the email before

Helen sat at her computer, her heart seemingly up near her ears.

"Is this you?"  She read the email again trying to decide if it was a friend trying to be funny or if it really was the love of her life making contact again.

She was cautiously excited.  Since David had abruptly left the relationship more than a year ago, Helen had secretly held hope that he would realize the error of his ways and beg to be taken back.  The email didn't really hold much by way of begging, or anything for that matter, but it was a step in the right direction.

Helen typed in a response, erased it and typed in a reworded email.  She didn't want to appear desperate so she erased the second letter.  Finally she clicked "send" on her one word response.

"Yes".

Helen pushed the email and any thoughts about it to the back of her mind.  It was most likely a prank.


Life pushed on.  Helen wore several hats during the course of each day.  Nanny in the morning.  Pizza wench in the evenings.  If she was feeling energetic, Helen walked through the snow to the local gym for an hour of elliptical bliss.   She would wind down from the day by watching television and playing around on the computer.

Not long after the mysterious email, Helen received another email.  It didn't send her heart to her ears, instead it made her smile.  "Wienerhead McGee" certainly deserved more than a one word response so she playfully typed one in and pressed send.  If things didn't work out with her ex then maybe Wienerhead would be a fun diversion.