Like my user name implies, I’m a guy, a bit shy, with a general tendency to err on the side of caution, perhaps sometimes too much so. Myself and ex wife divorced five years ago. She moved on quickly and now lives with her new partner. Everything’s amicable.
I took a while to heal from the divorce so didn’t really even think about dating anyone else for the first couple of years. Dabbled in OLD for a couple of months, had a couple of dates but mutually agreed no real spark. Since then left it up to date a bit, hoping one day I’ll meet someone naturally and we’ll click.
Then a fortnight ago, an ex-work colleague turned up to a work social. We’d got on well though not really close - friends on Facebook but not the type to be close confidantes, etc. She revealed, to everyone’s surprise, that she’d split from her long-term partner and was now single. Now, I’ve had other female acquaintances announce similar developments and felt nothing more than empathy - however, for some reason, since I learned this, it’s like someone opened a box and let a crush out.
As I said, I’m shy and cautious by nature so haven’t acted on this in any way other than to confide in a female work friend (who’s happily married and who I’ve been close to, in a purely platonic way, for many years) to gauge how ridiculous my sudden feelings were, especially as she was close to this former colleague too. But whilst she found it funny, she didn’t offer any encouragement - in fact said being single suited her. So, at the risk of sounding as dense as a brick, should I take this to be an indication she thinks our ex colleague could do better than me and/or find someone else much more suitable? Or am I being over cautious again?
In case anyone asks she isn’t someone half my age - what age gap there is wouldn’t raise eyebrows!