Now that everyone is back, I thought I’d post a few updates as to what is going on.

First, there’s Praveena.  She’s finally back, and I paid her a special visit to ask how her New Year’s Eve was.  She said that she spent it with cousins.  Remember how I wrote that she may not have known I was married, even though I always wear my ring?  Well, I specifically told her that I spent my New Year’s home with my family, and she seemed to get the hint.  I didn’t come right out and ask if she was married — I felt this would “tip my hand,” so to speak.  But I’ll gauge her reaction over the next few days.  If she is, in fact, single, then I will have to change my strategy somewhat.  I still want to let her know I’m interested, but you have to be careful with single women.

I did get a chance to chat with Amy.  She is getting ready to sell her house.  This is great because it gives me a conversation starter.  No mention of the dancing comment, however.  Bonus: I got a peek at her bellybutton!  It’s an innie.

An amusing thing happened with Ashna.  You have to understand that Ashna’s name is not actually “Ashna”; I change all names to protect the innocent.  But her name is close to Ashna, and this almost tripped me up.  While I was walking into the building yesterday, I was deep in thought, thinking about my plans to track Ashna’s monthly cycle, when suddenly I see her standing in the lobby.  I had to stop myself from actually calling her Ashna!  That would have been weird.  But she did notice the studder, and later on, she commented on how she said hi to me but I was deep in thought.  Heh, if she only knew.

On a more serious note, I learned that Maryanne’s husband was in a car accident.  He’s okay for now but needs to undergo physical therapy.  This basically means that I have to stop flirting with Maryanne, at least for the time being.  I’ll switch it into “emotional support” mode.  I’ll have more to say about this kind of situation in future posts.

Today I was rewarded with a quick panty flash.  We had a meeting with Ashna, Jitaya, and Michelle.  Ashna likes to use a computer hooked up to a projector.  The computer was not working properly, and Ashna, being the hands-on technical type, started crawling around the floor to inspect the connections.  She was wearing pink panties — not exactly hot pink, but still a very tasty shade of pink.  (I was hoping for a bra spotting, but no such luck.)

Michelle was also bending over, and although there was no flash of undergarments, it afforded me a lovely view of her very cute, tight butt.  There was not a trace of panty lines, which leads me to believe that she was wearing a thong.  I will investigate and let you all know.

Incidentally, Michelle was wearing what looked like a Rosary necklace.  I find this odd — most Catholic twenty-somethings would wear a simple Cross.  I wonder if she is religious.  I definitely do not get the Catholic bad-girl vibe from her.  Oh well, it’s not like I really flirt with her.  This would simply be one additional reason why I consider her hands-off.

I’m more convinced that there is a real connection developing between me and Ashna.  Let me describe a meeting that we had a few days ago.

The meeting was in one of our larger conference rooms.  The room can hold over 40 people; there were only about ten of us actually there.  The tables are arranged in a giant rectangle, so that everyone faces the center of the room.  Strangely, it so happened that all the women sat on one side of the room, all the men on the other side of the room, both sides facing each other across a space of about fifteen feet.  There were four women present:  Ashna, Michelle, Jayita, and Hasna, my boss.  (Remember to consult the Cast of Characters page!)  The six men sat on the other side of the room.

Ashna runs these meetings, and as such, does most of the talking.  Hasna is a very outspoken, and also does a great deal of the talking.  I do, too, by the way.  Well, during the meeting, when Ashna was speaking, all eyes are on her.

And who was she looking at?  Me!  That’s right, with all eyes on her, her beautiful eyes are making contact with mine.

Ashna always smiles, even while talking.  So it’s tough to tell if it’s a genuine connection.  But I will find out!

At our company, it is customary to throw a baby shower for women who are expecting, and it is even done for men.  Today was Hasna’s baby shower.  (Hasna is my boss; you can read about the women on the “Cast of Characters” page.)  Baby showers are great; they give you a chance to get chatty with the women, who are already oohing and ahhing over the baby gifts.

Maryanne and Ashna were both there.  I didn’t get too much of a chance to talk with Maryanne, but I did talk with Ashna.  In fact, Ashna approached me, and was asking all kinds of questions about the project.  She’s obviously very excited about the project, and the two of us discussed it a bit.  After some time, I asked her if she had any kids (she has two), found out their ages (13 and 9), and even her age (she admitted to having the first when she was 21, which makes her 34 today).  And she asked about my children as well.  Essentially, I was making a connection with her on both a professional and a personal level.

Was she flirting with me?  I don’t know.  Ashna has a very friendly, outgoing personality.  She is always smiling.  And she’s wicked smart.  She knows how to run a project.  (All these things are precisely why I’m attracted to her.)  The good thing is that my new location is much closer to her desk, so I’ll have plenty of opportunity to interact with her.

What do I find most sexy?  A big brain.  No joke… I am extremely attracted to intelligent women.  A woman can have great breasts, a flat tummy, and a nice butt, but if she has that dumb-as-rocks, deer-in-headlights look, then I am not interested in the least.  And if every other word out of her mouth is “like,” as in, “Like, what do you, like, do for a living?” then I run screaming for the hills.

So it’s no surprise that I have a crush on Ashna.  Ashna is another woman who works in our department, but in another group.  Lately, I’ve had lots of interaction with her, since we now work on the same project.  She is at the same level as my boss — group lead.  And like my boss Hasna, she is from India.  She’s not what you would consider “hot,” but she is one of the smartest, most competent people I have worked with in a long time — and that’s why she’s sexy as hell.  She’s also a real sweetie — not an ounce of attitude.

I’m still in the initial stages of getting to know Ashna, so it will be a long time before I make my move.  Yes, she is married — and in an interesting twist, her husband is a manager at my company.  He works in a different department but he is rather well-known in the company.  He’s a nice guy, I have to admit.  He knows a lot of people by their first name, including me.  It makes things very complicated.  On the one hand, I have to tread very, very lightly.  But on the other hand, I know my “competition”, so to speak.  I have never met my boss’s husband, so he remains a mysterious silent player, but in Ashna’s case, I know exactly who I am dealing with.