
In 2001, I met a man that my heart instantly recognised as the man I had been looking for my whole life. I was interviewing him for an article I was writing. He was the trails manager at a prestigious public garden.
When I walked down the path to his beautiful office on a lake I was impressed. He had the french doors open to allow the warm spring breeze in, and his handsome wood kayak was resting by the shore ready for a tour around the lake. I was smitten before I even met him.
As I was interviewing him, my heart said, “There you are. I’ve been looking for you.” I was confused and sweaty and a little shaky in his presence. I was trying to stay cool and concentrate on his answers to my questions. Then he rolled a map out on the floor and as we both bent over to look at it our heads touched. I was done for.
The Mamamia team confess our weirdest crushes. Post continues below.
The problem was, I was married and he was too. It was silly to even entertain that this was the man I had always been looking for, but there it was. I tucked that thought away into the recesses where I kept things I did not dare think about. But it never went away.
I saw him several times in the next few years as our paths crossed. My heart always pounded ridiculously and I chastised myself for being so silly. It felt like a childish crush, and I knew that it was impossible that it would ever come to anything.
Fast forward to 2006. I was in need of a job. One day I walked to the letterbox to pull out the local paper. His picture was on the front page. He had been named director of the garden where he worked. I am a horticulturist and I thought I would call him and see if he had any positions open.
When I went in for the interview, I was as nervous as a schoolgirl on her first date. We chatted and then took a tour of the garden in his truck. While we were driving around the garden, he casually told me he had gotten a divorce since I last saw him. I nearly shouted “YES!” but instead I looked at him with sad eyes and said, “I’m so sorry.”
The interview went well and he hired me.
I worked for him for 18 months. He was always friendly in a reserved and professional way. He came around to check on me occasionally and it never failed to elicit a physical response — a pounding heart and sweaty palms. But there was never any indication that he ever gave me a second thought — except when I broke one of the rules, like carrying a cup around with me while I worked — which I did often.