Mrs M. has an admirer.
Or rather: an admirer of the money, which he says she should spend as soon as possible.
She has never met Brandon, the name of the man who unexpectedly walked into her life, but he writes her friendly-sounding emails in English.
It all started when she signed up for a trial subscription to a transcription application a few weeks ago, with no desire to extend the subscription beyond the trial period.
Brandon quickly noticed her renewed activity.
"How do you like it so far?" He wrote at the end of his email and then "Speak soon".
Kim Maurus
volunteer.
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Ms M. found that strange.
Why did he expect her to want to speak to him?
She ignored the email.
A few days later, Brandon got back in touch.
"Your trial is about to expire," he wrote in English, followed by a sad smiley.
"Well," thought Ms. M., "I actually hoped so." Unimpressed by Ms. Ms.'s silence, he wrote her again a few days later, his greeting was only "Let me know, Brandon" - that referred to the question of whether Ms. M. was interested in a discount.
"Whew," thought Ms. M., Brandon really was a pain in the ass.
But the poor man probably had to send a minimum three-digit number of such emails every day.
Ms. M was surprised that companies would still be using inflationary emails to acquire customers in 2022. She considered writing something snotty back, but then gave up.
That would give him too much hope.
Brandon actually gave up at some point.
"Sadly we didn't manage to exchange ideas," he wrote after a few days.
Behind it, Ms. M. read the redeeming words: "I'll stop contacting you for now." She would have preferred an "I'll let it be".
In the "Nine to five" column, weekly changing authors write about the curiosities of everyday life at work, school and university.