In February it was a joke. Something they laughed about over lunch. The pandemic was coming for them! Could you even imagine such a thing? This wasn't something that could happen now. Pandemics were relics from the past.
She wasn't sure why they thought that. They had all seen Ebola and SARS in their lifetimes but those things happened "over there" and "some place" not here. Not really. There might be a little flurry in Florida of West Nile virus or a small grouping of disease near an international airport for a few weeks but it was always contained quickly. Such a false sense of superiority and security.
And so they laughed about it.
Then at the beginning of March they started to talk about the what ifs. What if their office did close down for a few weeks? How awful that would be. How would they stand it? Home all the time? No break at all? What would that mean?
She had been convincing herself that what she was doing was fine. A few lunches, okay lunch almost everyday. A few text messages after hours, okay a flurry of them every evening. Some shared inside jokes, a lot of shared looks and laughs. But they hadn't really done anything wrong. Not yet. Though in moments where she was being honest with herself she knew it was just a matter of time.
She was already dressing with the thought of what he would like. She was keeping little snatches of conversation in her head to replay. She felt attractive and interesting and yes, sexy. She knew it was only a matter of time, but right now she was telling herself that she hadn't done anything wrong.
Then mid-March the office closed. Fourteen days. That was the first message. If we all shut down and stay home for two weeks it will be fine. The schools closed early for Spring Break and said an extra week off would be enough. They texted multiple times during the day. Just checking in.
At the end of the first week the change came down, instead of two weeks of the office closing they were going to be working from home through April. From two weeks to 6 weeks. From temporary close to temporary working from home. The schools followed suit. The would look at coming back in May.
At first she and her husband shared their little home office. Each taking a corner of the desk. But when his company said they would be working from home until June at least and then her company said did we say end of April? Let's try end of June as well. They decided they really needed more space for each of them to be able to take conference calls and Zoom meetings. They didn't have kids so they knew their lives were so much easier than their co-workers who were trying to manage online school for the kids and online working from home for themselves. They laughed as they set up two office spaces in the house that they had been thinking was maybe a little too big for them before. You didn't know what you needed until you needed it.
They slept in every morning. Easing in to the day. There were no breakfast meetings. No rushed time at the gym before work. They woke up and went for walks together before breakfast and the before the heat of the day could take hold. They showered together before work. Something they hadn't done in a long time. They enjoyed having the time with each other. No commute. No rush hour assholes. The committed to leaving work phones in the office in the evening. No more working from home after normal office hours when they were working from home all day. It was great. Even if she missed a few texts at the beginning.
They also got a glimpse into their co-workers lives that they had never had before. Zoom meetings showed that Gary was a really talented artist who painted water color flowers. And Zoe was a Star Trek fanatic who had a replica of the Starship Enterprise hanging from her office ceiling. And then there was the time Carl's kids burst into the room to show their Dad their art project and his wife Janie came in smiling and apologizing and she seemed so nice. And pretty. Not at all how she had always imagined her. And his kids were adorable. And real. So very real. And he clearly adored all of them.
At the end of May the end date was pushed again. Expect to be home until the end of 2020. Maybe beyond. The company was going to be exploring the idea of virtual work as the new normal. Was there a way to do everything by Zoom or conference calls? Maybe one small office for times when face to face meetings made the most sense, but the money that could be saved on real estate, well it was something to consider.
She and her husband started cooking together. When the work day ended they would make themselves a cocktail, more often than not something they had found online, something they had never tried before, and then they would cook dinner. Sharing stories about their day. They also had lunch together quite a few times during the week. It had started simply enough, a knock on her office door one day asking if she was ready for some lunch, he had made sandwiches and thought it might be nice to sit outside and have a break. It had been nice. He was right.
Morning walks, leisurely breakfasts, picnic lunches, shared dinners. And then he started to send her little text messages during the day. And she would give their "secret" knock on his office door whenever she walked past. Softly tapping out 1-4-3, I love you. She hadn't felt like this since they had first started dating. She remembered how much she loved and wanted to be loved by him.
She realized she hadn't been looking for a new relationship, just a better one.
And all it took was a pandemic to show her she already had it.
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