"WHAT ARE WE GONNA DO AT WORK TOMORROW!?!?!"
"I have a plan."
For those that don't know, Julia and I work together. For over 12 months, we have been dating
while being partners at work and sitting right next to each other...
no, not in adjacent offices or anything. We literally share one desk a mere six feet in length.
No partitions. No escape. We spent (and still do spend) eight hours a day trapped no more than 18 inches from each other.
Oh yeah... and our relationship is a secret. No one in our office even knows we're dating.
The morning after proposing, Julia and I came into work early and sat quietly as we awaited our co-workers' arrivals.
Soon, our boss Glen, who had hired Julia and promoted me, arrived and proceeded back to his office.
We gave him a minute to get settled, then approached him.
"Glen, do you have a minute?"
"Sure."
"We have some news. It might be rather shocking, but I assure you it's very good news."
"OK..."
"Julia and I are getting married." I bluntly stated.
"You're right." he said simply. "That is shocking."
But as I looked into his eyes, I could see that my statement had not hit him. Julia had to flash the ring on her finger. Then it hit him.
"Oh my God! You guys are serious!"
We couldn't help but laugh.
"Now don't worry." Julia began to assure him as we'd prepared. "It's not going to get in the way of our professional work."
"Yeah yeah" he dismissed. "You guys are getting married! That's fantastic!"
"Thank you. Well, we're going to go tell the team now."
"Oh, you haven't told them yet!?!" he eagerly asked us.
"No, not yet."
Like a giddy little school boy, he beamed, "Ooh, I gotta see this!" and raced out of his office right behind us.
After over a year of keeping the secret, our teammates had just begun to suspect something for the first time at about 4:45pm the day before.
They had sent each of us a barrage of Instant Messages inquiring about our supposed "dates" for later that night.
As I reached our area, I saw that all of our co-workers were all present and seated. I had been playing this moment over and over
in my head for months and now I was only too eager to get it over with.
"So you wanted to hear about my date last night."
I already had everyone's attention.
"Well, I did something last night that I've never done before and I'll probably never do again."
"Woah woah" one of them stopped me. "What did you do? Ask someone to marry you?"
"As a matter of fact, I asked someone to marry me."
There was a pause of confusion and bewilderment.
"Would you like to know who it is?"
I look over at Julia and she slowly walks up next to me. I put my arm around her. That was it.
It all happened so fast that I only remember flash images. I remember laughter. Chaos. Shock. Hilarity. And a lot of, "What the..."
I offered up one piece of the puzzle.
"Julia and I have been dating for over a year... and we've been discussing marriage since before I ever became a PM (Project Manager)."
There were a lot of congratulatory wishes. People were shocked. They were happy for us. They were so impressed that we kept the secret as long as we did.
After so many endless debates as to who we thought might know, who suspected, who didn't... it turned out that no one suspected a thing.
One story I love is when a co-worker heard the news, she responded, "Wow! What are the odds that Chet and Julia got engaged on the same day?"
She had to be explained that we'd actually gotten engaged to each other.
That night, we attended a farewell party for the head of our production department.
It was a wonderful coincidence that his last day (and thus the party) was February 15th. We had a chance to socialize,
to explain ourselves to people, to relax, enjoy the party atmosphere, and to finally act like our true selves amongst our co-workers.
The highlight was when they showed the company video (a tradition at our office) and when they showed an image of Julia,
someone shouted out "CHET!" and everyone laughed & applauded.
Things are a little easier at work now. At least our bickering is no longer confined to Instant Messenger.
