You should’ve seen the system I had. So powerful, so fast, so many features. And the monitor? Please. Your eyeballs’d think they’d died and were looking into monitor heaven. Sometimes I’d stop and wonder what that fine, fine PC was doing with a mug like me.

Well, I didn’t have to wonder long. After the – what? – sixth, seventh spill, she told me to choose: either her or the Red Bull. I hesitated to answer. That was answer enough for her. She was packed up and gone quicker than you could say “Turn power switch to OFF before disconnecting power supply.” And there I was, still looking for salvation at the bottom of a skinny aluminum cylinder.

That’s what brought me to the QuikTrip that night. I was pretending to browse the drink refrigerator, as if there was a chance in hell that I’d pick up an Arizona Iced Tea. I just didn’t want the counter guy to mark me as a Bullhead, that’s all. But I was so wrapped up in the act that I didn’t notice her until she was practically in my shirt pocket.

“You look like a man who stays up late,” she whirred, with a voice like a velvet audio card. I sized her up: 19” LCD monitor, keyboard, mouse, the whole bit. Runs Windows Vista Home Basic – I could smell it on her. I could just make out the curves of a 160GB hard drive underneath that case. And I’d bet there was a small, tired AMD Sempron™ Processor 3000+ and 512MB DDR2 SDRAM somewhere in there, too.

“As it happens, I’m all out of warm milk.” I knew her type. Cheap. Nothing special. Ready to jump on any desktop if it’ll buy her a few months or days or hours of comfort. And suddenly I remembered how my desk had some empty space at the moment.

“Everex GS3005,” she said. “Pleased to meet you. And you are?”

“Looking for company.”

No, she wasn’t Miss Right. But she was Miss Right In Front Of Me.

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