“Is that why you never went in?”
“Yes.”
I squint my eyes and look at him.
“Have you really been attracted to me since I started working here?”
“Yes.”
Oh my, he’s so expressive. A grand master of conversation.
“Then why didn’t you do anything?”
“There was no opportunity.”
“For a year?”
“For eight months. Less than a week after you were hired, this shortie from sales attached himself to you, and I don’t like triangles.”
I open my eyes wide.
“How did you know about him? I didn’t show up to work with him.”
“I am a manager in this company, Maria. If I need information on a subject, I just get it.”
Stalker. I wonder who he was asking about me.
“And did you learn anything interesting?” I cross my arms.
“Nothing that would satisfy me. It’s good that you broke up with him. He didn’t deserve you.” He has a strange look on his face, as if someone poured tea over his freshly printed analysis for a client.
That’s a fact, Karol didn’t deserve me. But contrary to what Jan claims, he wasn’t short at all. He was almost six feet tall—although, relative to Jan, he could actually pass for a shortie.
“I dated him for less than four months. After that, I was single.”
“There were no opportunities later, either.”
“We see each other practically every day. We work in the same department.”
“There are almost a hundred people working in the department, Maria. There was always someone hanging around. You didn’t want to go on a business trip, your overtime didn’thave the desired effect. I would have to make you stay the night so that the office would finally be empty.”
I’m taken aback. I don’t believe it.
“I was pushed into working overtime because you wanted to fuck me when everyone went home?”
“It wasn’t always the cause of your overtime… But yes, you can consider that most of it was dictated by my desire to be left alone with you.”
Jeez, I am going to explode.
“You are sick. Couldn’t you just ask me out to dinner at a restaurant like a normal guy?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“First, I avoid restaurants. Second, you’d say no anyway.”
That’s a fact. I would have thought that his brain had gone mushy.