Some things you can't take back. When they're out there, they are out there forever and you just have to hope things work out. At that point, you are the mercy of fate. You're gambling. That's how Amy and I began our journey, with a total shot in the dark.
We worked together. Technically, I was her boss though I never really needed to treat her that way. She was sharp and competent and knew better than me how to do what she was hired to do.
This professional dynamic suited us well and left room for a friendship to grow. We could talk and joke as co-workers. She enjoyed my sense of humor. I loved making her laugh almost as much as I enjoyed looking at her.
She was gorgeous, tall, and fit. When she walked into a room people noticed. She loved wearing skirts to work. I would always try to subtly sneak a peak. Got pretty good at it too.
For two years our friendship grew. We began confiding in one another about more than work. Our discussions explored topics more deeply than water cooler chitchat, but there was a problem. We were both married - unhappily married, which just accelerated the intensifying attachment we began having for one another.
It all came to a head one autumn evening. My wife was out of town. She and I were rarely intimate anymore having come to realize that we were both in a very different place sexually. Amy's husband had been away for work for months. When not away, he would drink and pass out early, or drink and demand her affections. Neither of our circumstances were what you would call satisfying or healthy.
Amy and I had been talking on the phone in the evenings while our spouses were away. On the night that our world's began to flip upside down, I had been working late. I got home and there was nothing to eat in the house. I mentioned it flippantly to Amy.
"I just made chicken wings," she said. "Kids are staying with friends so I'd be happy to bring some over."
"No. I'll find something," I replied dismissively.
"Seriously, its no big deal," she pressed.
The truth was that I really wanted her to come over. My own kids were with their mother and I didn't want to be alone. But, even though her offer was completely platonic, my thoughts of her were not. I did not want to do something that would ruin our marriages, hurt our friendship, or cost us our jobs.
"No really. Its ok," I insisted.
"Why are you being weird? I'm coming over." She was relentless.
"Amy don't," I shot back. "Its not that I don't want you to come over, its that I really want you to come over."
"What? That doesn't even make sense." She was truly befuddled.
"Look," I explained. "If you were to come over tonight, you'd just be trying to something nice for a friend. But, it wouldn't be a friend who greeted you. It would be someone who sees you as...who wants you as...something more than that."