"Did you hear about Matthew, Jim, Steve and Paul?" Dougie whispered, intriguingly.
"No?"
The IT guru of our company was called Jeff. He was a sweaty, greasy character with thinning hair on top. He always carried a bulbous spot on the end of his chin (never at the same time; they liked to alternate and must have had regular meetings to get the locality just right. I knew very well how this worked, because my skin tortured me regularly in the same way.) Whenever he came into the office it was always in a rush, he had no air of calm and he was always speaking as though our lives depended on him. I didn't like the way he always talked to my chest. The other women found him to be a letch too. The network design was appalling in our office. It was token ring Network in the office and token ring was always going down when someone removed a computer from our network, which was often. All the techies reported into Jeff. This is where Matthew, Jim, Steve and Paul come into the equation. They reported into Jeff and they either setup demonstrations of the software or built client configurations for the new hardware that was deployed when the Customer had bought it.
The team had been on their way to do a major configuration at a Customer site and were driving down with the Customer's server in the back of an estate. The Customer had all their data rebuilt on the server and it was late in the afternoon because the build had taken longer than they thought it would. The guys were racing against the clock to get it down there on time. They drove together in the vehicle as it was time dependent. The requirement was to drive down and back that day.
Dougie continued, "So the guys were thrashing their car at 90 miles an hour. They came off the motorway onto an A road. They had a head on collision with another car. The authorities reckon that car was doing the same speed. It was a mess."
"Oh My God!" I let out.
"I know."
"So what happened to them?" I didn't know them well but I saw them when I was in the office and I did have occasion to speak to them at times when I was preparing demonstrations like today. One of the cables had been a bit dodgy for this one. It was a thick cable and the connector to the cable wasn't fitting very well as the sheath of the cable was frayed. I had been told to be careful with it.
"Dead, instantly!" Doug said in a ghoulish way.
"No, you're winding me up!"
"But," his eyes glinted at the story opportunity, Doug was preparing his punchline. "when they recovered the car and brought back the kit to us, and Paul of course insisted on checking the kit, it was still working."
Paul was anything but likeable, he was the head of sales and I had to work with him, but detested him. When everyone had gone home he'd rifle through people's desks and I saw him steal someone's food out of the fridge one evening. He was hateful. Trust me to have to work with him.
"Fortunately for us, the computer kit still worked so Paul was relieved."
The thought of their cold-blooded attitude - both Dougie for revelling in a juicy macabre story to tell, at the expense of these colleagues, and Paul's typically hard-nosed approach to the silver lining of this tale, left me feeling abhorrence for them both. Doug must have thought me prissy as his face dropped because I lacked the skill to have a poker face. It was giving way now that I didn't appreciate his story. Afterwards I had to drive all the kit back to the office and I drove particularly carefully! I didn't like to follow up later and ask what was happening with families as I didn't really know them and it was a while before I was back in the office again. I never again heard it mentioned. We got a replacement IT person who joined Jeff's team.
Over the weekend I picked up my work friend Becky, and we drove to Wakefield, for a work night out. I was mindful that it was work and work people were there. I liked the people I worked with in general, but I was acutely aware that if I put a foot wrong I would be the subject of gossip. I was out to have fun but was mindful to be guarded.
I had had a night out with the Council staff in Edinburgh, just a pub night. I really got one with all of them but I did remember that they were my customers. We'd toured a few bars and I had deliberately stayed sober and also I was driving too. Truth be told my heart really wasn't in it but I went through the motions out of an obligation. One of the guys however, had got exceedingly drunk and whilst they were in the street navigating their ways home, Tony decided it was a sensible thing to do, to strip completely on top of a black cab on the Royal Mile! What is it with guys and stripping when they are drunk? He was disciplined for showing himself up and his colleagues on a work night. I learnt a valuable lesson from that experience.
Becky wasn't well but we met up with some work colleagues and their partners. Becky and I were the only partnerless ones. She left hers at home. Me, I was the odd one out and whilst I was never one for conforming, when the right man came along, he was very pleasant to be around. There was a very large hole that was Dionisis shaped and I felt it keenly. I've always preferred male company to female. I was really off the idea just now, however of anyone else.
There was a time when I used to really make an effort when I was clubbing. When I met Dionisis I was all dressed up and wearing makeup, hair done, a nice dress. I felt good. However now everyone here wore jeans instead. The pubs in Wakefield were packed to the gunwales. Everyone had clearly got drunk before they ventured out. By the time they got to the nightclub, presumably because the drinks were so expensive, they were completely hammered, and as a sober person it was annoying. It was clear to see people were legless and struggling to stand. It was a reminder to me as to why I stopped nightclubbing. We were at the club by 2230. Becky made it so obvious that she was bored, chiefly because there was no attractive man to chat her up! She looked nice though, she was wearing a muted rainbow dress that she'd borrowed from her Sister. I knew everyone well and it was a really pleasant evening. Everyone seemed to be coming down with something. Louise was also unwell. However she was also very drunk. I danced with her boyfriend John because she wasn't able to.
The nightclub we had visited was open but had these odd, circular dance floors. The wooden lined circles had a halo of lights and they looked attractive and unique. We were dancing in one of them.
To the edge of another circle I could feel someone's eyes on me. It always feels that when your light is off, someone is trying to coax you into switching it on again. I could feel the attention of a guy who kept watching me. He went to talk to Louise and then came over. He seemed pleasant as he smiled widely. He wasn't really my type, with blonde streaked hair, tall but beefy and dressed casually. He looked friendly enough but I genuinely was there just to show face, hang out with the people I liked and not hang out with anyone, other than just my friends. That was my only agenda. However it was clear that he wasn't taking no for an answer. He continued to watch and try and catch my attention. I was having none of it. Ordinarily I might have just gone with the flow but tonight it was a no, a definite no. I smiled back but turned my back on him and carried on ignoring him and talking to the Company of folk I was in.
It has never happened to me before, but whilst my back was turned, I felt myself being lifted up into the air and he carried me vertically from one dance floor halo away from my friends, to another dance floor halo. I laughed with him.
I bent into his ear as it was noisy and said "That was a very caveman approach, it's a first I'll give you that!"
He laughed. "I'm not from here and I'm with work colleagues for a work's night out. I cannot really leave them and I'm not staying much longer, but thank you, that was a a very flattering gesture."
His expression dropped a little but acknowledged what I said. I returned to my colleagues. However he continued to watch as he nursed his glass. I was the only one sober but I really enjoyed myself and being pursued was nice! But the last time I was in a nightclub I was reminded of a very special time and although I didn't give it away, truth be told I was desperately melancholy in my current predicament.
Ah the dating game is a fickle one. If only I had done the same with Dionisis. If maybe I'd acted like I just didn't care. I was oviously taken for granted. I also thought that Alexandros had made it clear I wasn't his type physically. Maybe the fact that he wasn't attracted to me but Dionisis was, that poisoned the situation somewhat. It seemed to be a fact that men like someone who is found attractive by all, and I wasn't that girl. Maybe I had let him win me over too easily. I was looking for an answer and the answer was not there.
I had not been able to get hold of Dionisis that easily, It was almost impossible. I knew he was busy at University and I knew he had broken up with his ex-girlfriend after she moved to the UK but I was missing him keenly.
I had felt he was such a kindred spirit and I know he felt the same about me as I did about him and yet now, after being back a month, nothing! Life went back to being uneventful. I was missing him so much and I was becoming resigned to the fact that I could put my experience down to being a pleasant memory. I was wishing he was here for my birthday, to spend time with him. I had the habit of always taking my birthday off; birthdays weren't for working on!
Neither Becky's or my heart were in it so we said our pleasantries, made a departure when it was practical to do so and I dropped her back at home. I was just mentally weary with everything.