Chapter 3: Coming to a head

I lay awake that night staring at the ceiling trying to sort out my feelings about Beth and what I should do. If her father was correct, she had feelings for me other than friendship and if I was honest with myself I knew that I felt more for her that just being friends as well. Let's face it: She's beautiful and now that I got to know her she was fun to be with and we had a lot of common interests. I knew that I had to do something because I had started thinking about her all the time. That is a drop-dead give away that I needed to move forward somehow.

Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but we work together. That could be a major issue. What if we got together and then it ended ugly? For that matter what would it be like in the office every time we had an argument? Can you imagine the kind of bitch she would become to the other people in the office if she dragged our personal lives into the mix? I definitely needed some advice.

When I woke up the next day it was no clearer to me. I needed to talk to someone and it had to be someone who wasn't from work. I decided to call my sister Heather. She was always a good listener and gave solid advice. Heather agreed to meet me for dinner that night at a restaurant near the office. Just next door to my office is another office building that has a small shopping mall on the first two levels of the building. We decided to go to a casual restaurant that was located inside the mall.

I felt better about the fact that I would at least have someone to talk to. Now all I had to do was get through the rest of the day and try not to dwell on the situation too much. There was only one problem with that: I saw Beth everywhere. She was just down the hall from me and neither of us had meetings out of the office that day. I must have passed her in the hall six times in the morning and each time we would smile at each other and say hello. I really needed to get a grip on myself. All I wanted to do was to drag her into my office and kiss her. How did this happen so quickly? One day we were just good friends and now that I admitted to myself that I couldn't stop thinking about her, but there was more to it than that.

She must have been happy because I even heard people talking about how nice she was being that day. People were actually worried that she was setting them up for a surprise attack because she was acting so out of character.

We were both riding down the elevator at the same time heading to the coffee shop to grab something to take back to our offices to eat for lunch. We ended up riding down together, and then standing in line together before heading back up to our own offices to eat while we worked. This forced me to talk to her a bit and the problem was that I liked being with her. I was afraid that something might be said or done before I got a chance to talk it over with Heather and figure out what I should do.

"What are you doing after work today? Do you want to have dinner with me?" she asked me in the elevator heading back up to our offices.

"I'll have to take a rain check on that. I already have plans for tonight."

"Oh. Okay. What's going on? Got a hot date?" She laughed when she asked me, but I could see that she really did want to know the answer.

"No. Nothing like that. How about tomorrow night? Will that work for you?"

"Sure. That sounds great."

So now I could talk to her the following night no matter what I figured out. We didn't spend much time together the rest of the day and she wasn't around when I was getting ready to leave. I didn't see her in the halls to say goodnight and she wasn't in her office so I just left to meet Heather at our appointed time.

We met in the mall entrance near the restaurant and she met me with a hug and a smile. We walked in to the restaurant and were seated pretty quickly.

"So to what do I owe the pleasure of this get together?" Heather asked sarcastically.

"Can't I just spend some time with my lovely sister without having an ulterior motive?"

"Not usually. Spill it, little brother."

"Okay, I do need your help with something."

"Ha! I knew it."

"Yeah, yeah, gloat all you want. I just need your advice on something."

"Oh, this must be interesting. You rarely ask me for advice anymore."

"I'll just jump in and tell you the whole story and then you can tell me what you think."

"Okay. That sounds like a good way to do it."

"It started a little less than a month ago..." I went on to tell her the whole story about everything that happened. I gave her the background on Beth and then the whole story about having drinks, talking on the phone pretty often and finally the dinner at her house.

"Okay, it sounds like you like her and she likes you. What's the problem?"

"The problem is that we work together. There would be some serious issues if we take this thing to the next level and then something goes wrong. It would have some serious repercussions in the office. It's generally known to be a bad idea to date in the office, but this is more than that. She and I are directors in the same department. Can you imagine the problems that we would have if PR and Creative no longer worked together because she and I were having a fight? It would be ugly. We've both worked really hard to get to where we are in the company and I would hate it if our careers got screwed up because of a personal relationship that goes bad."

"Let me ask you something: Do you love her?"

"Shit, Heather. We have only been spending time together for less than a month. How am I supposed to know?"

"I think you have a pretty good idea."

"I know this much. I think about her all the time. I love it when she smiles at me and I love talking to her. We really connect. I don't know if that is love, but I know that I am frustrated by my own indecision on what to do about it. We only had one very brief kiss, but it was fantastic."

"What happens if you do date her and you work together? Will they fire you if your boss finds out?"

"I don't know. I doubt it. It's not in the employee handbook or anything that it is strictly forbidden to date internally."

"I think you should give it a shot. Screw work."

"That's easy for you to say. You don't have to go there everyday. I'm telling you that the people there call her 'The Bitch'. If we are having an argument I have a feeling that what they have seen so far in the office is nothing compared to what she might be like. That's not just creating a stressful situation for me and her. It will affect everyone in the department."

"Let me ask you another question." She leaned toward me and grabbed my hands in hers. "Do you think she could be the one? Could you see yourself marrying her?"

"You're getting way ahead of yourself here. It's way too early to know that."

"No it's not. I'm not asking you if you are ready to marry her or even if you think you would eventually if you start seeing her romantically. I'm just asking you if she is the quality and type of person that you would like to marry if the situation was right."

I had to stop and think about that for a minute. As I was mulling that over the waitress came and took our orders.

"Okay. Back to your question: Yes, I think that she is definitely the type of woman that I could see myself marrying. She's very smart, we have a lot in common, she's drop-dead gorgeous, and I like being with her. We were friends first, so that is always a good sign. I think couples should always be best friends and well as lovers if they want their relationship to last."

"I think you just answered your own question then. How could you even consider not taking a chance with her and seeing what happens? Jobs come and go. Finding the perfect person for you is much harder and more important."

"I guess you're right. I definitely want to be with her. What do I do about work though?"

"Nothing yet. See what happens and then do something if you have to later. Worst case, you get a different job because it is uncomfortable there. You could land a new job easily with your skills and experience. You're probably due to look around anyway. You've been there a long time."

"I really don't want to switch companies if I don't have to though."

"Then don't do anything yet. Why don't you just wing it and see where life takes you. You're too structured sometimes. You can't always know what will happen next. It's no fun to live your life that way."

"Okay. I'll take a chance. When I look at it the way you put it in perspective it seems crazy not to try."

"There's the brother I love. So when do I get to meet this fantasy woman?"

"She's not a fantasy. She's just... I don't know... what I've always wanted in a woman."

"So when do I get to meet her?"

"I don't know," I laughed. "Soon. I promise."

"I'll hold you to that."

"Okay. Enough about me. What about you? What's been going on in your life?"