Randy couldn't help himself. He arranged his schedule so that he saw Anna later the next day, at lunch (at the place that she always seemed to eat lunch).
He walked by Anna's table, then stopped and looked back at her. "Hello, Anna."
Anna looked up and recognised him. "Randy! Hello, yourself. You're just the person I need." She moved a book to the side. "Sit down. I... uh... have a problem I have to resolve and you always have such good ideas."
Internally, Randy was shocked by Anna's recitiation of the hypnotic programming. Externally, he said, "Problem?" Randy sat down at the cleared space and looked at Anna. "What kind of problem?"
Anna went on at length about some issue she was having in one of her advanced computer science classes. Randy listened, then realized that she was baiting him--the problem she was explaining could be handled by a novice in computer science! He made a few suggestions, and she nodded and grabbed a piece of paper and wrote them down.
"Gee, thanks, Randy. Another good idea." Anna looked at him, then reached over and squeezed his hand.
The two of them ate lunch together, chatting about classes and instructors, and when they were done, Randy had Anna's phone number, and a promise to go on a dinner date with him.
They said their good-byes and went their ways, Randy thinking, "The program is working on schedule. Tonight will be the night the trance word gets implanted!" |