The Demotion

Remember Cornell? My work crush? After we hung out a couple times (in group settings) he cooled off. Majorly. Instead of him inviting me places and sending me texts for no reason, I was thinking of excuses to text him or send him a quick e-mail across the office. He'd come over to my desk to say hi or give me a meaningless task to lighten his workload. And when I did contact him first, he was responsive and even complimentary sometimes. But still, I was making the first move by sending the first text or e-mail.

Essentially, this has been a gradual slow-down over the last few weeks, and at first I was enjoying his little hard-to get game. Or made excuses for him. Maybe he was busy at work (which I didn't notice) Or that he was freaked out that we worked together and didn't want to get in too deep.

Clearly I was crushing hard as usual.

But lately, since he's cooled off, so have I. I am realizing that if he's not that into me, he's not that into me. He may have found someone else who resembles his celebrity crush, Taylor Swift. Or perhaps finding out during a game of Never Have I Ever that I sniffed some white powder in college was too much for him. Not sure, but I am (trying not to) lose sleep over it.

I thought maybe there was still a shot. My work here is coming to a close and things will either fizzle and all will be forgotten or he will suddenly reappear. Right? Doubt it.

Last week, before leaving for the weekend he came into the copy room and said, "Bye, Dude".

Dude? Ok, maybe it was an affectionate nickname or soemthing. And it was nice that he came to say bye, right? Actions speak louder than words?

But then yesterday, I was telling him about the awful speeding ticket incident I had over the weekend. And he said, Slow Down, _____. And called me by my last name.

My thoughts? Demotion. To last name. This can only mean that I am no longer an object of desire for him. Even my best guy friends don't call me by my last name and I'm pretty sure they're not looking to get in my pants. So am I special to this dear work boy Cornell? My instincts tell me nope, that I'm just another friendly coworker.