13 August, 2008

Office Flirtation

At work I am strictly professional.  hey, at life I am pretty calm and straight forward in general.  I know how to flirt in a friendly way that allows for the fun to happen and the banter to flow without anyone thinking that I am promising or alluding to more.  (The flirting is quite different when I am promising something that I intend to or would like to see to fruition)
 
But I do flirt at work - that fun flirt that promises nothing, states nothing, and yet leaves everyone feeling good and laughing.  I flirt with the younger guys who are just not sure what to make of me because I am not their peer, but I am sincerely interested in who they are and their experiences... and I, unlike most of the other women around here, sometimes sport cleavage!  These guys are fun, but I don't flirt really with words, more with actions. 
 
When it comes to words and the office, there is only one man with whom I flirt; just one who I go toe-to-toe with and who, without saying much, can make me turn eight shades of red!  (Yes people, I still blush!  )  I don't know what the office would be without him - I know it wouldn't be half as much fun.  He is my "go-to" guy as the man is not only amazingly sharp witted but he has a great sense of the language and the area in which I work.  
 
And yes, I do love the flirtation!
 
Like the e-mail I received when I wrote requesting information as we were nearing a deadline.  He responded: 
 
"Satisfaction hard to come by???"
 
I read it once - then I read it again.  How on earth am I supposed to respond to that?  My first thought ... I rejected immediately.  If I responded, it had to be something very fuzzy. 
 
At first glance, this e-mail is innocent, as he happily explained when he dropped by my office.  And I am sure that the idea behind the words was innocent enough but, given the flirtatious relationship I have with this man - he knew exactly where my mind would go - and that is exactly where it went. 
 
I wrote back that I would not type my original few come backs but I would leave it up to his imagination.  (Which is something I know men are great about doing anyway)
 
But when he dropped by my office to call me on my lack of an answer, the room became amazingly hot and I found myself wishing I had worn a red dress so that the blush wouldn't be so evident.  I told him that there was no way I was going to run with that line via e-mail; office e-mail at that! 
 
"I could have typed 'I work here, satisfaction is always hard to find'."  I told him as he leaned against my office door. 
 
He chuckled, "But that wouldn't have been any fun."
 
He is right, it wouldn't have been, but it would have been PC and all that other office etiquette stuff. 
 
The response I wanted to send, but didn't... the one I didn't even say out loud because he never asked as the moment had passed
"It is always satisfying when it is hard." 
 
And I wonder what he would have said to that?!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

You're smart not to leave an e-trail of those kinds of flirtations at work; big trouble, maybe, one day.

But it is so wonderful have those little flirts in life, especially in the office.

I'd be nervous to act on it, though ...

The Exception said...

Kat - I would NEVER act on it with this guy. He is not only married but I don't play where I work - so to speak! He is just a great guy. Chemistry is there but there won't be any line crossing!

dadshouse said...

To quote the Bard, or maybe Mick Jagger - I don't get no satisfaction!

Yes, e-flirting at work is mega dangerous. No paper or byte trails!

said...

Ha!! I love that. You SO think like I do...

JustRun said...

LOL. That is I've-already-put-in-my-notice flirting.

The Exception said...

DH - No e-mail trails here. I rarely see him and most, if not all, the flirting is done in person where it is clearly fun and nothing more.

T - I knew that there was someone out there like me!

JR - It took years for us to get to know one another enough to flirt with the best of them - but we understand the lines. I would never flirt like this with anyone else in the office though some of the men do flirt as intensely with me (it simply isn't returned to the same degree).