☆ 刺刺蝟的進化論 ☆

that midsummer day when we were all eating lunch in the conference room, watching "The Apprentice" Season 1, and Donald Trump said to one of the candidates, "maybe you're just not cut out to be a leader after all. sometimes, it's in the genes."

he was sitting next to me and said, "wow... i didn't know leadership could be worn."

"huh?" i replied, totally confused.

"coz he said genes... get it? you gotta have it in your 'jeans' to be a leader."

i was about to turn green from the sudden chill that came over me, but then he grinned: the kind of cocky, mischievous grin that only a certain kind of guy, a guy that's spent a considerable period of his life in north america, who knows he could get away with anything by wearing that grin, could have.

the kind of grin that feels like a white polo shirt soaked in sunshine and never fails to throw me off.  

but it was an awful joke, nonetheless. and being the 損友 that i am to most of my friends, i didn't let him forget it, right up to his last day as my coworker. i even wrote it on that great big comical portrait we drew for him. "nice 'genes'... you are, of no doubt, leadership material :P" i wrote next to his jeans on that portrait.

the joke came back last weekend, when he and i were sitting side by side at a coffee shop with his friend (one of many of his girl-friends that he could pick a different one to go out with for every single day of the year).

the girl likes to laugh a lot, and was laughing at one of her own self-relievers, when she suddenly said to him: "hey... those are nice jeans you're wearing."

he caught my eye and said, "yeah, fit for a leader, eh?" and the cocky grin.

and right then, it didn't matter how time-consuming and tiresome this was getting.

now that i think back, i am almost certain that it was that day, when he cracked that absolutely awful joke, that i sensed there would be more to me and him than just work. at that time, i was barely one month into the job. 

and this friday will mark the 6th month since we met; as written in a previous post, he was the one who reminded me of it.

but i do remember that day: it was the big day of the year, when president ma was coming over for dinner, and i was called in even before officially coming on board, to be event support, because there were over 600 guests that night.

i was in the conference room waiting to be briefed on my tasks; he came in and gave me his business card. he started to introduce himself, but 20 seconds later, our HR came in and told him to get out. (LOL)

he sticks to the same story every time i tease him about it: that the ppl in the office were making a commotion about "the new girl", and to avoid embarassment, he threw himself in my way "to distract me".

"i thought you said you're shy and you never talk to strange ppl on your own accord," i would say.

"well, it was bound to happen anyway, we were gonna welcome you into the big family... and you were special, ok? i don't know what got into me either," he would reply. "that was probably one of my luckier days of the year, that i met my outstanding 學妹."

he is not perfect. far from it, in fact. he already has deep creases in the corners of his eyes and he's not even 30, he's rather fair-skinned for a guy, and he may even have a little bit of a 啤酒肚. his misproportioned arms and legs and his slightly big head make him appear shorter than he really is.

yet he is the real-life version of every single male character in YA movies that i have found cute: spiky hair, bushy eyebrows, big eyes, broad shoulders, lean and built... the sunshine boy who knows how to smile in that cocky way that drives girls crazy.

his personality, so unlike a typical 男人 but has not quite reached the degree of 娘, has raised issues with both my coworkers and my friends, one of whom recently told me that she has come to the conclusion of: "may i please beat him up?"

but i have grown to like every part...  his determination, his arrogance, his honesty, his "ridiculously good looks" (or so he says), and the little more of him that he reveals every single day.

that business card never left my wallet. after he became my ex-coworker, it merely changed places; now it resides with his newly-acquired business card (the one that bears a maple leaf) in a pocket that also contains... the red thread that i got from the Hsia Hai City God Temple exactly one month before i met him (i remember that too, because that day was Mother's Day).

geeeez... if this doesn't work out the way i want it to, i may never get over it.