So one day I go into work and the cube across from mine which was formerly empty now has someone in it. I remember Jason, our support manager, mentioning hiring a new intern. The cube desks face away from each other, so I only see her back and notice that she’s a girl and has black hair, but that’s about all I observe during the rush of the morning. I generally try to be friendly and introduce myself to new people around my vicinity, so I eventually I go over… “hello, I’m Oliver.” She turns around and it’s the first time I actually see her. I’m sure she said hello back, but I can’t really recall as I was likely too busy trying to mask my surprise at how cute I thought she was. I proceeded to make a fool of myself by finding out she went to UT then guessing every possible year but the right one. At that point, I either scuffled off to a meeting or got sucked back into the internets…
A few weeks go by and we interact a bit here and there (working late at the office, group lunches, etc.). She asks if I play Scrabble, so I download Words with Friends on my iPhone and we begin playing a game. I use all of my tiles in one play and I think I’m looking good with what I feel is a solid lead. The game nears its end and she teaches me a lesson in being confident by pulling ahead and beating me by 10 points. I realize this girl probably has brains.
One night, I join Steph, Ryan, Heather, and Jimmy at Jim’s and sometime during our conversations, Heather accuses me of liking our new intern (for reasons that, to me, seemed like a stretch). I hadn’t actually thought about it prior to this accusation, so I deny and give Heather strange looks. Soon, however, with the idea in my head, I realize that yes, I have totally developed a crush.
A few weeks go by, and things like this start to happen:
1:18:13 PM thealattack:
Meagan Martin
omg does Oliver have a gf?
Alastair Wilkes
no
single
Meagan Martin
cause i just saw a new asian intern that is sooooo cute and adorable
1:18:21 PM Oliver: lol
1:19:01 PM thealattack: haha
1:19:12 PM Oliver: that was totally out of the blue?
1:19:43 PM thealattack: yep, totally out of the blue
…
1:31:30 PM thealattack: sounds like you have people working for you
1:31:39 PM thealattack:
Meagan Martin
back to Oliver’s new girlfriend
how do i find out who she is and set them up on a DATE
?
Heather and Meagan soon come up with “project jack” that’s supposed to set us up on a date. I decide that there seem to be too may coincidences pushing me to ask this girl out, so I take that as a sign and with much encouragement, I finally work myself up to asking her to dinner myself. I’m not going to get into how I asked. :-) I feel a mix of happy/surprised when she says “sure” with a smile and I hurry off to do a code review in a little bit of a panic not knowing what to do next…
Our first date is on a Friday night. Usually, I go out with my group of friends to a new place in Austin we haven’t been before. In an email thread, I learn they plan on going to The Odd Duck, which I, of course, end up skipping out on. After dinner, I decide to take us to Gourdough’s for dessert. I pull up and realize that Gourdough’s is right next to The Odd Duck and they basically share the same parking lot and eating area. Oops. It’s too late to leave at this point, so I end up introducing her to a handful of my buddies and we all hang out for a little while. I take her home and apparently I haven’t scared her off by any of my antics (planned or unplanned) as she agrees to a second date.
It’s now been about a month since then and I must say that I’m a bit smitten. I like to joke that things aren’t official until they’re on Facebook… so…
