- Joined
- Jan 7, 2015
- Messages
- 786
I was thinking of not posting this FR because I was embarrassed of the consequences this "failed escalation" might lead to. But I'm doing it anyway to reflect on my thoughts, and get some feedback. And to hopefully realize that I am just overthinking things.
The report
So I got a new job a couple of months ago, and I met this girl (call her Cathlyn) during the training program a month prior. She has already worked there a year and attented one day of the training program where newbies would "speed date" seniors - some team building exercise. She's 23 like I am. During our speed date she was giving a mix of friendly and nervous vibe. I chose to assume attraction. Nothing else happened, and I completely forgot about her afterwards.
Fast forward to last Friday. Our workplace was arranging a X-mas event with dinner and party. The good thing about my new workplace is that it consists mostly of women all ages, and the minority is men. I got to talk to a lot of my female coworkers and a couple of the male ones. I had built a lot of social momentum up around 11 pm and felt like anything was possible. Side note: I didn't booze that night, only drank water.
I went out on the dancefloor with a couple of girls and guys, sometimes the whole group dancing in a circle, sometimes dancing with just a single girl. Later, I see Cathlyn checking me out from her own dance group. We just keep eye contact for a couple of seconds and smile to acknowledge each other, but continue dancing with our own separate groups. Eventually we end up close to each other, and I just grab her and begin to dance with her. No talking, just dancing. We get separated again when I have to hit the bathroom.
An hour later or so, after relaxing from all the dancing so far and just talking to people again, some dude is rejecting to dance with her, and it happens as I am returning to dancefloor from the bathroom yet again (yes, I drank a lot of water that evening!). I thought it was a weak way to get to dance with somebody, but who cares. Go along, see what happens. We dance again, and I make sure we dance close to each other some of the times. 3 or 4 songs passes until the DJ plays a shitty song, and I tell her let's go outside to get some fresh air, she agrees.
We sit on a bench, and some of the others are nearby. We talk a little about superficial stuff and the job. It is cold outside, but I do rest my hand on her leg and move it up and down as we talk. She isn't really looking at me, and she isn't reciprocating my touch (probably because it's cold...). I tell her I love people who are spontaneous and have an "in-the-moment"-personality when she mentions something that describes she is exactly that, and she laughs. I wasn't really worried about our conversation at this point, but rather the lack of touch from her end.
Everything from this point on happens so fast because I begin to think what I want from her, and what could she probably want from me. I assume sex - so I want to lead the conversations towards going home to either her or me. I ask her where she lives, and how she's getting home. She got here with her bike and will ride home with it - a ride that would take 40-45 minutes. I got there with the subway.. so tell her to come with me to the subway station, and we will see what we do from there. She doesn't want to - "think it's too soon to leave".
When she is done saying this, I snap out of my presence and turn into my head right away. It's like a light bulb got lit up with the subtext: "what am I doing inviting a coworker home? She could ruin my reputation".
I think for a couple of seconds and tell her that I actually want to stay a little longer to get myself warm again before going home, and let's hit the dancefloor one more time to make that happen. She agrees, and we go inside. I hang up my jacket and scarf, but she has already walked to the dancefloor without me as I'm struggling to get my scarf off. When I get to the dancefloor, I find some of my other friends and begin to just dance with them. After a minute or two I see her again with some other girls, but barely mind this anymore. I spend the rest of the event in the company of the other coworkers to get out of my head again and go home alone
After-thoughts
From the looks of it, I should read the GC articles about gaming coworkers because obviously, I hadn't thought about the consequences before I began messing with Cathlyn. And the only thing I was initially worried about, was word getting out that I tried to hook up with her (and failed). But as I really thought about it the day after, I remembered a quote of a recent article by Chase: that everything should be viewed as practice. I used to think like this as a teenager. Even if I get a bad rep for this, I'll have to learn how to turn it around. So right now, I feel like Scotty P from The Millers
.
Some things I realize when I read this post and think of some of my older FR's:
Any feedback is welcome! What could I have done better? What is good to be aware of during workplace seduction? etc.
The report
So I got a new job a couple of months ago, and I met this girl (call her Cathlyn) during the training program a month prior. She has already worked there a year and attented one day of the training program where newbies would "speed date" seniors - some team building exercise. She's 23 like I am. During our speed date she was giving a mix of friendly and nervous vibe. I chose to assume attraction. Nothing else happened, and I completely forgot about her afterwards.
Fast forward to last Friday. Our workplace was arranging a X-mas event with dinner and party. The good thing about my new workplace is that it consists mostly of women all ages, and the minority is men. I got to talk to a lot of my female coworkers and a couple of the male ones. I had built a lot of social momentum up around 11 pm and felt like anything was possible. Side note: I didn't booze that night, only drank water.
I went out on the dancefloor with a couple of girls and guys, sometimes the whole group dancing in a circle, sometimes dancing with just a single girl. Later, I see Cathlyn checking me out from her own dance group. We just keep eye contact for a couple of seconds and smile to acknowledge each other, but continue dancing with our own separate groups. Eventually we end up close to each other, and I just grab her and begin to dance with her. No talking, just dancing. We get separated again when I have to hit the bathroom.
An hour later or so, after relaxing from all the dancing so far and just talking to people again, some dude is rejecting to dance with her, and it happens as I am returning to dancefloor from the bathroom yet again (yes, I drank a lot of water that evening!). I thought it was a weak way to get to dance with somebody, but who cares. Go along, see what happens. We dance again, and I make sure we dance close to each other some of the times. 3 or 4 songs passes until the DJ plays a shitty song, and I tell her let's go outside to get some fresh air, she agrees.
We sit on a bench, and some of the others are nearby. We talk a little about superficial stuff and the job. It is cold outside, but I do rest my hand on her leg and move it up and down as we talk. She isn't really looking at me, and she isn't reciprocating my touch (probably because it's cold...). I tell her I love people who are spontaneous and have an "in-the-moment"-personality when she mentions something that describes she is exactly that, and she laughs. I wasn't really worried about our conversation at this point, but rather the lack of touch from her end.
Everything from this point on happens so fast because I begin to think what I want from her, and what could she probably want from me. I assume sex - so I want to lead the conversations towards going home to either her or me. I ask her where she lives, and how she's getting home. She got here with her bike and will ride home with it - a ride that would take 40-45 minutes. I got there with the subway.. so tell her to come with me to the subway station, and we will see what we do from there. She doesn't want to - "think it's too soon to leave".
When she is done saying this, I snap out of my presence and turn into my head right away. It's like a light bulb got lit up with the subtext: "what am I doing inviting a coworker home? She could ruin my reputation".
I think for a couple of seconds and tell her that I actually want to stay a little longer to get myself warm again before going home, and let's hit the dancefloor one more time to make that happen. She agrees, and we go inside. I hang up my jacket and scarf, but she has already walked to the dancefloor without me as I'm struggling to get my scarf off. When I get to the dancefloor, I find some of my other friends and begin to just dance with them. After a minute or two I see her again with some other girls, but barely mind this anymore. I spend the rest of the event in the company of the other coworkers to get out of my head again and go home alone
After-thoughts
From the looks of it, I should read the GC articles about gaming coworkers because obviously, I hadn't thought about the consequences before I began messing with Cathlyn. And the only thing I was initially worried about, was word getting out that I tried to hook up with her (and failed). But as I really thought about it the day after, I remembered a quote of a recent article by Chase: that everything should be viewed as practice. I used to think like this as a teenager. Even if I get a bad rep for this, I'll have to learn how to turn it around. So right now, I feel like Scotty P from The Millers

Some things I realize when I read this post and think of some of my older FR's:
- - I'm not making anyone feeling they're special
- My vibe is not sexy
- I focus too much on getting to know other people and keeping things factual. There is an explanation to this one though. I used to be the funny guy/comedian, and of course that didn't work out. I have turned 180 degrees because I'm not sure where to draw the line. Or maybe I should get ideas to how I banter more?
Any feedback is welcome! What could I have done better? What is good to be aware of during workplace seduction? etc.