When Julie met Peter...

She went straight up crazy!

He was tall, he was white and he was fine looking.

She couldn’t have asked for more of a perfect package, and what’s more when he talked to her, he was genuinely interested in having a conversation with her!

It was a wonderful moment and one she looked back on with fondness.

Okay, enough with the talking in the third person.

I am Julie and it was I who went straight up crazy.

We met as I was leaving the management block at work.

He was further down the corridor and held the door open while I caught up to where he was.

I thanked him and he smiled and I made a comment about what he was wearing – theatre blues.

You see, my sister worked in theatres for years and had told me about how they wore theatre blues, blue tunics and trousers in the department.

She also told me that they are comfy a lot like pyjamas (FYI).

When I made my comment, I was thinking that he worked in theatres, as it turned out though he didn’t.

The endoscopy unit was where he worked and as luck would have it (or rather, a new appointment courtesy of NHS Jobs) he would be joining me and my fellow colleagues in the block following a promotion!

I had all the more reason to smile after learning that tit bit of information.

I would soon have the pleasure of seeing his fine ass everyday!

Ha ha!

How wonderful it all seemed back then.

Who knew that I could blow up and melt down all at the same time over this guy and be left dreading his arrival in the department!

I didn’t until it happened.

It was a few days before he was due to start in his new job and he had popped upstairs (the offices were located at the top of a very long flight of stairs) to see a colleague about something or the other.

Anyway, as he passed my desk he went past without uttering a single word to me.

Now here’s the thing about it.

You can’t enter the block without seeing my desk.

Like my colleague Stevie’s desk in front of me, it faces the main doors.

So, you can’t say you didn’t see me because you definitely would have.

I would have been one of the first people you saw upon entering.

If you don’t acknowledge me, it means you’re ignoring me!

So, long story short, Peter ignored me.

I hated that.

I so much wanted him to acknowledge me and here I was getting absolutely nothing!

If I’d known then that that was nothing to concern myself over, I guess I would have considered putting an end to my freakout and imminent meltdown because things were about to get worse.

Not only did he ignore me on his way into the block, he also ignored me on his way out of the block. And the icing on the cake? He stopped at Stevie’s desk – in front of mine – and proceeded to have a five minute chat with her, all the while looking in my direction!

Now, Stevie’s a married woman, so there was never going to be any chance of her and him hooking up (as I wanted me and Peter to!).

And that was a very very good thing.

The problem for me was that he liked her.

And that was only a problem because of how bloody upbeat, bubbly and sociable she was.

What man wouldn’t like her?

She was also really cute, wore the cutest little outfits (she has the loveliest little petite figure), and was clearly a confident and outgoing person who looked like she had her shit together.

I, on the other hand, did not.

And my outfits were far from cute – they were and still are practical!

I wanted men to like me.

And right here, right now I wanted Peter to like me and yet instead of even acknowledging me with a hello or even a smile, he was all up in Stevie’s grill talking to her and laughing with her!

From that day I lost the plot.

It’s like I shattered into pieces when it came to Peter and I dreaded him being in the office full-time.

What had started as something I had SO looked forward to (I’d had numerous day dreams about him being my man) was now the complete opposite.

Funnily enough though, when Peter finally did make the move into the office, I was absolutely fine.

And in time, I too had my chats with him that I’d envied Stevie for.

In time I also noticed the slight pot belly that Peter had and the puppy fat that should have gone around the time of puberty but somehow decided to hang around.

He wasn’t the dashing guy I’d bumped into that day he held the door open for me in his theatre blues.

No doubt, he was still a looker and he certainly knew how to dress in a nice charcoal grey suit and matching tie…

But what can I say, he’d lost some of his appeal.

Just as well for me though, I’d have been driven to distraction otherwise and the pile of work that already threatened to wipe me out, most certainly would have drowned me!