Friday 18 May 2012

He who-had-crush-on-me

Hello gorgeous!

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Have you guys came across with the hashtag #MentionYourCrush these past few days on your timeline? Ok, I am not definitely saying I was the one who started the hashtag. NO-NO. In fact, I was all blurry what was the hashtag should've been like. I mean, you have to mention your crush tweethandle, haven't you? Well, this entry is not about my crush, but the person who had crush on me. *yeiklss - vomit*

It was around summer 2008. I decided not to return to Malaysia and work. Thus, I handed in the application form for the summer job. The agency contacted me that I passed the requirements and need to attend an interview session - I had never imagine once that I have to go through an interview for a cleaner position, really. Luckily, I got the job. ;) The pay was quite expensive for a part time job - £7/hour. Well, it's quite a lot of money, for me - we (the part-timers, mostly students) need to work for 5 hours daily. So, mathematically, I've earned about £175/week. Ask no more, why I chose to do the cleaner job. *grin*

What did I do? Well, most of the time, I was cleaning the university accommodation - the rooms, kitchens, loos, and showers as the students left the accommodations for summer holiday. Every single student would be allocated to a student residential and work in a group assigned by the supervisor in-charge. I was in a group with two ladies and a young man - they were all permanent staff. The ladies both were really kind and friendly since my first day at work. The man on the other hand, was a bit quiet with me, until one day (on the second week) he had to help me out as I've got involved in this situation-which-I-will-tell-you-later.



I had to clean a very messy room. The room was full with stuffs - cloths, shoes, books, foods and so much other things that I couldn't remember. At first, I thought the owner hasn't left the room. But the manager had double checked the situation and it turned out that the room was 'empty'. So, one of the ladies asked the young man helped me out with the loads. We put those things in the boxes and black bags before he binned everything in the large rubbish container. Just for the record, the room was on the third floor. While doing the cleaning, I tried to break the ice. You know, it would be so awkward when you were in a room with someone, but there was no conversation at all. Being nice and friendly didn't harm, I guess. We started out with lame jokes and I got to know that he was originally from Brazil. At the end of my work hours, Mara and Joyce (the ladies) hugged me as they always do. And the young man? Well, he hugged me too just before I said no.

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The next morning, after clocking in, I was 'escorted' to the work place by him, with bright smile. He greeted me and passed a cup of coffee to me - I wasn't sure myself if he was actually waiting for me, or he was accidentally at the office, having his coffee when I walked in. Oh dang. He's Douglas *why on earth do I forget to mention the name?*. He's tall with brown eyes and has white-yellowish fair skin. And, he's one year younger than me. Heh! For that particular day, I could say that I wasn't doing much cleaning. Douglas did pretty much everything for me and the only thing he asked me to do was rest. Haha.

There were times when male cleaners need to work with people from estate department. Even he was not doing the cleaning work at the accommodation, he would come to the office area during break time and has his snack with me and others. If he couldn't make it during break, he would then sneakily get out from his work to visit me for a couple of minutes.

After about a month in the 'cleaning profession', Mara (the lady who's also from Brazil) told me about Douglas feelings towards me - apparently, he liked me. You've got this feeling that you're actually know it when someone likes you, isn't it? Thus, the news wasn't a shock. Hehe. I must say, that Douglas has always respected me. Ever since he learnt that I'm a Muslim, he has never hugged me (again) or shaking my hand. He even told me few things he knew about my religion - ones that he learned from watching Arabic movies back in Brazil. The cute thing is, he would ask Mara to hug and kiss me on my cheek on his behalf everyday.

One day, Douglas spilled his curiosity about a Muslim marrying someone from different religion. I tried my best to make him understand that a Muslim can't marry someone from other religion, unless that someone converts to Islam. He then suddenly told me that he's willing to change his religion so that he could marry me. I was in total shock. To make the situation worse, he even suggested that we (after being married) moved in to Brazil and built our family there! Wohooo! *I'm saying, SCARY* I said no, of course.

Well, I appreciated he's feelings for me. But I just didn't feel the same thing - and he's younger than me. I respected (and still do) him as a friend and colleague. In summer 2009, I did the cleaning job again. Only this time, Douglas has moved to other department. Oh, don't get me wrong. He was moved there few months before I applied for the job. I'm sure he understood my decision - that was why the friendship last even after I was moving out of Guildford. In 2010 (when I was struggling with PGCE), Douglas got married to a girl from Brazil. To be frank, I was relieved with the news. I wish him all the happiness and luck in the world ;)

FJ : I didn't even know his last name. T_T AND this is not a fairy tale.
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