Turns out we had a lot in common: both from upstate New York, both big baseball fans (coincidentally we loathed the Yankees).Turns out we had a lot in common: both from upstate New York, both big baseball fans (coincidentally we loathed the Yankees)... the list went on. Obviously she was a big 'people person'. You know the kind: eternally cheerful, never wont for words. I found her charming and very cute. The more I talked to her the more appealing she became. And the hornier I got, to my dismay. My divorce six months earlier had left me shaken and rudderless. I felt too old to rejoin the dating scene, and a lot of my old confidence had tipped its hat and taken a walk. This left me absent a partner and without an outlet for my desires aside from the obvious one. I was hungry for more. I started talking about my ex. Alice seemed sympathetic about the marital problems, although she expressed particular interest in the fact that I was unattached. She was too. We were both in our thirties and remarked how tough it was finding a good person these days. When she finished up and closed her toolbox with a solid click, I felt a stab of alarm and regret. She was leaving me. For a moment there I'd thought I felt something. I guessed I was wrong. Suddenly I wondered what in the hell I was doing in this office night after night after busting my ass 9 to 5. This -- all of it -- didn't seem right. I sighed. Some of the crestfallen emotion must have shown through my friendly surface expression. |