Teapot part 1

Teapot

When she joined our office I hardly took notice of her. But she was already quite distinctive looking: short, stout (for want of a better word) but with a flowing lock of hair all the way down to her waist. I still remember being squeezed with her at the back of a car on the way to the company recreation centre.

After a few fire drills, I found myself unable to keep my eyes off her. She was hardly somebody who you would call beautiful at first sight, but she had a way of growing on you. I liked that she looked so unusual – I’m usually drawn to people who dare to be different.

It probably was discomforting for her, she noticed me. I tried to chat her up, and emailed her. The initial attempts at conversation were stilted, and it was not easy to find stuff to talk about, we didn’t know that many people in common.

One Valentine’s day, I decided to be cheeky and send her a Valentine in the form of a poem. I can’t really remember much of what happened after that. She thought it was funny. I didn’t expect anything else to come out of it, other than it planting a seed in her head.

A few months passed, and soon Shingot was about to get married. At around the same time, she was transferred to another building. Shingot knew I was after her, so he invited her to his wedding (I was there too of course) and then arranged to have her sat at my table. When she asked him if there was anyone to pick her up, he forwarded the email to me. I don’t know what turn the conversation was taking, but she said that she was happy to eat anything that had meat in it, even human meat. I wrote right back to me: “you can eat my meat anytime baby.” According to LC, she choked on a drink when she wrote that.

Thereafter began our first date. At Shingot’s wedding, in full view of a lot of people from the office. She dressed in a red dress which looked really good (she said that wasn’t her best dress but I don’t believe it 100%). I brought out my new red shirt. It was a coincidence. But we did look a lot like a real couple that night, except that she barely reached up to my shoulder.

We talked for a bit, but I can’t remember much about the conversation. She laughed at my inability to concentrate on more than one thing at a time, but I was a novice driver, and nervous. We found that we were both music lovers (but that meant not that much, because we listened to totally different kinds of music.) She was being animated and telling me about how much she loved this or that music when it played. She had decent taste. But she thought that the Sly Stone I had on the car player was crazy music and preferred to listen to her 933. I remember her raving about Jay Chou’s “secret”. She sang in a choir. It was an OK date, neither fantastic nor disastrous.

At the end of the evening, she took pictures of us. I don’t know why, but probably to remember one time when she went out with a guy 1 foot taller than she was. We passed by some of her colleagues, who asked her if she wanted a ride. She said that she was going to her aunt’s place in Geylang to spend the weekend. I said that I stayed in Bedok, and I was going to send her home because it was on the way. She spoke the truth; I lied. But later on she told me she thought the white lie was quick thinking.

We had a follow up date a week later. It was just me and a colleague and her, we played tennis. I remember that she brought a very cute back pack. We laughed and played tennis. I didn’t have the car that day because I didn’t have the pass to drive in. After the games, though, she took a long shower. I, customarily didn’t bathe. Ghost offered to drive us to dinner after the game, but she asked to be taken home instead. I was upset at that, but later on it occurred to me that she was probably disgusted.

She did ask me for help on a few things, and we did exchange some more SMSs. I asked her out one more time for dinner, but she made an excuse at the last minute. Thus ended the first phase of my attempts to win her over.

There was some banter, and she did tell me that she liked some of my funny comments at work.

1 year later I showed her photos of my trip to the US. She liked some of the funny pictures. Also claimed to know immediately that the other chick in my photos was my sister. Then she sent me a photo of herself. Sounded like a good sign, but I never followed up on that. I didn’t think that I was ready yet.

(to be continued)