2C (not two cents)

30th October 2009

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a game of whisper down the lane

this blog is entirely JJ’s fault. i told him he was going in my blog and he laughed. hmmmmm. apparently the threat of a blog no one knows about isn’t terribly motivating… :)

so, i wrote a fair chunk of my master’s thesis in February, away from home. some of it was a Salty Senorita and some of it was on the return of JJ’s desk in his office. everyone knows me there. they stop in to say ‘hi’ and ask when i’m coming back. i say “never,” or i say, “i’m not even here now.” we all laugh. it’s a ritual.

i noticed that Hatch, a friend in the office, was leaving work on a relatively normal schedule on Friday nights. this is unheard of in software. JJ told me that Hatch, when questioned about leaving before nightfall on a friday, responds with, “I’m headed north for the weekend.” i witnessed this a couple of times and told JJ that i thought Hatch had a girlfriend who worked in our offices.

JJ apparently told another friend, Erik, that i suspected Hatch was seeing someone from the office.  JJ reported to me last night (so, this is 8 months later) that Erik had been  snooping around and has discovered some circumstantial evidence connecting Hatch to a lovely woman in the office. Erik reported this to Hatch to report to me.

i was stunned. first JJ told Erik i’d read someone’s nonverbals and determined office romance? then Erik, whose highly technical, high-level job requires every ounce of his attention, somehow has not forgotten this piece of gossip and actually made a small effort at sourcing it? and finally, they’re both very amused that i tagged Hatch, who has managed not to slip up about his secret for more than 8 months?  bad! bad i say!

ok, in hindsight, i can see how this is *kind of* my fault. if Hatch wanted us to know about the office romance, he would have told us. on the other hand, it’s kind of hard for me to turn off the watching. it’s not like i went through his desk or anything, i said goodnight to him on two sequential fridays. he could have looked less like a man slipping off to an illicit meeting, right?

the fault here is with JJ and Erik for being bad. yes. i said it, bad. next thing you know, there will be pranks to hint at Hatch that they’re onto him. but no one can reasonably pin the imminent mischief on me. i’m just saying.