drudgery

For the umpteenth time, he shuffled the papers on the top of his desk. Coming to work had been a chore of late. Where once he'd go to bed looking forward to waking early, he'd now find himself extremely tired when morning came. The ritual was the same. morning followed a night of fitful sleep. He'd wake up feeling more tired than before, and he'd drag himself out of bed, wondering if he'd really want to get up. He didn't have much to look forward to in the day.
He looked out the window and shivered. Rain was battering the window pane and wind was whistling through its cracks. He cursed the central air conditioning blowing freezing air at top speed.
Stretching, he got up and paced, rubbing his arms to warm himself. He stopped at the window and saw the splashing rain forming patterns on the glass. He remembered the same patterns forming on the windows of his car. And a face.
He shrugged his shoulders and wrapped his arms even tighter around himself.
He was in a traffic jam in blinding rain when he heard banging on his car door. She stood there, a ghostly apparition through the rain soaked pane. Surprised, he pushed open the car door as she bundled herself in.
"I'm sorry!" she said again and again as little rivulets of water rolled off her rain soaked hair onto the calf leather seats of his Kompressor. And he was about to protest when she said "... I don't know where to go..." . He realized she had been crying.
As his car started to move, he stole a glance at her. She was drenched by the rain, hair strung together by the rain, trailing water. Her blouse was soaked right through, clinging tight, like second skin, following her every curve. She held her elbows together, covering her breasts, buying her face in her hands as she sobbed.
The sudden booming thunder brought him to the present. He stared at the rain patterns on the glass, and grimaced wistfully. His life was beginning to unravel, only he was not fully aware of it.