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Relationships

Mumsnet has not checked the qualifications of anyone posting here. If you need help urgently or expert advice, please see our domestic violence webguide and/or relationships webguide. Many Mumsnetters experiencing domestic abuse have found this thread helpful: Listen up, everybody

Help please! Flirtation with a guy at work

178 replies

SomewhereBeyondTheSea · 07/11/2013 10:39

Ok MNers, I've been considering posting this thread for some weeks now and have finally got frustrated enough to do it. So - tough love needed please.

I really fancy a guy at work. Am 99.9% sure he likes me too. We've worked together for over a year but the flirtation has only been going on for about 10 weeks. We drunkenly kissed at the end of a work evening out - that's what started things.
The next day I did the whole 'oh I was so drunk last night' thing, basically because I'd never thought of him like that before and I was a bit embarrassed. So he got the impression I wasn't interested, I think.

But since then the flirting and chemistry has ramped up to the point that everyone else we work with has noticed and it's become pretty full on and, tbh, embarrassing - I hate feeling I'm being gossiped about.

But - here's the rub - he hasn't asked me out. We've been out for work drinks with colleagues several times since then and nothing has happened. Each time, he spends the whole evening talking just to me, lots of chemistry and eye contact, but we never seem to actually make a move on each other.

The latest time was last night. I am sick of this now. I would rather he left me alone and didn't fancy me than continue like this. It is driving me batty quite frankly.

One further consideration (trying not to drip feed): I recently got a BIG promotion which means I will be leaving his department next month and won't see him from one day to the next. I am wondering whether he's either intimidated by this (I will be in a much higher status role than him, in terms of internal politics, kudos etc), or he's waiting for me to move jobs so that if things go wrong or I turn him down, he won't have to work with me every day.

On the other hand I just keep thinking, keep it simple, stop making excuses for him: if he liked me, he would have done something about it by now. He hasn't, so he's clearly just not that into me.

All my female friends reckon they had to make a move on their partners and I should just bite the bullet and ask him out. I did vaguely say something a couple of weeks ago about 'would he like to go for a drink' when he gets back from holiday (he has been away for the last couple of weeks), and he said yes definitely when he gets back. Yesterday was his first day back, we were in the pub all evening and he didn't mention it at all. Is that a hint that I should just drop the idea?
Aaaargh.

Seriously, tough love needed. Should I try and push it forward, should I tell him to stop flirting because it's making me uncomfortable at work, should I just be zen-like calm and professionalism and write the whole thing off? Or should I be patient and wait and see what happens when I move jobs?

Help please!

PS. Yes we are definitely both single!

OP posts:
Notmadeofrib · 08/11/2013 20:30

I'd be bouncing off the walls right now. Good work OP!

beachside · 08/11/2013 20:54

Gosh!

Life in the Upper sixth form is so exciting isn't it?

Seriously, if you are old enough to have a job, go to the pub etc, you are grown up enough to ask someone out. What is the worst that could happen hmm?

LessMissAbs · 08/11/2013 20:58

Does the man at work know your ex boyfriend?

SomewhereBeyondTheSea · 08/11/2013 21:21

LessMissAbs - nope. No possible way. Just a bit bizarre.

OP posts:
Livinginlimbo2 · 08/11/2013 22:01

Any news yet?

SomewhereBeyondTheSea · 09/11/2013 07:50

Nowt Sad

OP posts:
LornaMorello · 09/11/2013 09:19

Maybe the note fell off his desk/phones out of battery/he hasn't realised it's from you

Sorry OP Sad

ProphetOfDoom · 09/11/2013 09:33

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

sebsmummy1 · 09/11/2013 09:47

Was it left in an obvious place, like he couldn't miss it if he went back to his desk?

His is like a romcom where you're rooting for the main characters to get together but they keep missing each other's cues or spend the whole film misunderstanding everything lol

SomewhereBeyondTheSea · 09/11/2013 09:55

I've been trying not to get paranoid that he thought it was a flyer from a newspaper (there was a stack of them beside the keyboard) or just didn't notice it properly because he was busy or something.
But that way lies madness.
The simplest explanation is that he saw it and hasn't texted. And if for some bizarre reason he didn't see it, there is nothing I can do about it now anyway.
At least I'm off for the first half of next week so I don't have to think about seeing him for a while!
Ho hum. Thanks for all your support everyone - you've made a stressful experience slightly more fun at least Grin

OP posts:
Anniegetyourgun · 09/11/2013 09:58

Nah, lucky escape. Just imagine trying to buy a house or raise a family with a guy who's this hard to get hold of. Some men were just born to be the stuff of fantasy, unfortunately. (Ah, fond memories.)

SomewhereBeyondTheSea · 09/11/2013 10:01

You're right of course! I have said that to myself before. Someone said something on another thread I was lurking on a while back and I think it's very applicable to this situation: 'He's not the man you need him to be'.

OP posts:
Livinginlimbo2 · 09/11/2013 10:30

Never say never. You don't know if he's the man for you or not, but you have to take a chance on this situation. Bring him a little gift back from your hols. Perhaps a " Kiss Me Quick " hat?

MadeMan · 09/11/2013 12:07

OP, try and forget about the situation with him until you're back at work.

You've done your bit now and whether or not he's seen your postcard, you don't want to end up wasting the whole of your weekend and days off worrying about stuff; it'll drive you potty. :)

Zilvernblue · 09/11/2013 12:17

Perhaps he's the time wasting type. Like to flirt, heavily, but then clams up/claims innocence/runs away when you try to take the normal progression.

Or maybe he just wants a ONS and thinks dating is too serious.

Or maybe he just takes forever to ask a woman out on a date. and then complains that all the good ones are taken

SomewhereBeyondTheSea · 09/11/2013 12:36

Thanks - am definitely not going to brood on it all weekend Smile
There is a nice man in my garden fixing my fence which blew down in "The Great Storm" the other week, so today's not all bad Grin

OP posts:
sebsmummy1 · 09/11/2013 19:34

Argh don't slag the bloke off if we don't even know if he saw the postcard!!! Guys aren't like is when it comes to noticing stuff. Plus IMO there is no way he would do nothing in this scenario when he is going to be seeing OP at work. If anything he would do a polite no thank you, I am seeing someone else, you're a lovely person etc etc just to make sure the situation at dork wasn't awkward. I think if there is no text he hasn't seen the postcard.

Livinginlimbo2 · 09/11/2013 22:09

I agree with sebs. Men are not all that good at spotting physical changes in their environment, how many have had a radical new haircut or gone from blonde to brunette and there fella hasn't noticed?

SomewhereBeyondTheSea · 10/11/2013 11:30

I appreciate your attempt to think charitably about him Grin
The thing is though, if I let myself think that way then I'll drive myself mad. Better to just keep it simple and not worry about it. Because otherwise ...
Maybe he didn't see the postcard
Maybe he did see it and is waiting to see me in person at work
Maybe he did see it but has gone off me
Maybe he did see it but he met someone else on holiday
Maybe he did see it but has a hot date over the weekend and is waiting to see how that goes before replying
Maybe he did see it and is intending to text me but hasn't got round to it yet because he's a bit of a slacker
Maybe he did see it and was intending to text me but has been kidnapped by aliens ...
...
...
And so on.
Fundamentally, I left him my number, he hasn't texted, that's that.
I put it between the keyboard and the mouse FFS. He was away from his desk for about 5 minutes. Anybody would notice if something had appeared next to their keyboard and mouse in that space of time. Anyone. It's just not credible that he didn't see it.
Sadly, much as I hate to say this, let's keep it simple. I've wasted enough of my mental energy wondering about this guy in the past few weeks, I've had enough frankly Smile Sad

OP posts:
Granville72 · 10/11/2013 12:45

Don't dismiss him yet. You never know there may be a little something waiting on your desk when you go back to work.

Livinginlimbo2 · 10/11/2013 13:02

Whatever the outcome OP, you've done the right thing by leaving the postcard. Crushes/attraction in the workplace can drag on for a long time and become all consuming. At least you've laid your cards on the table and hopefully burst the bubble.
Recently I worked at a place where one of the senior managers had an obvious crush on another senior manager. Not knowing their real situation, I assumed they were having an affair. Turned out they were not. She had been infatuated with him for 15 years!
To watch how she behaved around him was embarrassing.
I'm not saying you are anything like this woman, but I think by addressing your feelings and being proactive you have saved yourself a lot of heartache. That said ,who's to know what will happen.
You have conducted yourself with the upmost dignity.

EBearhug · 10/11/2013 13:25

Anybody would notice if something had appeared next to their keyboard and mouse in that space of time.

Going by some of my colleagues, I wouldn't bet on that. I thought, "I'll stick the Post-It with the important message on their screen frame, because they won't miss it." (Couldn't put it onto the screen itself, because of personal obsession with clean screens.) Bright-coloured and obvious Post-It wasn't seen for an hour. It sometimes astounds me how unobservant some people can be (and that's from the woman who has walked into someone in the corridor because she was lost in her own thoughts...)

Mind you, I'm not entirely sure I'd want to go out with someone that unobservant, unless they came up with a really good excuse.

BitOutOfPractice · 10/11/2013 14:08

Is the an update

Livinginlimbo2 · 10/11/2013 18:50

Only time will tell, everything crossed xx

mainamow · 10/11/2013 23:18

I wouldn't ask. You had one hour together and he didn't initiate anything. Not right.

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