I have always had the ability to get along well with most people, either socially or in a working environment. This has been a great asset in my life to date. I am a very sporty and athletic person and I keep myself in good physical shape. Women tend to find me attractive. Regardless of what people say about beauty being skin deep, physically attractive people tend to progress in life easier. I had found this to be the way for me.
Having said this, I am also quite a sensitive person, and empathetic to the feelings of others, particularly those less endowed by nature. I used to work with one such person, a young woman by the name of Gwen. At the time, Gwen was in her early thirties. I had worked with her for just over a year and like everyone else in the office, I paid very little attention to her.
I hate to use words as harsh as ugly, but Gwen would have to be described as very plain at best, but more accurately, unattractive. She was a nerdy, geeky type of girl in both looks and actions. She was about 5 ft 6 in tall and extremely skinny to the point of being cadaverous. Her legs were like twigs and her arms were equally as painfully thin, terminating in long, slender bony hands. Gwen had no womanly shape at all. She had no hips, a tiny scraggy butt and her chest was as flat as a pancake. She weighed no more than ninety pounds.
Gwen was extremely pale to the point of being as white as alabaster. It was as if she had never seen daylight. She had a very thin face with a long, protruding, bony nose, on top of which sat a large pair of dark rimmed, thick lens glasses. Her hair was mousy color, mid length and extremely lank and oily in appearance, as though it was in need of a good wash. Her mouth was quite large and her lips were very thin, exposing a very prominent pair of buck teeth which often protruded over her lower lip. Unfortunately, all of these features made her "rodent looking".
Nature had not been generous to Gwen in terms of looks and physical attributes. Most people similarly bestowed tend to promote their better features as much as possible with good use of make-up or stylish clothing. Not Gwen. She wore absolutely no make up and her dress sense was abysmal to say the least. She would wear blouses, slacks or unflattering skirts which only highlighted her areas of deficiency. Even her shoes were unflattering, often displaying her thin bony feet when they were better hidden.
So having worked with Gwen for over a year, I could honestly say that I had hardly taken the time to get to know her. She was mostly invisible to me and to everyone else as far as I could see. One thing that I was aware of though was that I would sometimes catch her staring at me. If I turned and faced her eye to eye at these moments, she would quickly and shyly lower her gaze and begin to fidget. I believed that Gwen had a crush on me.
Gwen had a very introvert personality and she was extremely lacking in self confidence. In team meetings she would barely say a word. When she did speak, she would often stammer and correct herself. When I spoke in the meetings, I would find her gazing at me quite intently, and hanging on every word that I would say and somewhat pompously, I found this to be amusing. Some of my colleagues also noticed this. They would tease Gwen and refer to me as her boyfriend. Gwen would turn bright red and scurry away, which encouraged them all the more to be thoughtless to her feelings.
So life went on as usual within the office. I being one of the movers and shakers and Gwen studiously making her contribution in the background with minimum fuss and attention drawn to her. Gwen was far from being a social butterfly. She never attended any of our social functions and as far as I knew, she had never had a boyfriend. Apparently, she had confided to a female co-worker that she was still a virgin at age thirty, and fairly unhappy about that.
A social gathering was looming. One of our colleagues was leaving and we had decided that we should organize an evening dinner out. I took charge of getting the crew together. As I went through my checklist of attendees, I realized that I had not included Gwen. I had probably thought that it was futile, as she would not bother to show anyway. On this occasion however, I decided to give Gwen the benefit of the doubt.
I walked over to her office and knocked on the door. Gwen swiveled around in her chair and gazed at me through her thick lens glasses. I said "hi" and Gwen immediately turned bright red. I told her about the leaving party and invited her to come. Gwen said that she was unsure of her availability. I told her that I would really like to see her there and gave her a big smile. Gwen blushed some more and said that she would give it some thought. I left her office considering her a lost cause.
The day of the leaving party soon arrived. Everyone was arriving at the restaurant and taking their seats. To my total shock and surprise, Gwen came walking in to the restaurant also. Gwen went to sit at the end of the table. I called her name and shook my head and offered her a place next to me. She smiled politely and sat next to me.
The evening was a great success, not in the least for Gwen. After a slow start, Gwen chatted animatedly with me and the rest of the group for the entire evening. I have to say that I felt instrumental in integrating her into the team socially. It was a quiet but fun evening and most people left the restaurant reasonably early. I offered to give Gwen a ride home and she accepted.
I tried to make Gwen feel at ease during the car ride to her house. Gwen and I chatted amicably during the entire journey and she often punctuated her conversation with little nervous burst of giggles and blushes. We arrived at Gwen's house and I told her that I would walk her to her door.
We walked along her garden path and I put my arm around her in a friendly fashion. Gwen fell silent, but I could feel her pushing herself even closer to me. I was aware as to not overstep the mark and have her wrongly believe that I was hitting on her. We arrived at her doorstep. I held her thin bony hands in mine and gave her a peck on the cheek, bidding her goodnight. She squeezed my hands tightly in hers and with somewhat teary eyes, she sniffled and giggled nervously and wished me a goodnight also. I turned and left. I waved to her from my car as I departed and she waved back at me animatedly.
After that day, our working relationship was never quite the same. Gwen was far more visible to me in the workplace. It was as if she was deliberately making the effort to bump into me as much as possible. She would take breaks at the same time as me and she would come to see me more often in my office. I also noticed that when we were talking together in close proximity, she was way more touchy feely than before, often resting her hand on my arm or shoulder.
