Her: Hey babe!
My phone vibrated noisily with the incoming message. The colleague who was standing at the front of the room shot me a glare but quickly got back to his presentation. I hurried to switch the phone to mute and debated putting it down, face-down on my folder just to make a point.
But then, the presentation was so very, very boring and that particular colleague was a bit of an ass.
So I opened the messenger.
My girlfriend's 'hey babe' was accompanied by a gif of two brown bears sitting behind a fence and waving at the camera with their massive paws. I suppressed a snort. So cute.
Me: Hey babe yourself!
Me: What's up boo?
Her: Nothing much.
Her: Just sent the outline to my prof.
Her: Fingers crossed!
Monkey-covering-its-eyes- emoji.
Me: Oh wow, you're done?
Me: I'm so proud of you!
I added a handclap emoji and a smiley. She had been working on and worrying about this stupid outline for weeks now.
Her: Aw thanks babe!
A blushing emoji followed. She did blush easily, my girl. I made a point of praising her and showering her with compliments whenever her efforts paid off, just to see her blush and to raise her self-esteem. I loved to see that full body glow on her.
My colleague's presentation was now officially a snooze fest full of actual Microsoft Excel tables with numbers in primary colors on the projector. I suppressed an annoyed sigh and kept texting partially to be a nonconformist who said 'fuck you!' to boring, pointless meetings that could have been e-mails. Call it passive resistance. The bigger part was plain desire to talk to my wonderful girlfriend though.
Me: so what r u up to now? You gonna camp out in front of the laptop until he answers?
Me: the prof I mean
Her: pretty much, yeah. Can't really move on until he gives me the green light.
Me: I'm sure he'll approve your outline, don't worry!
Me: Relax, bb.
Me: Maybe you can finally catch up on Star Trek TNG!
I sent her an emoji with a tongue sticking out to let her know I was just kidding. My girl wasn't a big fan of the show, I knew. She only watched it to keep me company.
Her: hah, no thanks.
Her: But how about you try some real scifi?
Her: U up for it?
I lifted a sceptical eyebrow.
Me: Real scifi?
Her: Yep. Click on this.
Seconds later, she sent me a link to a website that was called 'realloveletters.com'. I clicked on it. My phone's browser got redirected to a website with a parchment layout. A quill gif swished over the screen and pronounced, '
Congratulations! You are now a RealLoveLetters recipient. You will be redirected to your sender
,' before the page collapsed and sent me back to the messenger.
Nothing seemed to have happened. Huh.
Me: Alright. What was this, babe?
Her: Did you click on it?
Me: Yeah. Nothing happened.
Me: What's RealLoveLetters?
Her: Magic!
She followed up by sending the Shia LaBeouf gif we had laughed about so many times already and a string of emojis comprised mostly of blushing, naughty faces and different types of fruit. Uh, okay?
Me: That explains nothing.
Me: Use your words maybe?
I was about to google 'RealLoveLetters' when she answered.
Her: U alone right now babe?
I looked around. The meeting room was actually packed. My direct supervisor and her supervisors were sitting at the front. Everyone who was at all important in this company was here to have this boring presentation marathon inflicted upon them - such was the price of high salaries. So no, I was not exactly alone.
But I was too curious, so I lied.
Me: At my desk right now so, alone-ish. why?
Her: I kiss your neck right below your ear.
Oh, sexting again. Okay.
And as I was reading it, a little breeze tickled my neck, like a fly had landed on my skin. Reflexively, my free hand came up to clap onto the spot and then scratch at it.
Her: Did u feel it?
I wrinkled my forehead. This wasn't her usual sexting protocol.
Me: Feel what?
Her: I kiss your neck right below your ear again, and bite you gently.
The second I read the sentence, the sensation prickled up again in the same place - just somewhat stronger. Again, my hand lifted up to rub it, but stilled halfway.
My mouth fell open on a silent
what the fuck
. My fingers were now shaking when I typed.
Me: I felt that omg
I rubbed the spot again with my fingertips. The ghost of that touch was definitely still there. I was not going insane. Or was I?
Me: wtf!
Me: How the duck does that work?!
My fingers were flying across the screen.
Her: Haha. Good!
Her: Told you. Magic!
Her: Now, lean back and hold on to your phone.
Her: Don't let it go.
Before I could even get enough words together to text back, her next message popped up on the screen.
Her: I whisper 'I love you, daddy' in your ear.
I swear I could feel the breath against my ear lobe. Every hair on my body stood on end at once. I turned my head just to make sure she wasn't really standing behind me somehow, but there was no one there. Not even an AC unit anywhere that could be to blame for some freak gust of wind.
Her: I whisper 'I'm feeling so naughty right now' in your ear.
I heard the words as if on a wind from far away, felt the movement of her soft, plush lips against the sensitive parts of the outer shell of my ear. Both gave me goosebumps that raced across my scalp and down my spine.
I looked to my left and right neighbors, panicking slightly. Would they notice?
Her: I'm imagining you in your cubicle. All tense and upright in your sexy suit and tie.