Office Romance

RELATIONSHIPS are a fundamental part of the human existence. Companionship is equally so integral that providence orchestrated interaction from the very beginning. A man was created to socialize and fill the voids of emptiness lurking in the pit of his soul. However, interactions differ gravely from plain platonic ones to the very intimate kinds, people relate under different circumstances and at different places but then, in this one place, anything beyond the plain platonic interaction, raises eyebrows and draws a lot of attention. You guessed right, it is the OFFICE.

Most times, it begins with the very cordial professional interactions but soon enough, it becomes warmer, when a personal level of interaction is reached and much later, subtle flirting and sheepish smiles are the order of business. This could be noticed between singles, which could be considered normal, as so many colleagues have ended up walking down the aisle in holy solemnization but it is definitely disconcerting when this kind of chemistry is exhumed between a married and a single colleague or two married colleagues within the same establishment.

For Georgina, 28, she didn’t have to visit Disney land to get her happily ever after, as a matter of fact, her prince charming had come in the form of the new IT expert and after a relationship of three years, a huge diamond stone was gracefully resting on her finger to indicate that she was taken and eventually, a beautiful plain silver band accompanied it, both sparkling on her penultimate finger.  Approximately five years ago, Isaac had strutted into the advertising firm, looking smug in a designer suit, his cologne filling the air and a sardonic smile lining his dark lips and she had said to herself he was nothing but trouble. However, the trouble kept calling out to her and somehow, she yielded the temptation despite the numerous warnings from other female colleagues that Isaac was simply a playboy and didn’t want anything serious. Yet, their romance blossomed every day, a typical Cinderella story because everyone at the advertising firm thought they were strikingly distinct and as a result, incompatible but they had choked on their own words when the invitation cards came flying in.

Heartbreak and a child outside of wedlock were sadly what Derinola got after a whirlwind relationship with Ikechukwu. Both had been employed in the Human Resource department of an oil servicing company at the same time. They immediately got struck by cupid’s arrow and evidently became an inseparable pair. Their amorous relationship was not in any way surreptitious as they openly expressed their fondness for each other with tiny gestures at every given opportunity. They would sit together at lunch and laugh heartily over some weird joke, blow each other kisses in the hallway when they thought no one was looking. They were officially named the “love birds” of the organization and everyone was secretly planning their wedding alas! It never happened. Ikechukwu’s mother showed up one day from the village and with her was a pregnant girl in her early twenties, Derinola, with an hesitant smile had welcomed in her prospective mother in law, coddling the old woman while frantically trying to get Ikechukwu on the phone and break the news of his mother’s arrival barely paying any attention to the young lady but it was shock and horror when Ikechukwu eventually showed up and quickly introduced her as his colleague from the office without breaking a sweat. Urging, more or less pushing her out of the house as he screamed “see you at the office” through the closed door. Derinola was broken into pieces and enraged. She had gone over to Ikechukwu’s apartment earlier; letting herself in with the key he had given her two years ago, to tell him she was pregnant with his baby. She had secretly been glad his mother had come over thinking it was perfect timing because she had always wanted to meet his people. A devastated Derinola got a lawyer and sued Ikechukwu to court, but she lost the case because his lawyer argued that she had consented to date a married man with a child on the way. They produced legal papers affirming that the girl from the village was his legal wife. The court case got too messy and the organization was forced to terminate both their employment.

15 years of bliss and sanctity in holy matrimony was desecrated and flung at the swine when Deborah, a married mother of three began an illicit affair with a colleague at the University teaching hospital where they both worked as medical practitioners. Secret lovers, they were but they couldn’t let go of their depraved and forbidden passions until that which was meticulously hidden became common knowledge. Deborah’s marriage had crashed immediately her husband found out of her infidelity as she was served divorce papers by her husband’s lawyer, leaving her nothing from the separation. On the other hand, Adeyinka’s wife had made sure she got hold of all the property she could in a fair fight at the court of law before letting go of her husband and father of her two girls after a bloody divorce feud.

While some relationships have led to the walking down of a gaily decorated aisle by two lovebirds, filled with beautiful promises for the future and bliss, others have chronicled shame, regret, destruction, an annihilation of promising careers and ultimately, colossal tragedies but it takes two to tangle, doesn’t it?