Collective Love

 

I think that Simon Fraser University (SFU), the Burnaby campus, is truly a beautiful place.  For me, it is special because I met Christina there and it was like discovering a new galaxy!

After Christina obtained her Master of Science in Chemistry, she got a job at SFU working as a Co-op Coordinator helping science students find employment in the local industry.  Christina really enjoyed her job and she was able to find employment for her students not only in British Columbia but all over Canada.  She was very successful for many reasons: she was smart, learned, gorgeous looking, big smile, great diction.

When she started to work for the Co-op Department her coworkers were all female and have to confess that they were all very good looking; like "Charlie's Angels"!  Every time I visited her office I made sure I behaved like an "English Gentleman"; amicable but business-like.  I am always like that, but had to make sure that when I visited "The Boss" at her office my visit was crystal clear!

SFU is really a great university in all aspects.  I worked there for a while and thought it was great.  Every year the university would enroll more students, and the success of their Co-op Department would play an important role in their promotion campaigns, and as the student body grew the Co-op Department also needed to grow.  

One of the new acquisitions was a French-Canadian gentleman named "Gaston".  I learned about him the day he was hired because Christina arrived home telling me all about the new team member, and how the others went "crazy" about him:

"-Not you"

"-Oh, no, not me!" - she told me wearing the biggest smile -"Not me, but the others!  Oh my God!  What a reception he had!"

Weeks passed, followed by months and "Gaston" stories would entertain some of our dinner times.  They were hilarious stories, nothing inappropriate, but very funny.  Christina's colleagues started a  baking parade with no end.  Cakes, cookies, fine fancy pastries, Christina would even bring "leftovers home" there were baking so much and diverse!

"-He is gaining weight!  We are telling him that he needs to go on-site visits, but he does not want to leave the office!  He's got it made!"

It was "Love Synchrony".  

I had to meet this fellow, so I planned a "lunch" visit to Christina's office.  I met "Gaston", and yes the bastard was good looking, but I was too and have never experienced anything like that!  I studied his method.  He was impeccably dressed, his English was perfect, very rich, his mannerism was precise but not rudely masculine.  I think he practiced that!  His accent was the most dangerous, like a fiery sword.  I was disturbed!  "The other husbands need to meet this guy!  This is bad!"

"-Christina, that accent is fake!  There is no way! "  Then the enumeration of people we knew were French-Canadian, fluent in both languages with no accent at all!

"-I thought the same but I think it is real!"  

She was under the collective teenage spell!  The only thing I could do was make sure that my husbandly duties were performed without question.  "-Oh, babe, what's the rush to get to the office... there is time for one more!"

One day "Gaston's" kingdom came to an end abruptly, like a house of cards.

"Oh, Jose, you know what happened today?  Such-n-Such asked him out and you know what he said?  He said that he has a fiancé that he is very much in love with her and that dating someone from the office would be wrong.  Such-n-Such thinks that he is nothing but a low and despicable ordinary Frenchman!".

"YES!"  I thought gloating in victory.  Finally, his kingdom ended and there was no more baking contest. no more stories, c'est la vie!  Actually, I think that "Gaston" was a decent fellow, never inappropriate; he was right, and I think he was having a little fun in his job.

Funny, but the previous post reminded me of this story.