeks not long after it came out. So I used it once.”
“Uh-oh,” Ava voiced. She flashed a knowing smile. “This is sounding serious. Did you meet someone online and then meet up with them in person?”
“I did,” Noah admitted. “Her name was Leslie Brooks. She was a Columbia undergrad. We ended up living together for the last year of my medical school, and then she came up here to Boston to go to Harvard Business School.”
“Sweet,” Ava said with sincerity. “I guess there are some successes. Are you guys still together?”