I spent the whole weekend running around DC trying to find furniture for my room, and while it yielded a nice desk and a gigantic bed, I forgot to check my blog for your suggestions on the $800, and I also forgot to check my e-mail to see if Rebecca had replied.

In fact, she had:

Saturday, June 17, 2006 9:29 AM

Hi Brian I wanted to see when you plan on mailing my brother's money?
Please let me know cause I will be leaving the 25th for a business trip.

Thanks

Then, 86 minutes later:

Saturday, June 17, 2006 10:57 AM

Well what are you doing with my brothers money? Please tell me you mailed it today!!

ramahnker@earthlink.net
EarthLink Revolves Around You.

I'll be honest. As I started to list all the possible things I could do to screw with this woman, I started to feel a little guilty about jerking her around. But after receiving an e-mail in such a brusque tone, I now feel free to go nuts.

I decided to start by saying someone else is trying to claim it.

Rebecca,

Sorry I didn't see your e-mails. I don't have an Internet connection at home, so I can only get online at work.

Anyway, I was going to stick the envelope in our mail when I came in today, but I saw that someone else is saying that they think the money is theirs. They didn't really give many details, though.

I'm not really sure what to do now....

I think that's probably the way to handle this step. Re-establish contact, start to pull away, but leave an opportunity for her to try to salvage it.

We'll see what happens.