of flirting

my male officemate said it of me when i opened up to him sometime ago. a lady friend said it the last time i went out, in reference to the fact that I have gone out with 3 of her friends already. my barkada never had to say it, they said they accept me for whoever i am. hahaha.

they all say im a flirt. that i flirt with women. that although i don't really intend to be that way, i was subconciously doing things that justifies branding me such.

laughable? yes, i really think so. and for the longest time, i was saying i was not flirting with women, i was just being friendly with them. but where do one draw the line between flirting and being friendly?

it recently came to my attention that everybody at work thought that i courted a former officemate of mine while she was still with us. actually first time i heard about it was last year, from a new (then) officemate who candidly asked me if i indeed courted this lady. i flatly said no.

this time around, another former officemate told me that it seems common knowledge from work that i indeed courted the lady in question. i then tried to recall incidents from way back that might have led to that conclusion.

yes we were close friends. in fact that might have contributed a lot to that way of thinking. on my mind, we were close but not close enough to merit the question whether i courted her or not. in fact, inspite of the fact that we were the center of constant ribbing from other officemates, never did once we go out on a date. we do go out, but with other officemates on night outs. we might share a cab a time or two but that's because our houses are in the same direction from where we had a night out earlier that day.

there was also this inside comment that i easily fall for a different lady. again i heard it myself when a colleague masked it as a joke while i was chatting with a new officemate. i laughed initially because i know it was not true.

then a former officemate (the same one who told me that others thought i really courted another former officemate) offered her own reason why i was thought to be easily falling for a different lady. she said that in a span of less than a year, i fell in love with 2 different people.

hmmm. that i can't deny. its all true. but then again, can you blame me if i truly felt that way?!

but, that shouldn't be taken with a grain of salt. for if i fell in love twice within the same year, it shouldn't follow that every lady i will be identified with will be my next lady love.

so why was i thought to have courted her? why was i thought to easily fall for another lady?

my male officemate still referred to my subconscious flirting tendencies. he cites the lady in question when i opened up something. how i almost always know some of the rather popular (read: attractive) ladies in the work compound. how almost every single lady in the office got at one point, identified with me.

again, i reiterate i was just being friendly. i love chatting with people, sharing stories, sharing laughs and such. i like them to feel that i appreciate their presence in my life.

so where does one draw the line? for me there shouldn't even be a line because im not consciously flirting. but in the interest of conversation, one will know if there is something more than just "flirting" if i went out on a date with that person more than twice. that i assure you, offers as much evidence as anything else.

then in the end flirting isn't really all that bad. its just that im not into it consciously.