texting her by the unique ringtone that had been attributed to it. Her boss had one, her parents each had one, and Liz did of course. Beyond that, there were three or four friends from University that she still kept in touch with now and again and that was about it.
But this was not any of their ring-tones; it was a general “unallocated” one. Very few people had her number and somehow Kate had so far managed to escape the pain and suffering of spam texts. So when the unallocated tone sounded, Kate immediately was curious as to who it could possibly be and took her right hand of the bike to fish for the phone that was in her pocket. Her phone was not the latest model so she had to press a few buttons to find the text message. It was from a number that she did not recognize at all…she scrolled down the message and soon discovered that the texter was none other than Mr. Love. She had forgotten that she had given him her number. Once she realized who it was, Kate was no longer concerned about maintaining her speed and came to a halt as quickly as she could and shuffled off slightly to the side of the road, just in case a car driver didn’t spot her and sent her into the middle of next week.
She found that she was trembling slightly for some reason and in a bit of a tizzy. She could not for the life of her get the little stand on the bike to work and she gave up in the end, letting the bike fall to the ground with a crash. What did Colin have to say?
The message was quite short and quite cryptic. “Change of plan. RU free tonight? Pick U up @7. Put your best togs on! CL.” Somewhat bizarrely, Kate’s first thought was one of surprise that Colin should descend to using that awful text-speak that she hated. She hated it even more when people used it on Facebook and even proper emails. She bet some people even used it when they were writing proper letters, for job applications and such. She hadn’t thought that would be his style, for some reason. Anyway, what was far more important was the content of the message. It looked as though tomorrow was now cancelled and replaced by something tonight instead? Presumably it was somewhere different than the Indian restaurant as Colin had asked her to dress up, something that really wasn’t necessary for the original location.
Fortunately, thought Kate, there was no other plan for that evening, other than watching the telly with her mum and dad, so there was no reason not to respond that she was, indeed, free. Kate had never been the best at texting, mainly through lack of experience, and was no match at all for someone like Liz who seemed to have bionic thumbs and could probably have written a text essay in the same amount of time that Kate could type a few words. Kate was even more hopeless than usual and she was all fingers and thumbs in her haste to type a message – the blasted auto-correct feature was doing her head in as well. She began to understand why text speak was actually a sensible idea – the less characters you had to try and type the better. In the end, she reluctantly decided writing in text speak was going to be the best approach and that the shorter the message was the better:
“OK! CU soon! KB”
As soon as she pressed the send button and got the confirmatory message that it had been sent successfully, Kate took a quick look at her watch. Yikes. It was going to be a race against the clock now. Colin would be at her house in about 55 minutes. By the time she got home, she would probably have only about 40 minutes to get ready. Although that seemed in theory to be quite a lot of time, she knew she had to have a quick shower, do her hair, select her clothes and do her make-up. It was going to be tight. By the time she got home, she was absolutely knackered, breathing heavily and dripping with sweat. In 40 minutes, she had to be transformed into a fragrant vision of beauty and poise.
But this was not any of their ring-tones; it was a general “unallocated” one. Very few people had her number and somehow Kate had so far managed to escape the pain and suffering of spam texts. So when the unallocated tone sounded, Kate immediately was curious as to who it could possibly be and took her right hand of the bike to fish for the phone that was in her pocket. Her phone was not the latest model so she had to press a few buttons to find the text message. It was from a number that she did not recognize at all…she scrolled down the message and soon discovered that the texter was none other than Mr. Love. She had forgotten that she had given him her number. Once she realized who it was, Kate was no longer concerned about maintaining her speed and came to a halt as quickly as she could and shuffled off slightly to the side of the road, just in case a car driver didn’t spot her and sent her into the middle of next week.
She found that she was trembling slightly for some reason and in a bit of a tizzy. She could not for the life of her get the little stand on the bike to work and she gave up in the end, letting the bike fall to the ground with a crash. What did Colin have to say?
The message was quite short and quite cryptic. “Change of plan. RU free tonight? Pick U up @7. Put your best togs on! CL.” Somewhat bizarrely, Kate’s first thought was one of surprise that Colin should descend to using that awful text-speak that she hated. She hated it even more when people used it on Facebook and even proper emails. She bet some people even used it when they were writing proper letters, for job applications and such. She hadn’t thought that would be his style, for some reason. Anyway, what was far more important was the content of the message. It looked as though tomorrow was now cancelled and replaced by something tonight instead? Presumably it was somewhere different than the Indian restaurant as Colin had asked her to dress up, something that really wasn’t necessary for the original location.
Fortunately, thought Kate, there was no other plan for that evening, other than watching the telly with her mum and dad, so there was no reason not to respond that she was, indeed, free. Kate had never been the best at texting, mainly through lack of experience, and was no match at all for someone like Liz who seemed to have bionic thumbs and could probably have written a text essay in the same amount of time that Kate could type a few words. Kate was even more hopeless than usual and she was all fingers and thumbs in her haste to type a message – the blasted auto-correct feature was doing her head in as well. She began to understand why text speak was actually a sensible idea – the less characters you had to try and type the better. In the end, she reluctantly decided writing in text speak was going to be the best approach and that the shorter the message was the better:
“OK! CU soon! KB”
As soon as she pressed the send button and got the confirmatory message that it had been sent successfully, Kate took a quick look at her watch. Yikes. It was going to be a race against the clock now. Colin would be at her house in about 55 minutes. By the time she got home, she would probably have only about 40 minutes to get ready. Although that seemed in theory to be quite a lot of time, she knew she had to have a quick shower, do her hair, select her clothes and do her make-up. It was going to be tight. By the time she got home, she was absolutely knackered, breathing heavily and dripping with sweat. In 40 minutes, she had to be transformed into a fragrant vision of beauty and poise.
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