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Relationships

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Being a secret admirer - clever, or just a bit creepy?

134 replies

ThePrague · 20/06/2015 20:55

I've join MN purely to get peeps opinion, as I anticipate that I'll get a fair, honest and measured hearing here compared to forums I normally frequent where it's likely I'll get laughed outta town!

Anyway, I'll try and make this as short as possible without leaving out any vital information:

I'm a guy in my late twenties and have started a new job about a month ago. Incidentally, the job is great but it's not exactly what I'm used to or something which find really fulfilling but jobs and job and hopefully I can move on next year. ANYWAY....

So, on my first week I get ferried across departments, basically to sit with and understand their roles before starting my actual job in the second week. On the third day, I'm sitting with one of the guys as his talking me through what his doing when this girls walks past, I smiled at her and she smiled back. (she must have been off on the second day when I was in her dept).

Now, I'm not stupid, I know she was smiling to be polite. However, I think you know where this is going, so yeah, my heart skipped a beat, literally everything I find attractive, I'm actually amazed I smiled rather than my jaw hitting the floor!

Now, we're three weeks out and I can't stop thinking about her. Massive crush, and the horrible thing is I have never spoken to her, and the chances of being able to engineer the opportunity are slim to none - different departments on different floors, different lunchtime, and on the odd occasion she has been in my office, it's impossible for me to just straight up go and talk to her because it's just going to get people asking questions - it's a very quiet dept. She doesn't seem to know I'm even there :(

The other issue with just talking to her, other than the aforementioned impossibility, is that I'm been burned before, the 'friend-zone' nonsense making it impossible to go further without upsetting things. In short, [i]I don't want to be her friend[/I], to put it bluntly.

I do know bits about her - I'm quite certain she is single, she is popular, respected and appears altogether lovely.

So, after a lot of thought, I'm sitting here thinking the only safe, practical and least potentially creepy option is to become a 'secret admirer'.

IF I go through with this, I had this itinerary in mind:

Week 1 - Leave flowers with a small handwritten note on/in the boot of her car (she sometimes drive her parents SUV), on the days when she finishes later than me. I figured that this is least likely to a) be noticed by anyone else, b) unlikely to come across in any way as creepy, and c) show her that I'm thoughtful and a little brave. In the note I'd say something along the lines of "if you liked the flowers, say thank you on your Facebook (we're not FB friends but it's and open account)", which obviously would give me the go ahead for...

Week 2 - this is where it turns a bit brave. Now, leaving something on her car again will just be a bit one dimensional as I've done it once, so I'd send chocolates to her VIA WORK, so that she'd have them delivered to her department and everyone she works with would see it! The logic being that she would share the chocolates, let on to them about the flowers, and then her colleagues would basically do my work for me by pushing her to keep going. Again, in the note would be the Facebook thank you line to confirm back to me that she is still interested.

Now, at this stage I'm a little unsure of whether to go for a third gift (what else is there?!), or go for the big one...

Week 3 - I would book a table at a nice restaurant, and then send her (again via the post at work) an invitation to a date. The only risk is that I book on night she can't attend. Again, asking her to confirm on Facebook.

What do we think? I'm a little unsure on the Facebook element, but the only alternative is to set-up an email address, but the problem there is that she might be hesitant to share her personal email address, though I suppose she could use her work email address.

OP posts:
LuluJakey1 · 21/06/2015 11:05

No one has to be drunk. 5.30-7.30pm, no big thing. Everyone goes off home.

SagaNorensLeatherTrousers · 21/06/2015 11:07

Have you made friends with anyone else in your department? Start with them and say "invite anyone else you think might like to go" and sort of spread it out from there.

RepeatAdNauseum · 21/06/2015 11:13

Just message her on Facebook. Don't procrastinate and put it off until next week. I'm 24 and it's totally normal to just message people. Most conversations with people you don't see often start there.

Stop thinking about it, write a nice friendly message and send it. Forget about it as much as you can. She'll accept and reply or not. You won't have done anything weird, but it will make it clear if this could be "something" or not.

SagaNorensLeatherTrousers · 21/06/2015 11:15

Also I think it would be telling whether or not she comes. If she has a mutual interest/attraction in you, she will jump at the chance of getting to see you outside work. Equally if you find out she's invited (or you manage to invite her yourself) and she declines, it lets you know whether or not pursuing her via FB is a go-ahead or not based on how she reacts to the invite. I don't think you can lose here; the worst thing that can happen is no one is really bothered in coming, and you can just be jokey and say "well it seemed a good idea...I guess not!" and leave it. But if you get a work friend or two on side it shouldn't fail I would think.

beaglesaresweet · 21/06/2015 18:14

I wouldn't advise a group drink when it comes to getting to know someone you fancy as strongly as this! it would be obvious to all and yet more pressure on OP to make small talk to all plus talk to her with more attention.

Why all the complexity?? Just as many have suggested, ask her for a coffee before work or on a break - if you know when her lucnbreak is, can't you go upstairs just for 5min to say something like, 'shame our breaks are not at the same time', would like to chat to you- how about a drink after work/coffe in the morning? Otherwise if you leave at the same time, just start chatting on the way to car park.
Or just chat on FB.

Skiptonlass · 21/06/2015 18:44

Ok. Do not do any of things in your op. Yes, that's too much, and yes, it's creepy. And too complicated.

Just speak to her next time you see her at work. Don't ask her out the first time, just a "hi, I'm x, I work in the widget department." Two minute chat, then 'nice to have met you" and off you go. Don't ask her out straight off the bat. From experience, I always liked to have actually spoken to a chap before going out on a date.

After you've done this a few times, you can move onto a casual, "a few of us are going out on Friday, fancy coming along?" Or something of that ilk.

Can I make one observation? Please forgive me if I've read this wrong, but your original plan was rather like something out of a romantic film. That's not a good thing. There's a trope in films that if you just Chase the girl enough - sufficient flowers/poetry/ standing outside her window with a boom box (showing my age there...!) she will eventually submit. Women are not trophies to be gained or things to be won/chased down like prey. If she says no, BACK OFF. Nothing, but nothing, puts me off like the feeling that a guy is a bit of a stalker.

Overall, just approach, chat, see if there's any rapport. No need for any grand gestures or notes on cars.

I met my husband at work. We worked on a few projects together and found that even after we'd stopped working on those projects we liked to still talk. It all happened veeeeeeeerry slowly - over a couple of years actually. If he'd have asked me out the first time we spoke I'd have thought he was barmy. After a while of knowing each other and realising we got on well, it's a different kettle of fish. Good luck :)

MadeMan · 21/06/2015 20:02

"I wouldn't advise a group drink when it comes to getting to know someone you fancy as strongly as this! it would be obvious to all and yet more pressure on OP to make small talk to all plus talk to her with more attention."

And she might end up getting off with someone else from the office, right in front of the OP's eyes.

MadeMan · 21/06/2015 20:09

"can't you go upstairs just for 5min"

I agree with this. OP just go upstairs and talk to her about her job or something. If the boss or anybody asks what the hell you're doing there, just say you were bored working and went to look for someone to talk to; she might like a bit of a rebel. Smile

They can't sack you for chatting to people, surely? When I worked in an office for a while when I was younger, I was always wandering off round the building; I used to just say I was going to the toilet or something.

SagaNorensLeatherTrousers · 21/06/2015 20:12

But she has the prerogative to do just that. Confused The OP doesn't own her. The drinks thing was just an idea for him to break the ice in a less direct way...I don't think encouraging the OP to avoid this because she should be solely focused on him is particularly healthy.

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