monday 9 january

9st 2, alcoholunits 4, cigarettes 29, calories 770(v.g. but at what price?).

nightmare day in office. watched the door for daniel all morning: nothing. by 11.45 a.m. i was seriously alarmed. should i raise an alert?

then perpetua suddenly bellowed into the phone: 'daniel? he's gone to a meeting in croydon, he'll be in tomorrow.' she banged the phone down and said, 'god, all these bloody girls ringing him up.'

panic stricken, i reached for the silk cut. which girls? what? somehow i made it through the day, got home, and in a moment of insanity left a message on daniel's answer?phone, saying (oh no, i can't believe i did this), 'hi, it's jones here. i was just wondering how you are and if you wanted to meet for the skirt-health summit, like you said.'

the second i put the phone down i realized it was an emergency and rang tom, who calmly said leave it to him: if he made several calls to the machine he could find the code which would let him play back and erase the message. eventually he thought he'd cracked it, but unfortunately daniel then answered the phone. instead of saying, 'sorry, wrong number,' tom hung up. so now daniel not only has the insane message but will think it's me who's rung his answerphone fourteen times this evening and then, when i did get hold of him, banged the phone down.

tuesday 10 january

9st 1, alcohol units 2, cigarettes 6, calories 998 (excellent, v.g. perfect saint-style person).

slunk into the office crippled with embarrassment about the message. i had resolved totally to detach myself from daniel but then he appeared looking unnervingly sexy and started making everyone laugh so that i went all to pieces.

suddenly, message pending flashed up on the top of my computer screen.

message jones

thanks for your phone call.

cleave.

my heart sank. that phone call was suggesting a date. who replies by saying 'thanks' and leaves it at that unless they but after a little thought, i sent back:

message cleave

please shut up. i am very busy and

important.

jones.

and after a few minutes more, he replied.

message jones

sorry to interrupt, jones, pressure must be hellish. over and out.

ps. i like your tits in that top.

cleave

. . . and we were off.frantic messaging continued all week, culminating in him suggesting a date for sunday night and me dizzyingly, euphorically, accepting. some?times i look around the office as we all tap away and wonder if anyone is doing any work at all.

(is it just me or is sunday a bizarre night for a first date? all wrong, like saturday morning or monday at 2 p.m.)