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I rolled my eyes. “You’ve seen me date lots of girls over the years, old man.”

“Then why are you acting like a schoolgirl with a crush?” he asked.

There was no teasing there, it was more like he was probing for the truth. My friends all watched me intently.

“I like her,” I said quietly.

“You more than like her, don’t you?” Lillian asked. “You were different with her than you’ve been with other women you dated.”

“The first time I saw her, it was like, I don’t know, like I’d just found something I was looking for, something that was lost and I didn’t know it was lost until I found it, you know?”

My friends all nodded. You wouldn’t know it by looking at them, but they were a romantic bunch. Every single one of them had fallen in love at first sight with the people who became their spouses.

“When we kissed, I could tell she was feeling the same rush of emotions as me. It was the best kiss of my life. But she’s worried about the boss thing.”

“She won’t be your boss for too much longer,” Lillian reminded me. “Jordan seems great too, I really like her.”

“She’s also kind of hung up on our age gap.”

“What is she? Forty?” Lillian asked.

“Forty-three.”

She waved her hand. “That’s nothing. It’s not like either of you are kids, you’re both firmly in adulthood. The bigger issue is that you need to be real careful not to do anything to make her lose face here at work.”

Lillian gave me a hard stare to emphasize her point.

“If people think she’s messing around with her employees, it will be very bad for her. These kinds of things are always way worse for the women, especially when the women are in non-traditional fields. You need to be very, very careful Jimmy.”

“Maybe you can just try being friends for a while,” Leo suggested. “She’s new to town and needs friends, and that way you can get to know her without the romantic stuff gettin’ in the way. Take things slow, then when you move back out of her sector, you’ll be free to ask her out.”

“That’s actually good advice, Leo. Thank you.”

He rolled his eyes. “I’m not so old I don’t remember what it’s like to be besotted over a woman.”

The alarm on Lillian’s phone rang, signaling that our lunch break was almost over. As we packed up our leftovers and went our separate ways, I decided the best approach would be for me and Jordan to talk like grown adults.

“I think we need to talk,” I said as I drove her home from work later that day.

Just like this morning, Jordan had rebuffed my effort to help her into the truck, instead grabbing onto the ‘oh shit’ bar and hoisting herself up into the seat.

“Okaayyy…” She stretched out the word, her tone clearly indicating that she didn’t think she was going to like whatever I was about to say.

I pulled into the parking lot of her apartment, then turned off the truck and shifted to look at her.

“That kiss last night was…well, you know, you were there. I think it’s pretty clear that there’s something between us, something big.”

She opened her mouth to interrupt, and I raised my hand, stopping her.

“I also know that if we start something right now it’s going to be trouble for you at work, and I don’t want that. I want you to come into a relationship with me free and clear of any fears.”

“Come into a relationship with you?” she parroted.

“That’s why I think we should just be friends.”

“Friends?”

I rolled my lips in to keep from laughing at the way she was just repeating what I said.