I’ll call her Diane, but that’s not her real name.
She’s several years younger than I am. She’s single, but in a long distance relationship with a guy who is a bit of a flake, IMO, and she has more or less conceded that this guy isn’t “the one,” but she’s kind of letting the relationship ride to give it a fair chance and because there isn’t another boyfriend candidate at the moment (ok, it’s more complicated than that, but I’m simplifying for brevity’s sake). She’s incredibly attractive, incredibly smart, super funny and a passionate Christian – everything that any guy with half a brain is looking for, so I find it incredible that she’s still available and eligible guys aren’t lined up around the block waiting for their turn to win her heart.
A few months ago I took a new position at our company and in my new position Diane reports to me. Since we’ve started working together, we’ve become very good friends. She is actually part of the reason I took the position. I had met her before at work and had instantly liked her (all very platonic) and, when offered the position, I thought it would be great to have the chance to work with her.
When we started working together, we became fast friends when we discovered that we were both Christians and shared the same sarcastic humor, etc. As I’ve gotten to know her, I’ve discovered what a beautiful, exceptional person she is on every level. She is just one of those rare people in life that brings incredible joy to those who know her.
In a very short time, I have developed a deep affection for her and I find myself thinking of her often. Sometimes I look at her and she is so beautiful to me that I just want to grab her and kiss her. You’re probably thinking this sounds like the typical middle-aged man having a mid-life crisis chasing after the pretty young coworker scenario, but I really don’t think it is.
To me, she is this incredible, beautiful person that I love in a very appropriate, agape way. But I am also finding that because of this deep affection for her and because of how beautiful I find her to be, I have this desire to want more of her. Feel free to call bullshit on this and say that I’m just dressing up lust in flowery terms to try and justify my desires, but I still maintain that there is something much deeper and complicated here.
It’s all very intense, emotional and conflicted in my mind and I spend countless hours trying to process it all and figure it out. I really do love and care about her in a pure agape way and part of what scares me about these other desires is that I could easily screw everything up and destroy an amazing friendship with an amazing person. What a wretched mistake that would be …