Jack watched as Theresa walks by. He smiles nervously at Theresa as she waves an acknowledgement at him as she passes by. Jack has been in lust-love with her ever since she interviewed here at the company. He practically tripped over several office workers trying to get a better view of her when she walked in for her interview. Stumbling away, he nearly impaled several of these same coworkers. That was a year ago. Here it is about a year later and he still finds himself all left feet and fumble-tongued around her. Jack had to laugh at himself, who would have ever thought he would find love and lust at first sight?
***
Jack works in the IT department and has had no problems talking and laughing with anyone from the executive assistants to Vice Presidents. He even does fine when speaking with the CEO of the company. For some reason that he cannot describe, he was unable to even stand properly without tripping over himself when trying to talk with Theresa.
Jack's fellow IT workers always kid him about that. They tease him about his sudden drop in IQ and social graces around her. Whenever a call would come in for IT services at or around Theresa's workstation, they would suddenly all be busy with other service requests. And when Jack would head off to service those request – you can hear the pack of them running after him to see the 'show' when Theresa is around.
Throughout all of Jack's fumbling, Theresa has always been nice to him. She would patiently wait for him to finish his questions or comments -- at times they would be frustratingly lengthy because of his nervousness.
***
Theresa is an executive assistant to a Vice President of the company. She sat on the seventh floor along the outer offices like several other executive assistants. Most of the other executive assistants were female with the exception of two. The female executive assistants share the office gossip but Jack found that Theresa rarely paid attention to the gossip.
Jack was different. He enjoyed listening to these office gossip sessions when he is around working on some computer. It was one of his ways in getting to know the others and to get closer to them in a sense. Jack knew from his conversations with the other executive assistants, when Theresa was not around, that Theresa is a very likeable person. She's kind and patient. Although some of the others has noted a sly and somewhat sarcastic sense of humor about her - that made Jack like her even more.
Jack is trying to be sensible about the whole thing. He may only be seeing Theresa in the physical sense and that may be why he finds himself in lust with her. He may even think he is in love with her. But he did not know anything about her. He did not know about her personality and mind. Jack knew from conversations with his 'coupled' friends that physicality might sustain a relationship but only for so long. They all told him that you need to be compatible in other ways.
***
Theresa glances at her watch as she moves swiftly from the elevator towards her desk. Mr. Thomson, her boss, is expecting the reports for the meeting later this afternoon. Sighing to herself, Theresa moves a little faster. She went to four different stores to look for the piece of software that her nephew just 'had to have'. There was very little that Theresa didn't like. It just so happens that shopping for the 'in' thing is one thing she didn’t like. But, she was doing it because her nephew had called her up and asked her for it. Theresa would do anything for her nephew.
As she rounds the corner while heading towards her office, she saw Jack. She waves to him and saw him half stand. She keeps her eyes on him, mentally reminding herself to talk with Jack about the software. Maybe he would have an idea of where to get it. Theresa smiles to herself as she passes by Jack. She likes Jack. He's always been nice, although oddly clumsy at times.
Theresa has heard from the other executive assistants about Jack. They all thought he was funny and helpful. Theresa realized that Jack was labeled as that guy that the girls would go to if they needed something in a hurry and did not want to go through normal procedures. It happens more often that not those IT personnel are asked to do that one thing because someone needs something right away. At times, Theresa had wondered why she has not heard rumors of the girl Jack was dating.
Theresa stops at her desk to pick up the reports. She glances back to where she saw Jack. She sees that he was still looking her way. She took a closer look and realizes that Jack wasn't exactly bad. Bad meaning that while Jack isn't superstar or fantasy prince like in the looks department. He is not bad to look at. Theresa knows he's smart and patient from the conversations she's had with him. She also knows first hand how kind he is. Especially, with the way he helped her after her break-up with Robert a few weeks ago.
She shrugs to herself and turns to walk to Mr. Thomson's office. She knocks once and reaches down to open the door and walks in.
***
Jack was crushed about five months ago when Susan told him that Theresa had met someone. Susan is another executive assistant that seemed closer to Theresa than any of the others in the area. Susan also knows about the crush that Jack has on Theresa. Susan is not the shy type. She is more of a straightforward type of person. Susan had confronted Jack one day after about the first month of Theresa working at the company. Jack admitted it to Susan and begged her not to say anything. Susan, for a price, had agreed.
Jack was less than his normal jovial and joking self the first couple of weeks after Susan had told him about Theresa's new relationship. Jack found those weeks torturous. His coworkers tried to make him feel better but nothing they did worked.
Of course, things slowly went back to normal with Jack resigning himself to the fact that Theresa is a social person and a pretty one at that. Not to mention the fact that he had never 'did' anything to let her know he was interested in her.
So after Theresa was about two months into her relationship, Jack was able to talk with her with some more ease. She was so excited to be able to talk with him about Robert. As painful as it was, he asked about her relationship and Theresa would give the usual 'he is fine' reply and told him excitedly what they did that weekend or evening. Other than those simple questions, Jack did not ask for more. He did find out other things about her. Theresa tends to enjoy the latest top charters as far as music was concerned. She also enjoyed rock, jazz and classical music. He found out what kind of movies and food she enjoyed. All in all, it wasn't too bad.
A month ago, Susan had pulled Jack aside to let him know that Theresa had broken up with her boyfriend Robert. Jack was on ecstatic. Of course he was upset for Theresa being upset - but she is single again!
"You should talk with her."
"About what?" Jack asks Susan.
"Ask how she is doing. She'll tell you. I've told you that she thinks you're a nice guy. She sees you as someone who is willing to listen to her. Well, after you listen to her - you can comfort her. Be nice to her. You know, ease your way in. You're already an office friend to her. Work on being a friend outside of here." Susan replies, smiling encouragingly at Jack.
"I don't know.." Jack hesitates.
Susan sighs and shrugs, "Well, it is up to you. Here is a big chance."
"Thanks Susan. Let me think about it."
Susan shakes a finger at him, "Don't take too long."
They left it at that. Jack went back to his cubicle to go over some email. He saw that he had a new service request. The request was to check out why Theresa's computer keeps crashing. Taking it as a sign, he phones up Theresa's desk. Jack was both relieved and disappointed that Theresa's voice mail picked up. He left a message letting her know that he would be up in about ten minutes to take a look at her computer. Chuckling to himself at 'the sign', he wondered what this particular sign meant. Sighing to himself, he went about gathering his CDs and notepad. He headed up to Theresa's office.
Jack had been going over Theresa's computer for about fifteen minutes when Theresa walks in.
Glancing up at Theresa, Jack smiles quickly. He then quickly turns his attention back towards the computer, Jack said, "Hi Theresa. I hope you don't mind. I got the service request and you weren't at your desk. I thought I would have finished before you got back."
"I.. It's alright Jack." Theresa says in a shaky voice.
Noticing the difference in her voice, Jack looks up at Theresa. He sees that she had been crying. Jack got up immediately to walk over to her.
"Is everything alright?" he asks.
"It's nothing, Jack." Theresa says.
"Are you sure? You look like you've got a little more than something in your eye."
