Chapter 2 - Problems and Promotions

Feeling calmer, Emily set about on her usual routine, cleaning up and deleting her browsing history so that Steve would never know. It was only when she tried to delete her chat conversation that there was any problem, with an error message appearing with each attempt.

Ctrl+Alt+Del. Nothing seemed to work.

With only five minutes to spare before Steve would return home, Emily finally gave up, took a shower and snuggled up on the sofa next to her beautiful, handsome boyfriend, as if nothing had happened at all.

The next day, Emily headed over to the gym after work, put in her headphones and stepped on the treadmill. She tapped on the screen to start, but nothing happened. Sighing in frustration, she noticed how unusually busy the place was. There were more people than she’d ever seen in this gym. She continued clicking on the screen and called over for help, but nothing they did seemed to work.

Grumbling as the place seemed so overcrowded, she walked over to the next machine, and the next, finding that each of them seemed to have the same frustrating problem. It was unbelievable; even the weight machines seemed to be magnetically locked for her. She considered calling for help again, but with the extreme number of people wanting to work out that night, the guy in charge was literally rushed off his feet. And so, huffing in disapproval, Emily packed up her things and left.

Staring down at her cell phone on the way out, Emily’s attention was caught by an email suddenly flashing up on her screen. The donut place across the street was giving away a full tray of free donuts - Emily’s favourite ones as well! She skipped straight over and presented the email to the guy behind the counter. He stared at it blankly. “I’ve not heard of this promotion,” he mumbled, reading the email off Emily’s phone carefully.

“It’s just come through to me about two minutes ago,” Emily explained, hoping that the deal really was legitimate; after all, she didn’t remember signing up to be on their mailing list.

However, with no problem at all, as the promotion code was punched into the till, the whole thing went through in a flash. Emily smiled with glee as she walked back to her car. She placed the box on the passenger seat and breathed in the sweet aromas, before finally giving in and eating one.

A moment later, there seemed to be a problem with the barrier at the parking lot, and a line of cars began queuing, trying to get out. Emily grumbled to herself as she couldn’t even reverse her car back. Yet, the little tray of donuts stared at her. She ate a second. Then, a third. She didn’t even want the fourth one, but she’d become so bored from waiting, she wasn’t sure she would even make it home for her evening meal.

Then, just like that, the barrier opened and the cars quickly dispersed, leaving Emily free to leave at long last.