Beautiful. He hadn't yet seen her face, but her very presence filled the space between them with the essence of beauty. A pain-riddled mind took turns that logic would struggle to follow. His now imagined her the contemporary and inspiration of Byron -- especially when he penned the words, She walks in beauty, like the night || Of cloudless climes and starry skies. Ms. St. Giles was that kind of lovely. He would have given anything to see her face in this moment. But, he thought, on the heels of his first desire, she would still be beautiful -- regardless of what sort of face she wore.
"No -- no prescription." And then, because there was little left but to draw the conclusion that she did, he asked to confirm: "Do you suffer from migraines?" He did not like the idea of her suffering -- for any reason.
And then he wanted to know everything about her. Needed. Needed to know everything. Now was the time. This was the place. He could have had no better reason to speak with her and to learn about her. Now. Now was the time. Regardless of his circumstances -- and because of them.
There were two ways of handling pain: fighting, wrestling, and controlling it; or relaxing into it and letting it take over for the time of its rule. One left him exhausted, but with more of his wits throughout; the other made him all but helpless, but the task of endurance was somewhat easier. Tonight, he would fight. Yes. That meant... He pulled off his suit jacket and fished out his phone from the inner pocket.
His HTC EVO, covered in a rugged, rubberized case, looked to be fresh and new -- but it was nearly a year old by now. Elias saw no need to yet replace it; it functioned adequately. Of course, he couldn't see to use it now, but the Android system was easy enough to navigate. Even if she - Ms. St. Giles - had no experience with it, she could doubtlessly send a message on his behalf through his email to his team. Tomorrow, they would not have his leadership. This was of little concern to him; there were no patches or revisions scheduled for nearly a week, and his team was largely autonomous. He would have to ask her for help. Again.
And she had been asking about how she could help. Perhaps she hadn't intended this, but...
"Could you send an email for me? I will not go in tomorrow."