FLIRTING TIME

Once the interest was blatantly expressed, there was no longer doubt to what was going on. We started spending time together, just lunch time, and not always, maybe three out of five weekdays. It was three out of four persons who regularly met, the odd one out was him. We tried different places around the office. Small restaurants, stands, the market, different kinds of Mexican street food - tacos, tortas, sopes, quesadillas, fast food, nothing romantic or extraordinary. Different ways of cooking the same by different vendors. After that, we would return to the office to chat in one of the meeting lounges in the floor. It was fun, he loved telling stories, personal anecdotes that let one learn about him a lot, his likes, dislikes, way of being, education, values, family life, many things. He was very much like a teen ager, a weird mixture of innocence and malice. He couldn't get my sarcasm and often I thought if he really didn't get it or if he was stupid. He is a very simple man, no pretense nor ambitions. One day he asked what the ideal couple was for each. I couldn't answer. It had been so long ago I was just focused on work that I had forgotten that. I started searching. After long, many days, I remembered. The question had vanished into thin air, no longer important for him. But he posed these sort of questions which made me think many things. I started questioning what I wanted from life, from him. I was in a relationship before it was acknowledged. I started preparing myself for the moment.
His smiles were more open day after day.
He  would fire questions at me on the office chat.
He would go to my place and ask me directly questions he had no patience dealing with on the chat.
He would go to my place to chat with me. Period.
I grew embarrassed. I was not used to receiving such attention. I started to act reserved. But I was delighted. I needed the attention. I so much needed it.