A decade before I met my wife, I found myself working with a divorced woman who was a few years older than me. We quickly developed a friendly and productive working relationship. At first, it never occurred to me that there might be any more than that between us.
One evening, we were the last two left working in the increasingly chilly office. For the first time, we decided to call into a pub on the way home to finish off our conversation in comfort. Thinking this was no different from when I'd stopped off at the same pub for a drink with a male colleague, I didn't realise that I was playing with fire. Away from the work environment, we got on even better.
After, pleasant hour or so chatting, we started making our way back to our cars. We stopped in the car park and silently faced each other. She had blonde highlights that sparkled under the pub's halogen light. Her pupils had dilated and her eyes twinkled. She had a far away expression on her face and appeared to sway slightly on her high heels.
In that moment, I was mesmerised by her. I was already in a relationship, albeit at that time not a very happy one, so seduction hadn't been on my mind. Yet, it appeared that unintentionally I had succeeded spectacularly with this lady. I couldn't remember this ever happening to me before. The chemistry was entirely mutual. It felt magical, but I needed to find a way to defuse the situation.
I remembered that a nice girl had once kissed me on the cheek as a way of kindly giving me the messsge that things were going no further. That's what I did to this lady, before quickly breaking off to return to the safety of my car. As I walked away, she stayed rooted to the spot as if in a trace. I was worried that she might not be safe left in that state in a dark pub car park. All the same, I kept going and watched from my car for her to get in hers and drive off.
I was buzzing for hours afterwards. Life was never going to be the same again.
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