This week my magazine hired a new subeditor. Our department took him out for welcome drinks last night, and we really clicked: lots of shared interests, same sense of humor, a lot of the same tastes in media but with enough difference of opinion to argue engagingly, and on top of this he’s cute in a skinny-jeans-indie-glasses way, AND from Derry, which is my favorite part of Ireland and probably my favorite city in the world to visit. (I have a diary entry from 2007 reading something like, “I just feel so happy every time I come here! I love this city! I MUST MARRY A DERRYMAN AND MOVE HERE FOREVER.”) Also, his dad is apparently close friends with one of my musical heroes, Ciaran Carson, which I recognize is not a reflection on him, per se, but it does mean that if we got married, family parties would be awesome.
Anyway, we ended up yammering in the corner of a table for about an hour and a half until I realised our supervisor was shooting over suspicious looks, and then this happened:
NEW HIRE: Well, I’d better get going, I’ve got a, uh, blind date tonight.
ME: Really?! I’ve got a blind date tomorrow night!
NEW HIRE:
ME: Well, good luck!
NEW HIRE: Yeah, you too!
ME:
NEW HIRE:
SUPERVISOR: …
ME and NEW HIRE: Okayseeyoutomorrowbye.
And then I’m afraid I was less than convincing this morning when he came into the newsroom:
ME: Morning! How was your date?
NEW HIRE: Well, I got a text in the pub, and it turned out she decided she didn’t want to go through with it.
ME: Oh nooooooo.
NEW HIRE: Yeah, I guess it happens with this sort of thing.
ME: Yeah, it’s…sad.
Anyway, I figure at this point my options are:
[ul]
[li]stomp on raging crush until it dies (questionable likelihood of success; may lead to inadvertent rudeness and)[/li][li]continue in friendly relationship, wait until one of us quits or moves to another department and unveil Five-Year Plan for courtship, engagement and wedding[/li][li]look into company dating policies and try not to breathe too heavily when showing him how to do things for the first few weeks[/li][li]???[/li][li]profit[/li][/ul]
Sigh.