His name was Nate. He towered head and shoulders above her, a little heavyset, loud, a mop of dirty brown hair, soft large eyes, a blunt nose, always smiling, always joking. He worked at a pet hospital and came to the seminar wearing the top half of his uniform, about an hour late.

He annoyed her because he usually talked to the people sitting behind him at the same time the training session leader was going through the lesson, distracting her and making it difficult to concentrate on the information given. What was worse, his answers to the session leader’s questions had nothing to do with the lesson.

That changed during the break.

“Hey,” he said, stopping her outside the conference room, “I’m sorry if I was being obnoxious or anything.”

She just looked at him and, despite herself, began to soften. “It’s okay. No harm done.” Just don’t do it again, will you? she added silently.

He smiled and held out a hand. “I’m Nate, by the way.”

“I know.” They shook hands and talked a little more, about life outside the session, where they were from and what they did for a living.

And then she noticed a funny thing about him. He complimented her on the sweater she was wearing, told her that she was attractive, but backed off and apologized immediately after the words left his mouth. When she smiled back, he talked about the irony of meeting women who were interested in him when he was already attached to someone and how no female approached him when he was single.

Mixed signals. Was he interested? Did she care?

“Do you have a boyfriend?” he asked.

“Um, no…”

“Really? You looked like the type who would have one.”

Well.

He asked her for a hug before they parted ways, and she gladly gave it. Then he asked her for a kiss on the cheek, which she gave a little more reluctantly.

One of the other guys in the seminar watched them, amused. “Kiss her on the lips,” he suggested.

Nate looked at her. “Nah. Well…” He leaned towards her, lips already puckered.

She turned her face away. “No…”

He apologized again, but asked for her email address. “And maybe your phone number,” he added with a grin as she wrote it down. “And what you’d like to eat for dinner.”

“Why don’t you email me so you can get all that information?” she replied lightly, smiling at him again. The email address was one she hadn’t used in a long time, and one she probably wouldn’t use again after that day.

He laughed and said he would. And just before she left the room, he grabbed her and hugged her again, and kissed her hair. “Aha!” he said triumphantly, letting her go and beaming. “I caught you on the top of your head, at least!”

She smiled and left without a word.

No emails from him yet, and she hoped he’d forgotten. Men like Nate made her feel strange and cold.