Just Me…And The Voices

Four years ago (June 21st, 2005), I first met Nature Boy – during a job interview. As he interviewed me, I thought, “Wow, he’s really handsome, and look, no ring. Hmmmm.” The topic of kids came up, and I let him know that I didn’t want a job that required a lot of overtime, because I had two small children. He, in turn, told me that he had three kids at home and completely understood, that family should always come first. Again the gears in my mind were whirring, “Three kids and no ring? Why, that poor man must be a widow! And he’s so quiet and kind of shy. He must really need someone to comfort him.”

I am pleased to say that I held my composure and remained professional as we completed the interview. A couple of days later I got the call offering me the job. Nature Boy was going to be my new boss.

My first day was July 11th, and as one of my new co-workers was showing me around, we came to a wall with a bunch of beautiful paintings hanging on it. “Nature Boy did these,” my co-worker said. “You mean Nature Boy, my boss?” I asked, shocked. These paintings were absolutely gorgeous. I was shocked that my seemingly “corporate” boss had created something so extraordinary. At that moment, I knew that he would be mine. Oh yes. He would be mine. Mwuahahahahahaha!

I slowly learned more about him, bit by bit. I found out that he’d been divorced for a few years, not a widow as I’d imagined. Whatever, I could work with that. He’d been with the company for over 15 years,  starting out as a graphic designer, but then moved into management.

I’m not ashamed to say that I pursued him. I didn’t care that he was my boss. I just knew that I had to go for it, or I would always regret it. I started out with a subtle, flirty email here and there, which continued on for a couple of months. One day we were discussing (still via email) his trouble finding good women to date, and I sent this zinger: “Sometimes the right woman is right in front of you, and you don’t even notice.” He immediately replied, “Are you flirting with me?”, to which I replied in the affirmative, and he then asked, “Do we need to talk about this?”

So, with my heart in my hand, or on my sleeve, or wherever, I went into his office, shut the door and stammered out how I had feelings for him, feelings that were not all about wanting jumping his bones, although I did want to jump his bones, but that it was more than that.  (And yes, I actually did use that phraseology. Sigh.) So I sat there expectantly, waiting for him to tell me he felt the same. Instead, he SHUT ME DOWN, going on about him being my boss, that it was inappropriate, we could get into lots of trouble, blah, blah, blah.

Recovering quickly from the shock and humiliation, I told him, sincerely, that we could be “just friends”, but that we were going to be more than just boss/subordinate. I knew, without a doubt, that we were meant to be in each other’s lives. I just had to convince him of that.

And so, it was on like Donkey Kong.

Stay tuned for Part 2.

UPDATE: Part 2 can be found here!