Real Life Stories - April 2018

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In short he was an old fashioned gentleman. He was universally respected by his male colleagues as a brilliantly talented engineer, but nearly all of the women joked about him behind his back, some tried to tease him and several were openly rude to him, which I found annoying partly because I have always believed that courtesy cuts both ways, but also because I found his diffident good manners rather sweet.

Several months after I started I found myself sitting next to him in the pub at lunchtime, liquid lunches were almost de rigeur in those days but on this occasion we were celebrating the fact that he had won some sort of engineering award. I congratulated him and tried to make small talk but he just seemed embarrassed and kept trying to sidle away. As the pub filled up our little group became quite tightly pressed together and I became aware of something hard digging into my leg. I looked down and through the tightly stretched material of his trousers I saw the unmistakable outline of a suspender clip. I said nothing at the time but was intrigued and spent that afternoon quietly scheming as to how to use this knowledge to my best advantage.

That evening I stayed late until all the other secretaries had left and went to his office. I asked him if he could do me a favor; to which he replied “yes”, and I said “could you give me a lift home.”