I tell my BFF everything, so when I fell hard and fast for a guy I’d met at work, she was the first and only person to hear about it… or so I thought.
- I had textual diarrhea. I wanted to share everything I felt for this guy with my BFF, so I sent her a really long WhatsApp message. In it, I detailed why the guy was so hot and how just talking to him about the weather made me feel all tingly and stuff. I was like a teenager falling in love for the first time. It was embarrassing but I felt I could share that stuff with her because we’d been friends for so many years. I had no idea that I was about to find myself in even worse embarrassment.
- Admittedly, I was kinda distracted while I was texting. I was checking emails and typing up my message to my friend simultaneously. I always thought I could multitask, but it turns out I actually can’t because I pressed “send” and then got a weird feeling that I’d done something wrong. I messed up big time.
- I sent the message to my crush, NOT my BFF. I had to do a double take because surely I couldn’t have screwed up so badly, right? He’d obviously been on my mind, which had caused me to find his number in my contacts before pressing “send.” Oh, the horror!
- I immediately called my BFF freaking out. I couldn’t trust myself to send her a text because of the mistake I’d made so I called her. I was shaking as I told her what I’d just done. She was sympathetic and tried to make me feel better, but all I could picture was my crush reading the message and sharing it with his friends.
- How was I supposed to face him? What made the situation so much worse was that my crush and I worked together. I was going to see him at the office the next day and he’d know that the message was from me because we’d exchanged numbers a while back. I just wanted to crawl into bed and stay there for the rest of my life.
- Then I realized that wasn’t even the worst of it. A few hours later, while I paced around my apartment and bit my nails down to nothing, I realized that the worst thing wasn’t that my crush now knew that I had feelings for him. It was actually that he hadn’t answered the text. That clearly meant he didn’t feel anything for me. Now I was dealing with the embarrassment of sending him a text outlining my feelings for him AND rejection from him, all in one crappy day.
- I had no options. I wished I hadn’t mentioned him by name in the text because then I could’ve said that I was talking about someone else. I wished I could’ve sent another text to him with the words, “Haha, gotcha!” but he would’ve known that was a lame attempt at covering up my confession of having feelings for him. I was stuck.
- I tried to appear cool at work. It took all my energy to go to work the next day and try to stay calm. I knew I’d run into him sooner or later, and it actually happened as I was entering the office and he was sneaking out for a smoke. We gave each other awkward looks but I kept moving. I practically ran into the office to avoid a conversation. It was the only way I knew how to act calm and cool but inside, I was dying.
- He was a gentleman about it. Thank goodness the guy was decent. He didn’t come talk to me about the text, probably knowing that I would be super-embarrassed and he didn’t want to put me on the spot. The next time he came to my desk, he acted like nothing had happened. He chatted about general topics like football and the crazy weather we were having and I was so grateful. I was hurt that he didn’t like me back, but I was still so grateful that I could move on after the rejection without any insult to injury. Phew.
- I now have some texting rules. For starters, I don’t tell my BFF everything about my dating life – well, at least not via text. If something’s really urgent, I call her or I tell her when we’re chatting over cake. It’s just so much safer.
- I don’t save my crushes’ numbers. When I’m single and have a new guy’s number, I write it down on a piece of paper and put it in a place I won’t lose it, old-school style. I refuse to store it in my phone’s contacts until we’re an official item because I’m so afraid of messing up and sending him something embarrassing.
- Sometimes I still wonder… I can’t help but wonder what the guy really thought when he saw my message. I pray that he deleted it immediately instead of sharing it with anyone. I still cringe at the thought of my message traveling to lots of different people, but I guess it could’ve been worse. Imagine if I’d sent him nudes!