After dinner, she went up to her room and lowered herself into her desk’s swivel chair. She wrapped herself in the felt blanket that lived on the back of the chair. She logged into MSN Messenger. It was almost 7 p.m. Would he be online already, waiting for her? Her stomach flipped again.

She jumped: owen_willett69 had sent her a message.

owen_willett69: hey how u

She ignored it. She set her status to a Stones lyric. There was such a thrill in setting a public status intended only for him to read. Ellen paid a lot of attention to his statuses, which he changed less regularly than she did. This made decoding each one even more of a treat.

He was online. 7.04 p.m.

She waited for him to say hello. Usually, she wouldn’t mind initiating, but this evening, it felt important – symbolic – that he be the person to say something first.

Minutes inched past – she watched the clock in the bottom-right-hand corner of her screen mark the passing of each one. Why wasn’t he saying anything? She stared as the clock clicked to 7.05, 7.06, 7.07 p.m., then made a pointless bargain with herself: if she left the room to go to the bathroom, by the time she came back, he’d have messaged.

Unusually, she took her time washing her hands, staring at her face in the mirror. She made a face at the Ellen staring back, gurning to try and expend the energy pulsing in her temples. When she returned, the MSN toolbar at the bottom of the screen was flashing. She willed it not to be owen_willett69 or one of his ilk.

It was him.

rainham_romeo1991: good evening

Her fingers felt all tingly. What if he hadn’t meant it? Maybe he’d changed his mind? She wondered if she should say something or play it safe. She always preferred to play it safe.

miss_BehaviourX91: hey

rainham_romeo1991: good weekend?

This was very normal.

miss_BehaviourX91: yeah it was nice, if fairly uneventful

miss_BehaviourX91: how was yours?

rainham_romeo1991: honestly, i spent a lot of it waiting for this moment

Her heart roared in her ears.

miss_BehaviourX91: me too

miss_BehaviourX91: i couldn’t really think about anything else

rainham_romeo1991: good

rainham_romeo1991: i’m going to send you something

miss_BehaviourX91: ok

With the stroke of a key, a long, long message appeared on her screen. It was written in the style of a letter.