Despite the Valentine disappointment there was the excitement of a Friday night date with Office Interest.
I felt a little bit apprehensive about it. Not because I didn’t want to go but I felt like I had bullied him into it. Where was the obsessive ‘I need to see you now’ texts that I had received before? Anyway I decided he was old enough to be able to say he didn’t want to meet up if he didn’t want to and despite the lack of enthusiasm he ensured me he liked me and wanted to see me.
He’d told me he was working early the next day — was that a hint that I needed to make myself scarce as soon as possible? I didn’t like it.
I arrived at his with a bottle of wine and then remembered he didn’t really like drinking. We curled up on the sofa and started chatting and watching a film. It was nice, relaxed and laid back. I felt myself unwind a little bit and started to enjoy just being in his company. This is what I wanted — time to get to know him better and spend time together — it just felt like a big struggle to get here.
It was a while before he made a move but it was lovely to be kissed and told I was beautiful — the OI of old. One thing led to another and we moved into the bedroom. Unlike the awkwardness of the previous encounter it felt natural and tender. After we lay entwined in a mass of limbs and talked about previous relationships, highlights and low points of our lives. I asked about his ex wife and what had gone wrong and he asked about my exes. I felt closer to him than ever and very happy in his arms.
We got up and had some food and then watched another film lying in bed. I fell asleep and the next thing I knew the sunlight was pouring through the windows. Still in the delicious half asleep mode there was a repeat performance and then I was dressed and off for the day.
As I walked home around the Downs, where I’d normally be running that early on a Saturday, I felt happiness tinged with a bit of sadness about having to go home. I wanted to stay and play all day. Back before Christmas he had been inviting me for naked days — I felt a little bit robbed since most of the date I had spent asleep!
Again the insecurities started creeping in and as I showered and changed. Then a text appeared from him asking me how I was feeling. A simple text but to me it meant he was thinking of me. And that put me on cloud nine.
…
A relationship (I now assumed we were in one) with Office Interest was not as easy as I had thought it would be.
I’d realised that we weren’t going to be snogging in the lift every day at work. Sometimes he was the first to email me and sometimes I was the first to email him. The texts were less frequent. He never left more than 10 minutes before replying he just didn’t always take the initiative to text first.
This bothered me. It annoyed me that his behaviour had suddenly changed. It was if he didn’t have to make the effort anymore because he had my attention. I felt like my behaviour was exactly the same but I started to question whether I was being too keen now that I was getting to know him and like him more.
I decided to cool off a bit and leave him to organise meeting up again. Instead Red Peg was back on the scene asking if I wanted to go to his work’s drinks evening. The new love interest had meant my animosity for RP had faded and now I felt I was happy to be friends.
We were such got on so well it seemed a shame not to hang out more. In fact with the OI bedroom acrobatics and the deep and meaningful conversations with RP I felt I had just about my ideal man.
Drinks were fun but RP got on my nerves. He kept asking about OI but suggesting that I should have played harder to get. It made me question whether I would have had more success if I’d been a bit more cool and unavailable with him. The thing is who’s got time for games?
Happily the cooling off period with OI had meant that he was keen to meet up again and we set a date for Sunday afternoon.
This was after I put my foot down at work and demanded some extremely full-on snogging in an empty corridor at work. He seemed to be turned on by any sort of danger – like that we might be caught at any point. Some of his texts had started to become a little less loving and even more sexual and when my colleague said he had heard he had a bit of a reputation I started to worry.
It turns out I didn’t need to. I got a text on Sunday morning asking if we could postpone the date…
