How He and I Became "Us" - Part 1

TDH* and I met almost 4 years ago when I started a new job working in his office. As I was being introduced to everyone, I remember my gaze lingering on him a split second longer than on everyone else, and the immediate mental note I made of his very obvious sex appeal.
Standing over 6' with dark hair, dark eyes, broad shoulders, narrow waist, and some of the most beautiful lips I have ever seen, it was hard not to stare. Truth be told, he's such an incredibly good looking man that I figured he wouldn't look twice at me.
As the months went by we became great friends, and as far as I can remember there was no flirtation, just good old-fashioned getting to know each other. We found that we had a lot in common. We made each other laugh. He was incredibly smart. We shared many of the same interests. But at that point in time I was harbouring no feelings of love or lust beyond silently acknowledging how attractive he was in every sense of the word.
Late in 2006 I was involved in a very tragic accident - lives were lost, hearts were broken, my life changed forever.
When I came back to work after the accident I threw myself into my work. I began coming in early, staying late, taking hours of work home every night, and coming into the office on weekends - in hindsight I suppose that was my way of coping. I was just living to live, and struggling to deal with everything that had happened.
Then one evening everything changed.
It was January and inhumanely cold outside. I had walked out to my car after work, and was sitting inside waiting for it to warm up when I decided to text TDH to kill some time. He responded immediately with a "Hi Kate!" But then somehow, over the course of the next 15 minutes, our texts somehow shifted from "Holy crap, I'm freezing to death!" to his responses of "If I was there I'd have you out of your clothes and warmed up in no time, and this is how I'd do it..."
Those text messages continued throughout my drive home, and later that evening when our spouses were both in bed, we continued our conversation online over messenger. The conversation was highly sexual and I remember blushing at some of the things I confessed, and some of the things he told me about. It was exhilarating.
The next day when I walked into the office we smiled at each other shyly, but he stayed in his office while I made my way to mine. A few moments later I was settling myself in for the day when I turned on my computer and immediately my inbox dinging with the usual 70 emails, when the most recent one caught my eye. It was from TDH, and it took my breath away...



*TDH - tall, dark, and handsome