Dubai, UAE

After a long year of a pandemic, we all needed some excitement in our lives. So when our new coworker, Will, started I got a text almost immediately.

“Emily this new guy is cute. You gotta hop on this”

A new strategist had joined our team and I would be working with him all day, every day. My other coworkers had seem him on his first day, when he introduced himself with his camera on. So, when I finally had my first call with him, I was ready for a little workplace sexual tension. Working at home had gotten terribly boring.

“Are you…American” his voice boomed over my computer speakers.

I didn’t detect a tinge of an accent which was rare for Dubai.

“ummm…yes. Wait. Are you American?”

“I’m Canadian. How dare you?”

“Fair enough, I’d rather be Canadian too.”

Through this little zoom exchange, I could sense my other coworkers on the call were just silently listening to it go down, giggling behind their keyboards. He turned on his camera and my coworker was right. He was indeed, very attractive. But the real question was, was he tall?

It’s a debate I constantly have with my friends as a 6-foot-tall lady.

“You can just tell. I can just tell the way he carries himself” my coworker Shannon said definitely as we debated this after the call.

While I wanted to take her word for it, I was still hesitant.

“We don’t even know if he’s single” I replied.

There was no way a man that good looking was both tall and single. So, two weeks later when I saw his profile on a dating app, I literally screamed, scaring my roommate. She sat straight up on the couch and stared at me with wide eyes, clearly wanted an explanation. I hardly gave her one. I just tried to process what I had just come across.

“What’s 209 cm? How tall is that?” I blurted out while frantically googling.

6 foot 7. That’s 6 foot freaking 7.

I’ve never swiped right faster.

Single. Tall. And didn’t mansplain at work? This man had to be a hologram. I could not dream up a more perfect man even if I tried. And he’s on my team? Situations like this certainly don’t happen to me.

But we didn’t match. I concluded I would have to win him over slowly via zoom. That’s fine, I could seduce him with my sparkling personality.

I still held out a little hope so in the morning when I woke up I scrolled through all the matches I got overnight. There with a little timer begging me to message was Will.

I freaked.

I had to message first within the next 20 hours. Luckily, that was just enough time to consult my sources and craft the perfect message. It had to be flirty, ballsy, but acknowledge we were coworkers. And after 2 hours of debate, I settled on:

So, are you going to tell HR we’re dating or should I?

I had never been so bold. But hey, life’s short.

I held my breath I clicked on his profile and starting to type it in. I pressed enter but it wasn’t sending. 'It’s okay, the app is probably just glitching’ I thought to myself. So I closed it and tried again.

But this time, I couldn’t find him. The little bitch unmatched me.

He probably just realized who I was and unmatched. But I tried to look on the bright side. This means he thought I was hot initially, right?

That week I had a call with just him and did my best to open with some flirty small talk. Luckily it was easy with him. Before I could even offer, he mentioned he wanted to get drinks and meet everyone.

‘ALERT: WILL WANTS TO GET DRINKS AND MEET ALL THE TEAM.’ I typed furiously into the group WhatsApp with my co-conspirators/coworkers.

‘When are we doing this? Sunday?’ I texted with an immediate follow-up.

‘No. Tonight!’ they replied enthusiastically.

Suddenly I was frantic. She rallied the troops as I stopped everything I was doing tried on outfit options. Shannon was able to get the crew together and really showed her worth as a leader. Should I reference this in her peer review?

Will was down to 'meet the team', but behind the scenes we plotted around the real goal: Emily & Will.

As if coordinated by god himself, everyone else was had an emergency meeting that night and would be late. I put on my hottest (coworker appropriate) outfit and rushed to the restaurant to make sure we didn’t lose our reservation. Will showed up 5 minutes later and for a good 20 minutes it was just the two of us.

Our conversation bounced back and forth easier than the ball in a pinball machine. We talked about everything from missing weddings to college to my tattoo.

I was already two glasses of wine deep by the time my coworker finally showed up and asked, “Emily, why’d you bring your tinder date to meet the coworkers.”

No, no. I told him, this WAS the new coworker and drinks started flowing at alarming rate.

Will made an impression. Instigating rounds of shots and ordering two drinks at a time.

I was already a little tipsy when I went to the bathroom and came back to my seat next to Will. He leaned over to me.

“Wow, you’re really tall. We should procreate and make NBA babies.”

Umm what? Did I just hear that right? I swear my eyes bulged out of my head. But I tried to laugh it off and play it cool.

He just kept going, “They’ll get brains from you and athleticism from me.”

I leaned over and recounted this exchange that had literally just happened to Shannon. We were all giddy that our plan was working. Though at this point, it seemed like it was Will’s plan too.

Will ordered rounds of shots and by the time we left everyone was drunk.

Like, really drunk.

Nevertheless, my coworkers we determined to carry through this little Emily-Will project to the end. So, Shannon offered up her apartment for some more drinks.

We enthusiastically stumbled over, knowing this was just the beginning.

When we arrived, my liquid courage had reached concerning levels. The bold Emily that tried to send that first message was out and ready to go all in.

I pulled Will out to the balcony and got straight to the point.

“I have a question. I know we matched on Bumble. Why did you unmatch me?”

Will seemed genuinely flustered.

“Uhh, well. I don’t know, I figure out it was you and I just don’t know how to mix dating and coworkers. I don’t do that.”

“I mean neither do I. I’ve never dated a coworker but it’s kind of par for the course here. Our CEO hired her husband our CCO hired his wife…”

I started rambling off couples that worked at our agency. But before I could finish he took grabbed be firmly by the back of my neck and started making out with me.

I was in total shock when he pulled away. But for the rest of the night we were like giddy teenagers. Escaping to the balcony to make out, thinking that we were hiding everything from our coworkers who were in fact, in on it all along.

In my head, I just kept hearing what my coworkers told me earlier replay over and over. 'You can’t hook up with him tonight Emily. You work together, you gotta play the long game.'

So when Will asked me to go home with him I was conflicted. Everything about me wanted to say yes, but we had to work together all day, every day.

After some consultation with my no less drunk but maybe more logical coworkers I had come to the conclusion that I would just go home. There would be many more drinks with coworkers.

But as I put on shoes and said my goodbyes, Will popped up faster than seemed physically possible for a 6-foot-7 man.

“Wait, I’ll walk you home”

We all know how that would end.

And that is how it ended. At his apartment, peeling clothes off.

The next morning, I woke up in his pure disbelief of what happened. And in his bed. Well actually, I woke up to him pulling back the covers and kissing my neck. It took a few minutes of him kissing and caressing for me to finally wake up.

In the bright daylight I could see his 6-pack as we hooked up. The sex was great, especially considering my severely hungover state.

When we were done, I had to ask, “Wait…last night?”

“No. We didn’t hook up.” he assured me. “You were so tired you literally started falling asleep as we were making out. It started feeling a little rapey.”

Whoops. Even in my drunken state he was such a gentleman.

Sleep is one of my fortés. And my skill of falling asleep almost instantaneously only improves when I have a few drinks in me.

“I’ve honestly never seen someone fall asleep that fast. You were talking in your sleep too.”

Oh god. What was I saying? Did a profess my love to him? Shit. Shit. Shit.

We’ll never know, because Will was not about to tell me what I said. He teased me for a few minutes before simply changing the subject.

The sex that morning was great. But the conversation was better. The more Will spoke, the more I realized the feeling was mutual. He confessed he too was nervous to meet me because he knew there was some sort of spark even over messages on Microsoft Teams. He casually joked about me marrying him for a Canadian passport and I complimented his fancy water bottle.

“A Hydroflask. That reminds me of home, no one has these out here.” I said as I took a swig attempting to quell my hangover.

“Oh, if you like that. Wait until you see this one.” He hopped up from bed and ran to the kitchen in his small studio apartment, pulling out the largest water bottle I had ever seen.

“This fits TWO bottles of wine. I just fill it up with rosé and get drunk on the beach.”

Okay. Aside from potentially being my soulmate, this man was my spirit animal. As a Californian, getting day drunk on the beach is my version of heaven.

“Oh my god. I need one.” I blurted out, trying to disguise how googly-eyed that one comment made me.

“Wait. I’ll buy you one! What’s your favorite color?”

“Purple!”

I struggled to pull myself together and said my goodbyes. Dreading the walk of shame home that was about to happen, I struggled to find my way out of his apartment I only vaguely remembered getting into.

Despite intense Dubai heat, a killer hangover and my crusty makeup from last night, I had never felt better. I waddled home with a stupid smile in awe of what happened.

When I got home, I looked in the mirror only to see I had a giant bite mark on my neck. My doorman definitely judged me for that one.

I was on a high for the rest of the weekend. I had pulled hands-down the hottest man I had ever laid eyes on. And on top of that, he was actually into me. I made HIM nervous.

What. Was. Happening.

Now, it was just a matter of waiting for him to text me. He had my number, but I never got his. Confident that he would reach out. But he didn’t.

The whole weekend passed without a word from Will.

That week during work, he missed the few calls we were supposed to be on together and didn’t send me one message on our usual flirty channel of choice – Microsoft Teams.

Despite all this I couldn’t get the man out of my head. Is this what a crush feels like? I don’t think I had ever liked someone like that.

What. Was. Happening.

How could someone go from so into me to so not? Maybe he was just nervous cause we were coworkers. Maybe he was still getting over an ex. I tried to come up with an array of excuses to make myself feel better but slowly reality set in. Maybe he actually wasn’t into me.

Weeks passed and on our normal calls, Will was even less friendly than before. Not making casual conversation with me in the slightest and then I heard the news.

Will was leaving our company already. Technically he was just freelancing and he had landed his dream job at Amazon.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

I couldn’t play the long game. I expected him to tell me the news himself, but nothing. It wasn’t til his last week when Shannon finally mentioned it on a call with both of us that I got up the courage to message him.

I mean, I didn’t have anything to lose at this point, right?

"Excuse me mister, were you just going to leave without telling me?" I typed nervously into the chatbox.

"Yeah, figured I’d just peace out and two months later you’d be asking ‘Where is that weird Will guy we used to work with?’"

Okay dude, just ignore the fact that you have literally been inside me. Cool, cool.

"Wow, you’re really taking ghosting up a notch." I replied. Pathetically satisfied by my passive aggressive comment.

“I’m still waiting for my water bottle”

And just like that he ordered it on the spot. Right before talking about we just HAD to throw him a going away party. I teased him that 3 months is not long enough to throw a going away party but he insisted and said he really wanted to still hang out with us after he left.

Okay, this wasn’t the end of the world. I would definitely see him again for this going away party and to get my water bottle. I had planted the seed, now it was up to him to reach out.

Shannon and I concocted a plan so I could text him and plan the going away party. But when I did he mentioned the date we all agreed upon, didn’t work anymore. So I told him to just let me know when he was free. But surprise, surprise, he never did.

I didn’t understand. My coworkers and friends didn’t either. We had something good. Everyone out that night could see the chemistry, why would he not reach out?

In a last-ditch effort to collect my fancy water bottle, a send him a picture from the beach a few weeks later.

“I could really use a water bottle full of rosé right now”

He responded instantaneously.

“Wait, I’m right by you.”

He was grabbing lunch at the restaurant directly behind where I was posted up on the beach. I told him to stop by after but to no one’s surprise, he didn’t.

I struggled to squash all the feelings I had developed for him and told myself I had to give up. But in all honesty, I was still holding out hope.

That was until the next day my roommate saw him walking around the Marina, holding the hand of a completely ripped, tall, blonde girl. Finally, it made sense.

I seriously hope they had just started dating when we slept together. But still, I felt like shit. How could he pick this girl over me? What did she have that I didn’t?

Nothing. I told myself. He’s just a douchebag.

I had to remind myself of that over and over until I finally believed it.

After all, there are 7 billion people in the world. Life’s too short to be hung up on one.