In the interest of keeping people anonymous, I am using aliases for this story.
I met "Little Office Manager", LOM, in college. My friend worked at the school paper as a writer and I would go in to visit her from time to time. LOM was the office manager of the paper and was a few years older than us. I would say "Hi" to her ever once in a while but never really anything more than that.
One day I was sitting on one of the couches in the newspaper office and I looked over to LOM's office. Her door was cracked about an inch and a half, and she was standing while on the phone with a vendor. I could just make out what she was saying. She was negotiating an ad to go into the paper. It was one of those "ah hah" moments where the sun shines on her just right, and you realize that you are completely attracted to someone. When she got off of the phone, I got up and walked into her office and sat down in the chair. She gave me a look as if to say "yes?... can I help you". We started talking and I ended up going to see her almost every day.
She was fun, vibrant, exciting, and adventurous. She was athletic and liked to be outdoors. She was tough when it comes to business and it turned me on. We feel in love quickly. We had this thing about keeping our dating a secret. That was exciting too.
We dated for our Jr. and Sr. years and moved to Mountain View together. We lasted a year in the bay area before things went sour. She was the first girlfriend that I lived with and was the reason why I swore I would never live with a girlfriend again. Not because I didn't enjoy it, but rather because breakups are hell.
At the time, i didn't really understand why things went bad. It wouldn't be until years later that I found out that she was a lesbian. I had no idea. And to think i seriously considered marrying this woman. There is something to be said about having a fear of marriage.
