He rolled over and looked at the illuminated, green numbers on his bedside clock. Six o’clock it read. Probably too early, it can’t have arrived by now. Tossing back the covers, he got up anyway. It’s always so cold in here, he muttered, slipping into his robe. Coffee brewing and toast toasting, he stepped into his office and slumped into his chair.
Since Tuesday he’d been absent from work, relentlessly checking his email as he waited for the reply. Only once an hour at first, but then more aggressively as the days wore on. His boss had called each day, looking for him, wondering why he’d been absent from work. Each time, he’d lied, pretending to have come down with a nasty flu. “You know how it is, best not to infect the entire office,” put forth in his best ’sick’ voice. Probably not a great idea to justify it for him, he’d thought to himself as he was saying it. Oh well, too late now.
He tried watching TV, doing chores around the house, even watching porn. Anything to keep his mind occupied and distracted from his email. All he ended up doing was starting half a dozen jobs and then not finishing a single one. Each time he’d start and then five minutes later he’d be rushing back to his desk to check the computer. And each night he was sleeping less and less. He’d go to bed, get up and come back down, find his inbox empty except for the daily spam messages.
It has to be there, it just has to be.
When his inbox opened, he was greeted with a pop up message. “You have 1 new message,” it read.
Barely able to contain his eagerness, he double-clicked the new message…