Not the one

I had seen this gorgeous man over and over again at different times in the workplace. Finally, I had the guts to ask someone about him. I picked Lisa to ask because she made it her business to know everyone and everything about them.
'Say Lisa, I was wondering about that tall, skinny guy who works upstairs. He has an accent and rides a bike to work' I enquired.

'Oh him, yeah, that's Steven Reinhart, the new Marketing Executive. I believe he's from Australia. You'd like him I know and probably have a few things in common' Lisa gave me more information than I had expected.
So, a few weeks went by and I still hadn't got up the nerve to talk to him. Then, one day, I met Lisa again and decided to prod her some more.
'so, how do you think I could get to meet this Steven guy' I asked.
'well, I've been talking to him lately and he wondered if there were people in the office who'd be interested in training for this bike marathon coming up in two weeks. How about you? I could set the two of you up?' Lisa encouraged.
I was somewhat shy about the whole thing but my enthusiasm for meeting Steven clouded over the other feeling.

It was all arranged by Lisa. I was to eat my lunch in the staff lounge on this particular afternoon not letting on to anyone about this setup because co-workers could be spiteful or just curious which may ruin the effort. Steven, prompted by Lisa would come by and voila! Our meeting would take place.

The day arrived, I was nervous and excited at the same time. I barely ate my lunch while waiting for this meeting to take place. My lunch hour was almost finished when a tall, skinny man came up to me and introduced himself.
'hi, I'm Steven Reinhart, Lisa told me you'd be interested in the bike marathon' he smiled.
'she ddddddid'? I stammered while I stared at this strange man in front of me. There must be a terrible mistake.
'It's happening on the 17th of November, so we've got a while to train. Interested?' he was sitting down and looking at me very attentively.
'I'm not sure, let's see. Yeah! I'm sorta interested' I was still stunned.
I didn't know what to make of all this because the man sitting in front of me was definitely not the attractive man I had told Lisa about.
'well, here's my phone number. Call me if you're interested and we'll set you up with the marathon details' he said in an thick Australian accent.

After he left, I grabbed my cell phone and called Lisa at her desk.
'Lisa, what the hell is happening? This guy came by to the lounge and he was Australian and yes, he was tall and skinny but just one thing. He was NOT the guy I told you about.' I tried not to sound frantic.
'mmmm.... wow! Oh my goodness! I thought.... oh no! You know what? I just realized there are two Australians working upstairs. You must've been referring to Miles Harding.' she sounded embarrassed.
'Man! How could you do that' I had turned a deep deep shade of red.

Anyway, to make a long story short, I did meet Steven and together, we trained for the bike marathon. After that, we saw each other randomly first and later, on a more regular basis. The next year, he sent me a dozen roses on Valentines day. The following Christmas, he gave me a box of chocolates and buried deep was an emerald and diamond ring. He kneeled and proposed to me in front of my parents.

Now, 18 years later, our son is about to travel to Australia and study there while living with his grandparents.

Learn more about this author, Mena Pratt.
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