Thursday, September 28, 2006

Office Flirt

Roommate Rachel and her friend believe it is vital to have an office flirt, to make the tedious moments at work more bearable. I enjoy my job most of the time, so I haven't felt a pressing need for such a thing--or rather, person--but I see where they're coming from. I just don't work in a company where there are a lot of straight, single men.

However. There's this one guy. I'll call him Coworker Campbell. I see him around a lot, but never had any interraction beyond getting directions to somebody's office from him last week. Cute. Seemingly-straight.

Yesterday, I emailed him to ask a work-related question. What started out as a professional exchange quickly turned into playful banter. Polly affirmed what I detected in the emails: flirting. Under-the-radar flirting, flirting-with-a-lowercase-"f", but flirting all the same.

It was great fun and made for a breezy afternoon at work. I always feel too guilty to flirt with other men when I'm seeing someone, but I like to think of myself as pretty decent at it, so it was lovely to return to fine flirting form.

As luck would have it, both Coworker Campbell and I ended up at a going away drinks thing for a fellow coworker. We were the only two smokers in the bunch, so we took cigarette breaks together and had a few mini-conversations outside. In person, he's considerably more subdued and even a little shy. We didn't have a deep and meaningful connection, but it made for a pleasant night out.

There has been a little more email banter today. I think that's as far as I want to take it. In the past, I have thrown myself myself back in the dating pool after a breakup and suffered the consequences. This time around, I'm going to take baby steps. I'm in a good headspace at the moment and I'd like to keep it that way. Exchanging witty emails with a cute coworker is enough for me.

9 comments:

Sandra Dee said...

Woohoo. I too have a thing for a coworker, but I'm with you -- I'm not sure I want to take it any further than flirting at work. That might be asking for trouble! Continue with the baby steps!

Damn It Anyway said...

Slow and steady wins the race!!
Ok..not sure what that means in this case..but you know......yeah.

Chris said...

I have no cute coworkers! An office of software developers, and they are all too old or married :(

Anonymous said...

Flirting with intent vs. Innocent flirting. You're doing some innocent flirting. Just be careful what you say/ Your e-mails are saved on your work server. I have to say that that's one thing I miss about not working in a coprorate environment. The inter office romances and drama.Not that this is drama, it's not. But it is romantic.

Anonymous said...

Office flirtations are fun! When Tadpole and I first met it was at work and it made the days go by so much easier. I think what makes it so much fun is that it is kind of forbidden and knowing you have this flirtation going on, makes for very fun moments when you're around other coworkers :-)

Anonymous said...

I had an office flirtation that I ended up marrying!! It was funny when people didn't know what was going on- we used to look across the meeting table at each other with little smirks on our faces. Eventually everyone figured it out, and after the gossip and teasing, things worked out well. People say don't have office relationships, but it worked out for me.

NotCarrie said...

I think baby steps is a good plan.

Anonymous said...

I've got a bit of an email flirtation going on with an IT guy at my office. We were exchanging some emails on Friday (very mild ones), when I started having my usual printing problems. (How I met my flirt in the process.) I emailed him to come and help me, but he was away in our other building and told me to call the Help Desk. I did exactly that and they connected to my computer remotely to try and solve problem. As the Help Desk tech is working on the problem, another email from my flirt pops up in the corner of my screen, which the tech could clearly see! And the Help Desk tech knows my IT guy! How embarassing- luckily the emails were very tame.

The hazards of inter-office flirtation. Now I wish my IT guy would come fix my computer soon. It's having problems printing again. wink, wink.....

Enjoy your office flirtation, but be careful with the emails.....

James said...

I'm intrigued - what exactly was this oh-so-subtle flirting?