Office romance

So I get a call the other day. At the office of course. IP phone, so I get to know who's calling before I decide to answer. Depending on my mood, I may just watch the phone ring. I usually get the feeling the guy on the other end knows when I'm ignoring a call. Programmers shouldn't have telephones at their desks. Well, I guess I'm not one anymore.

So I pick this one up. You're meant to go something like "Good <appropriate time of day>, this is the IT department, Samborera speaking, how can I help you...", but I find that too much of a mouthful, and don't have enough energy [patience] to be doing that all day. It's why different people do different jobs. Guys complain how writing code is hard. Talking into a phone is way harder. But that's just me.

Anyway. So I do my "Hello?". "Is this Samborera?", she goes. "Yes?". Whenever I answer the phone my guard is up. The guy on the other end must want something. Urgently. So you need to be on the defensive. Her tone changes, to something less official and more playful. Relief. She doesn't want a report or something. But. Wait. Maybe she's just softening me up, so that at the end of it she can ask for that [urgent] report. We've never really talked. Both involved in some project recently, is how I got to know her. From the time I attended my first class in campus, I've been in environments that have been predominantly male. So I don't do much of that flirting business with either of the 3-6 non-married chics at the office. Total mental block there.

But the chic on the other end of the phone wasn't from my department. Most all chics work in other departments. I think it's why you walk into other offices and there's a lot of chit chat and general chirpiness going on. Walk into IT and it's guys staring into black putty screens, who'll barely get their heads up to acknowledge you before going back to their worlds.

So she was just calling to say hi. What a lovely surprise. Two days later and I get a call from that number again. This time she's looking for someone I work with, but before I transfer the call, she'd like to chat and whatnot. There are certain conversations you can't have in the office. In an open plan office that is, so I find myself asking for her number. I send an sms much later when I leave the office. Nothing too forward. I can barely remember how to be forward. The usual I'm so exhausted from work vibe. A reply comes back that I should get some rest. For when she meets me on sato. Pretty forward I'd say. So my Saturday afternoon or evening is spoken for. But this business of fooling around with people in the office... I don't know about it.