Hartley and I met on the internet. Back in February 1997, ICQ was just in its infancy. But, there were other messaging programs out there and a hot program was POWWOW. One night after I had come back from a lackluster date, I decided to go online. One of the nice features POWWOW had, was that it had an option to look for people in your home town. So, I decided to browse and see who was online. There was a name “Hart-at-work” that for some reason, jumped out at me. So I messaged him.

I said something clever like “Hi, how are you?”. Hart-at-work replied with something just as snappy, like “Fine thanks, you?”. We messaged a couple of times and then because it was late we logged off. We didn’t get together again for a couple of days, but when we connected again … we never really said goodbye.

I found out his name was Hartley Singer and that he was an accountant that worked with his dad. The first time he came over, he installed Windows 95 on my computer. He was so sweet, because the installation took a very long time … so long in fact that it wasn’t done until the next morning. Now, I know what you’re thinking, but he slept on the couch while I slept in my bed. I remember waking up at one point during the night and saw him sneak into my bedroom, where I had my computer, to check on the progress of the installation. As soon as he was satisfied that all was well with the program, he ever-so-softly crept out again.

That’s when I had my first glimpse of how considerate and sweet Hartley is. Well anyway, as I’ve mentioned before, Hartley never really went home again. After about a month, I realized he wasn’t going to leave and I wasn’t going to let him go anyway.