Spiral Bound Journal

Newlywed, Interrupted

Assignment 1: Walk me through how you first met the person that is coming between you and your spouse. What did you initially think of this person? How did you get to know them better?


The decision to postpone our honeymoon was not a wise one. I had no idea of this back in 2017, and I wish I had. When Kayla and I made plans to combine our honeymoon and one year anniversary into one trip, neither one of us foresaw changes in my part of our company. How was I to know that a mere month after getting married I would be working with Felicia? Heck, how was I to know I'd even learn her name after just seeing her around my building for a year and a half? I just remember spotting Felicia walking by while I was in the cafeteria one day and thinking she was pretty. Having her join my team soon after getting married was not an event I could have ever anticipated.

I didn't get to meet Felicia straight away, as she first split her time between our team and customer service. Then I didn't see her in the office until after she returned from a vacation she planned several months prior. In fact, it took a few months for me to have any real contact with her. I was off playing with tables and databases while Felicia wrangled with the technically inept. With our respective jobs having little in common, I tended to see Felicia the most at various team social events. We somehow ended up next to each other at the team's annual Christmas meal, an event held offsite for a change. It was her first one, and she left early to go back to the office. It still gave me a chance to overhear her chat with others, and I chuckled under my breath at her self depreciating remarks.

After that, I paid a bit more attention to the conversations she'd have in the office. I'd listen to her keep her voice even while counseling the confused and take on a stony cadence when laying down the law with more aggressive callers. Her tactics intrigued me, and I soon found myself thinking that she'd be a good sounding board as I dealt with bringing on a new order processing tool. Without even thinking about it, I found myself babbling to Felicia about having to meet with the C-Level leadership for the vendor. Felicia listened and offered her empathy despite this work having next to no impact on what she supported. At the same time, she made no move to say everything would be alright, an omission I found refreshing. After that conversation, Felicia was on my radar for good.

During that time, I was still in the first year of my marriage and all of its blissful oblivion. Kayla and I were traveling and contemplating buying a new house. These adventures kept me from thinking too much about Felicia at first. That started to change before our one year anniversary, though, and I had to make a small effort not to contemplate Felicia during an anniversary dinner in downtown Minneapolis. Such efforts became more common and needed more conscious effort as time went on. This work kept Kayla from getting suspicious, although I did have actual job issues to bring up at dinner when I was home. I could still manage it for a while, though. It all fell apart when Kayla and I found a house to call our own.

That story will be jotted down after the next counseling session.



Entry 2 in "The Bard's Hall Contest"  June 2022