He ripped another Kleenex from the box on his desk.
A red hot message would often be waiting for him in his Inbox, daring him to open it when he got into the office first thing. If he was in early enough and there was no-one else around, he would indulge. Otherwise he'd have to wait until the evening until he got some private time at home. But this morning had been a different kind of message.
This morning had been an early start for him, he'd had some preparation to complete for a meeting so he'd arrived in the carpark at just after 7.00am. The office building was quiet, just the overnight security guys on duty until the day shift took over at 8.30. He nodded to them as he went through reception and up to his office suite.
He unlocked the door and switched on the lights, putting his briefcase down beside his desk. His first thought was of coffee and he went out to the staff kitchen to prepare a pot of his favourite Java. Looking around, he thought how odd, how eerie the open plan office seemed when there was no-one around, quite spooky in fact.
With mug in hand, he went back to his desk, sipping his coffee and switched on his PC and sat waiting for it to come to life. After a few moments, he logged on to his email and there was indeed a message from her.
But, just as he was about to open it, in the corner of his eye he noticed a package on his in-tray. It must have arrived with the post yesterday, he'd not seen his post as he'd had to go down to the City to a meeting. He reached over and looked at the address label. A grin spread across his face, he knew it was from her from the typewritten label and the postmark.
He clicked on her email message first though.