Office Antics

I'm not a big believer of office romances because they never end gracefully. Is it possible for two people who no longer like one another to be able to work together? Probably not. People say they'll keep things professional, but it never quite turns out that way.

My one and only "office" romance occurred while I was a manager at the GAP during my college days. Back then, the GAP had cool clothes that lasted a long time, and were reasonably priced. These days I cringe whenever I pass by a store front and very rarely step foot inside. I had worked my way up to supervisor which basically meant I was king of the minions. I'd be able to schedule breaks, make sure that the registers had enough change in them and check employees out before they left the store. At least it kept me off the sales floor for the most part.

When I got promoted, I was put under the wing of one of the senior managers in order to learn some of the ropes, and get a feel for the running of the store. It certainly helped that this manager, Chris, was someone that I was close to and had hung out with outside of work. We had similar interests - trying to do as little work as possible, taking extending breaks, getting out of closings & scoping out hot chicks in the mall.

What didn't help was that the coworker he was attracted to, was someone that I was already seeing. For obvious reasons we kept it quiet since I was now 4 steps away from management and didn't want to jeopardize my position.

Well Chris was the type of guy who didn't do much to hide his true intentions. He made sure that Nicole worked every shift with him, worked as close to him as possible, and was at his beck and call whenever he needed something. Like lunch from the pizza place or coffee from the pretzel guy. Oh and since I was shadowing Chris, I wasn't too far behind from them either. And that worked out well for Nicole and I.

One day Chris took 4 or 5 of us to our denim room which was outside of the store. The "room" was actually a store that wasn't being rented and since we had a truckload of denim jeans and shirts that we had to store, it was ours for the time being. Our task was to inventory everything and with everyone pitching in it wouldn't take too long. Well, everyone except Chris that is. He left us there saying he'd be back shortly, though everyone knew that was a lie, and said we had better be done by then. I was effectively in charge and my first two orders of business were to pair Nicole with me, and order breakfast for everyone. Nothing motivates better than free food - basic management 101.

The room was too well lit to do anything but grab, tickle, hug, caress, pinch and squeeze. Each time we were in arms length of one another, a giggle, laugh or moan would be elicited. To those who saw, it was just two people passing the time and having fun. But to us, it was a buildup of tension that would be released very shortly.

But for now, it's time to hit the sack...