it started with a little magic

slight of hand

The shift started as normal; meetings, reports, and all. I get to teach the not-so basics of the account. Then, there was the free time. Free time is when all of the newbies are in the class with one or more coaches doing class room time. This is the time when we, the coaches do some administration work. But instead, this time, all of the coaches and the SME’s are huddled around sharing jokes and teasing each other. Ansel, one of the SME is being teased by Russel and all of the others.

“Ansel, we saw you holding hands yesterday, and you were holding tina’s hand as you were leaving the office.” Tina was one of the newbies. Ansel replied “ nah, that was nothing. We’re just friends”. “if you are ‘just’ friends, why were you holding her hand?” Russel, disputed. I butt in and said “me and gina do it all the time, we hold hands while we are walking. Don’t we Gina?”. Every eye turned and looked my way. There was an eerie silence after that as if they were asking that ‘you hold hands?’. My  lips went dry and I was lost for words.

“Ahhh…. Yes.. we do it all the time.” as I looked at Gina.

“yes we do” Gina answered. She looked at me gave me a smirk as if she was telling me ‘you owe me one’.

The group let it slide and all the attention was ounce more focused at ansel. The newbies, went back from the class room and we had our normal huddle before going to lunch.  Lunch came and but I was still at my station finishing something over the excel spread sheet. ‘ I need to get this done before I go to lunch so that I won’t have a heavy load before I go home’. Gina popped out of the corner of my station and said

“HEY! Aren’t  you going to eat?”

“I just need to just finish this before I do.”

“How long will that take”?

“3, 5 minutes at the most… I think”

“alright, I’ll wait for you”

“Why”?

“You owe me one right? So, I figured, you are going to buy me lunch”.

“Is that so”?

“Yes it is.”

“All right, sure, I’m buying”

I saved my file and we headed out. There are a lot of doors that we need to pass through because the security was high in the account that we are supporting. Ii really can’t imagine that I will reach this position in this industry. I was just a common agent 8 months ago, got promoted after three months to an SME, then, another promotion to coach within two months. I really can’t complain.

“So, what will we have for lunch?” I asked Gina as we passed the last door going out of the building.

“I really don’t know. I’m not hungry; I had a doughnut during our break. Actually, I had three.”

“What? Wow, you don’t mind getting fat or something?”

“I do, but that was my favorite doughnut. Triple chocolate. Yum”

“I see, you really are different from all of the girls that I know. I mean, you just go for something that you really want.”

“That is true and also not true all at the same time. I’m still a girl, I like girl things, but I really don’t like boys. I’m not really attracted to them. That’s why I have a girl friend.”

I changed the topic after her statement. “I feel like eating a chicken sandwich.  Having said that, why don’t we go to KFC? You can have a pita sandwich.” “I think I like that” Gina replied.

The ground where the office is located is very nice. It’s like a very big garden with offices around it. There is also a man-made lagoon at the center of the grounds. Along the lagoon, there is a path way on the side of it. We normally walk that path to get to the area where the restaurants are.

“I noticed that you are always in a hurry after shift, why? Why don’t you hang around the office?” I asked her.

“Well, it is my choice really, I want to go to my girlfriend after shift.” She replied. “I also don’t want her to get suspicious that I’m doing something wrong.  In our relationship I mean.”

“Are you?”

“Of course not!” she replied with a loud voice and at the same time smacking my shoulder.

“Alright, no one is disputing it you know.”

After lunch, we headed back to the production floor. The newbies are going to take 4 hours of phone time today. It’s going to be a long 4 hours. My agents have a lot of questions during the call and I can’t handle them all at the same time. That’s why we have SME’s helping us around. Whenever I walk the floor I get a lot of questions from not just my agents but others as well. So it really is a team effort. Whenever Gina is assisting one of my agents, I would normally go beside her and hold her hand. I have been doing this for the longest time. I normally would joke around the tomboys that I know and hold their hand and tell everyone that we have a relationship. I would have a kick out of that. But the tomboys and I know that it was all just a joke. Gina was no exception.

When she was assisting cherry, one of my agents I told her that, “if you are assisting one of my agents, you are my girlfriend” she was a sport and she played along with it. We will tell the other agents that she is my girlfriend when she is assisting them. We were beginning to get comfortable holding hand secretly. Then one time, she told me that “don’t fall”.

Wondering why on earth did she say that? We both know that this is all a big joke. So I just replied “that won’t be a problem.”

We played this game of ours for a couple of weeks then she is not only my girlfriend when she is assisting my agents but whenever she is in my bay, she is my girlfriend.

Nobody really knew that we were playing this game. And I had to admit that I was having fun with her. I still respected her statement that I should not fall for. And I believed that I’m not going to fall for her.

One day, Glenn walked up to me and said “so, when will we make a move?”

I looked at him confused asking myself ‘what in the world is Glenn talking about?’ then I realized that he was taking about jenny the coach from the other LOB. 

“I really don’t have for this Glenn. I mean, I‘m really busy as you could see.”

“I know that coach, and that is also the reason why we should pursue this. Imagine you can unwind with someone you really like after a stressful day, right?”

“We’ll see okay? I just don’t feel that I should go after someone just for the heck of it. I mean there is a lot to it. You should know; you have a girlfriend. I really feel that there is no magic.”

“That’s easy, you do magic right”?

“You know that not what I meant”

“I know coach, just tell me when you are ready, I’ll help you out all the way.”

He winked and left.

                “So you really are choosy huh dad?” Noelle  said.

“It’s not that sweetheart. I just learned that there are more to a relationship than just feelings.”

For now, you would have to finish your dinner.