Was that actually about the pool game, or was the pool game just an excuse? She was quiet for a second and then, with this small, sheepish smile admitted, "Honestly, a little of both. I really did want to win the shot competitively. I mean, I hate losing. But I think I've been looking for some excuse to test the waters with you for a while now.
And when you lined up that shot and you actually said yes to the stakes instead of laughing it off, I think some part of me just decided to go for it. How long is a while? I asked, genuinely curious now. Longer than I've wanted to admit to myself, honestly. Maybe 6 months.
There was this client dinner back in the spring. You probably don't even remember it where you gave this whole passionate defense of some creative concept the client hated and something about how genuinely invested you were in defending your team's work just kind of stuck with me afterward. I've been quietly noticing you in this lowgrade way I kept telling myself wasn't a big deal. I think I've been doing something similar. Maybe not for 6 months maybe, but definitely for a while now.
I just always told myself it wasn't worth exploring given the whole coworker thing. didn't want to be the guy who made things weird in the office. "Well," she said, gesturing vaguely at Derek and the others still watching us with varying degrees of unsuttle interest. "We've already made things a little weird in the office regardless of what we decide to do next." That got a real laugh out of both of us, breaking some of the remaining tension. And we ended up talking for a while longer right there by the pool table, working through the actual practical implications of what had just happened, whether we wanted to try dating, how we'd navigate it professionally if we did, what the risks actually looked like given that we technically worked at the same company, even in different departments.
I want to take things slow, I said. Even though, for the record, I'm genuinely glad it happened. I think if we're going to do this, I want to actually take it seriously. Go on a real date. Figure out if this is something worth building instead of just something that happened because we were both a little tired and a little bit tipsy on a Thursday night.
I like that, Hannah said. Very responsible of you. Slightly less fun than the pool table bets, but I appreciate the sentiment. I contain multitudes, I said, which got another laugh out of her. And we made plans right there for an actual date the following weekend. both of us agreeing to keep things low-key at work in the meantime, at least until we had a better sense of whether this was actually going anywhere.