<Deep American voice on>
Previously, Mark’s promised weekend of passion failed to
materialise as he was stood up on the Friday night and completely ignored by
the online dating community on the Saturday and Sunday. How much worse can it get? Find out here…
<Deep American voice off>
On the Monday I awoke in a pretty miserable and crestfallen
state. I never used to tell my staff anything
at all about my private life, so I was pretty surprised when I walked into the
office and was greeted by an inquisitive receptionist who asked “So, how did
the date go then?”
“Eh? How did you know?”
“There was an answerphone message from your Friday afternoon
client. Can you call her as she has a query on her Will and she also asked if
your date showed up.”
Good Lord, I hadn’t expected that.
“Look, for the record I was stood up, but for heaven’s sake
don’t let the client know. She said that she’d go out with me herself if my
date didn’t show and I don’t even want to try and explain that away to her… she’s
in her mid-seventies! Anyway, if she
calls, as far as she is concerned, everything was fine.”
She passed the message around the office and I imagine it
provided them all with some amusement for a while. Amusement was the last thing on my mind… I
was still shocked at my apparent invisibility to the female dating community.
I returned my client’s call and sure enough, her first
question was “How was your date?”
“Ok thank you. You
had a query with your Will I think?” Move
on, move on. I didn't dwell on the subject of the date and fortunately she didn't push the point either. It was a minor
query – something about a middle name – and it put her mind at ease. She said it had been worrying her over the
weekend and thanked me for my time.
The weather matched my mood as the skies darkened and we had
the most almighty storm. A lightning
strike close by knocked the phone system out completely and we could neither
make nor receive any calls. Great. The day was going from bad to worse.
Fortunately, the fax line was working and we arranged for BT
to re-direct all calls through to that one, but this meant that all the
receptionist could do was continually answer the fax telephone, explain what
had happened and that someone would get back to them as soon as the phones were
fixed.
Near the end of the day, the reception was busy; the phone
was being answered continuously, files were being put away for the night and
the post was being done. I walked into
with the last few letters that I’d signed and the receptionist turned to me and
said,
“I've got that client you saw on Friday on the phone again,
she has another query and she’s worried about it. She needs to speak to you urgently.”
“Ok, pass me the phone, I’ll deal with it.” I said. I took the phone and asked my client how I
could help. At that time I was
surrounded by 4 reception staff.
“Hello, Mark here, what’s the problem? I don’t have the file to hand but am sure I
can answer it quickly for you.”
“Oh, hello, well, it isn't really a query but I just wanted
to say that I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you since Friday. I’d
love us to go out but of course, you may be looking for someone younger…”
The colour must have drained from my face as my staff suddenly
stopped what they were doing and looked concerned. One came up behind me to catch me if I fell
backwards. I composed myself, motioning to them that I was ok.
“Err… well, that’s err… very… err... flattering and thank you but,
err… well, I don’t think that would be appropriate really, would it?” What could I say? The staff obviously then cottoned on and a
whole series of muffled sniggers went on behind me. How embarrassing was that!
The client said she understood and said goodbye, leaving me
to deal with the now very amused staff.
Oh great.
So not only had I been ignored by my peers, but I’d also
been hit on by someone nearly 30 years my senior. Was that how it was going to be from now
on? Was I past my sell by date?
Fortunately not – I’ll soon recount the most requested blog
story of all, which is how I met my lovely partner Dawn – but that one week in
the summer of 2008 took me through all the emotional highs and lows the
Internet dating scene can provide.
But the last non-internet bit was just cruel.
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