Over the past several years, whenever I noticed that Pam looked particularly nice, I’d send her a text with something imaginative like “you look nice.”

More recently, I’ve been using a new work phone that Pam knows about but isn’t aware of the number. I figured that I’d surprise Pam with a “you look nice” message from an unknown number.

With my work phone, I typed in Pam’s number and sent my message, since Pam was looking nice.

I waited to hear Pam’s phone bing, but it didn’t happen. I began to suspect that I’d bollixed Pam’s number.

(When I told this to one of my sons, this is the part where he said “Oh my God! Who did you call?!”)

Then my phone binged the bing of a received message.

“Who are you? Why are you texting my daughter? She’s under 18. You could go to jail.”

Well, that isn’t what I’d had in mind. More, than that, I was freaking out a little bit.

When I calmed down a little, I responded with “Sorry. I fatfingered my wife’s number.” I didn’t really care that much if the other end of the conversation believed me. If I’d really texted “you look nice” to someone’s daughter, then an apology was owed, even if the other end of the conversation had no way of knowing if I was a perv or not.

Then I wondered how I could really know who I was talking to. This could easily be some greasy 40 year old living in his mom’s basement trying to mess with me.

As I thought about it, I realized that if I’d gotten an unsolicited “you look nice” from an unknown number, I’d think about sending a similar response.