You Have Mail

YOU HAVE MAIL

William J. Fung

Chapter 3: Formula For Charm

Now Jay was psyched, he had somebody else to talk to, other than his usual gang of friends. Of course, she was also pretty good looking, and that could only be good. Since he saw that Kay was excited about hearing from him, he took a moment to gather his thoughts, and wipe the smile off his face. He had come up with the perfect formula to keep Kay interested in conversing with him. Whatever question she would ask him, he would reply to, and meanwhile, he would also ask her several questions. He also kept in mind to communicate his hope to meet her in person one day.

He then proceeded to write back, using this formula as a template. First, to be extremely charming, he asked her why she preferred to be called Kay, and not Mary, or Mary Kay. This was because he had always thought the use of middle names was nonexistent in Chinese societies. He then told her that he was not on his holidays and was taking courses during the summer semester at his university. He then talked about how he stumbled onto her webpage, omitting the details about Lorri. Jay remembered his formula. He had already answered her questions, and now the next step was to communicate an interest to meet her. He wrote that when he finishes his studies, he plans to go to Hong Kong, and perhaps meet her in person. Having done this, he thought that the only thing to do was to tell her some facts about himself, such as his interests in music, and his hobbies, including writing and hockey. He ended his message by mentioning that he looked forward to hearing from her, and left her with another line from a different song, asking her to guess the name of the song. Having written this, Jay reread his creation and noted that it was charming, in a sappy way, and sent it on its way to Kay.

To his surprise, Jay's formula worked, as the next email message came to him exactly a day after Kay's previous message. The first thing that Kay told Jay was that Kay was not her middle name, but her Chinese name. Since she was in Hong Kong, she preferred her Chinese name as opposed to her English name, Mary. This time, instead of asking Jay questions about his life, she talked about the problems she was having with several of her male colleagues. Jay did not expect to hear about this from Kay, as he could not imagine how someone as becoming as she is would have trouble with the opposite sex. Nonetheless, Jay read on, and realized that her problems have to do with how these boys were embarrassing her. Jay understood what she was getting at, as he has had a similar experience. Other than mentioning her problems, she told Jay about how she was a complete idiot with songs, and that she had no idea where the lyric from his last message came from.

Once again, feeling the novelty of a new found friend, Jay replied immediately. Since she did not ask him any questions in her last message, he could not use his formula. Instead, he played the sympathy card and told her about his experience with a certain girl that was similar to what she described. He then asked her several questions about her, such as her musical interests, and hobbies. Jay figured that he had told her his list of facts, and so he deserved to know her's. Also, since Jay was still uncertain about her intentions, he continued to charm her with more cheesy statements that described his emphasis on the importance of their friendship. Once again, he ended his message with an excerpt from a song. This time, he used lyrics that were context sensitive, with references to friendship. He figured that by doing this, if Kay actually read the lyrics, she would develop a more intrinsic connection with him.

On to Chapter 4

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