The Beginning | Facts About Myself | Don't Mess With An English Major | The Bake SaleThe Favor | The Rescue | The Brothel | The Number | The Wrist, Part One | The Wrist, Part TwoThe Sighting | The Question | The Concern | The Explanation | The Star Wars Debate The Phone Call | The Holiday Thursday | The Rain Check | The First Freak Out | The TwistThe Second Freak Out | The Clarification | The Confusion | The Awkward ConversationThe Accident | The Show, Part One | The Show, Part Two | The Birthday Dinner | The Move
It was a typical Wednesday at work. Office Boy and I had enjoyed a quiet Valentine's the evening before and now it as back to the grind.
A little bored and rather tired, I decided to walk around the office and stopped by to chat with Cubicle Girl (the girl who works in the cubicle across from Office Boy). When I walked over, I noticed a guy I'd never seen before sitting in Office Boy's cubicle chatting with him. I ignored the two of them and chatted with Cubicle Girl about various things. Suddenly, something caught my attention.
"...THIS ONE."
I turned to see both Office Boy and the other guy -- for the sake of simplicity we shall call him Other Guy -- both looking at me.
"Umm...can I help you?""I was just explaining to Other Guy how I say 'probally' all the time and it really bothers you," Office Boy said."Yes, it does," I said. I turned to Other Guy and explained, "I was an English major in college, so grammatical and semantic errors really bother me. Office Boy has, unfortunately, learned this and so makes them on purpose just to irritate me." I cast an irritated glance at Office Boy and he grinned."Oh, well that's cool. Where did you go to school?" asked Other Guy."Christopher Newport University, down in Newport News.""Neat. And you said you majored in English? Any particular kind of literature you enjoy?""I wouldn't say there's necessarily a particular kind of literature I enjoy. I just like to read. But I mainly concentrated in journalism when I was in school, specifically arts and entertainment.""That's neat," said Other Guy. "Any reporters you'd recommend reading?""I wouldn't necessarily recommend any specific reporters, but one kind of journalism I did fall in love with during college is narrative journalism," I said. "You essentially take the tools of fiction writers and use it to tell a factual story, quite, narrative is found in book form and not so much in article form.""Ahh. Well, any books then?""There were a couple of interesting ones we read when I took narrative. There was The Orchid Thief by...I think Susan Orlean is her name. That one's interesting for the most part, but has some incredibly boring parts. The one I enjoyed the most was a book about a woman named Rosa Lee. She lived in the ghetto in Harlem and it was all about her family's efforts to get out of the cycle of poverty and such. Very interesting, but I can't remember who wrote it.""That does sound really interesting.""I'll look up the author for you and bring it back later.""Alright, sounds good," said Other Guy."Well, I should probably get back to work. I'll talk to you guys later," I said and walked off.
A while later, after looking up and writing down authors, titles, and such, I went off to find Other Guy. He was no longer in Office Boy's cubicle, nor was Office Boy, but I eventually found him in a usually vacant cubicle.
"Here you go," I said, handing him a post-it note with a few titles written on it. "The first two are the ones I told you about. That last one is a short story by Jon Franklin, but really all of Jon Franklin's stuff is great.""Thanks, I'll have to check these out," he said.
We continued to discuss various kinds of literature for a bit and then I headed back to my desk to continue working. I saw Other Guy later that afternoon as he left the office, but that was the last of my interactions with him.
Near the end of the day, I stopped by Office Boy's cubicle to say hi.
"So, do you think Other Guy is cute?" he asked."Umm...kind of, I guess," I said. "Why?""He likes you.""What? How do you know? Did he say something?""Yeah," he said."Well, what did he say?""He was like, 'So, what's her story? Like, is she married or what?' So I mean...if you want to go out with him, I understand..." he said, he voice dropping as he finished his statment. I couldn't help but laugh."I think I'm good. I like dating you," I said.
Later that evening, we were hanging out and he brought it up again.
"Are you sure you don't want to date Other Guy? I mean...you guys just have so much in common and we really don't.""Oh, goodness gracious. What did he say?"
Apparently the conversation went something like this...
"So...like, what's her story? Is she married or engaged or anything?" asked Other Guy."No, it's a purity ring," said Office Boy."Oh, okay," said Other Guy.
"Why? Do you like her?""Well, yeah. I mean, she's awesome. And she knows her literature! That's really rare!""Oh, cool," said Office Boy, his face contorting in anger as he thought, But...but..that's MY Sarah!
I laughed and kissed his cheek.
"Seriously, you don't have anything to worry about.""It just got me thinking that maybe there's someone better for you. You and he could talk about literature and date and get married and stuff and then have a bunch of cross-eyed babies." (Side note: I have no idea where the cross-eyed babies thing came from.)"Yes, we could," I said, chuckling. "But that doesn't matter, because I like you, not him.""But why?""Because you are sweet and kind and funny," I said. "And regardless of how much you think Other Guy and I have in common and how much you think we don't have in common, the fact of the matter is I like you and I am dating you so whether Other Guy likes me or not doesn't make a difference.""What are you going to do when he asks you out?""Well, that's assuming a lot at this point, but I will tell him that I am flattered, but I'm already dating someone else.""And then he's gonna come to me and say, 'Man! She's already dating someone else!' and I'm gonna be like, 'Aww, man. I'm sorry. That really sucks.' Because, you know, I am still his friend," said Office Boy, smiling."You're ridiculous," I said and gave him a kiss.
----------Check back Friday for the next installment in The Saga of Office Boy!Like what you're reading? Consider liking me on facebook or following me on Twitter!
