The question of whether office romances are harmless or harmful is a tricky one to answer. My answer would be that it really depends on the individual circumstances. It’s a very common occurance for co-workers to start dating, with a recent study by the Society for Human Resource Management finding that nearly 40% of workers had had an office romance.

I guess I would fall into the 40% category, having worked at the same place of employment as my current boyfriend, although I knew him before I started working there. We always kept things strictly professional and friendly at work, and never crossed the line with risky behavior on the job. The institution was large enough that we didn’t really work in the same building either. But we also never denied the fact that we were dating. While I was employed there, I also knew of a number of other office romances going on. It seemed that some people were able to remain professional, while others just could not help themselves and ventured into some dangerous grounds.

The formation of inter-office romances is inevitable as men and women continue to spend long periods of time together. It’s only natural that different kinds of relationships will be formed, such as friendships, romantic relationships, and so on. The workplace is a great place for men and women to meet other people who share similar goals and interests, however, office romances can sometimes spell disaster for the company.

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No, I don’t mean settled as in you’ve settled down, calmed, made babies and so on. The kind of settling that I am talking about is the kind where you have settled on being with someone who is less that what you really want. There are basically two kinds of dating people. There are those that are content while single and look at a relationship as a nice bonus, and then there are those that are not happy being single and long to be in a relationship, any relationship.

Settling is a mistake. If you are so sick of the dating game and finding “Mr. Right” or “Mrs. Right”, that you give up and stick with someone who is less than what you really want, you’re doing yourself a real disservice. If you tell yourself something long enough, you might start to believe it. But if the relationship or person you’ve settled on isn’t giving you the satisfaction that you need, you’ll only end up hurting yourself, and eventually the other person. Giving up on finding the person that you’ll truly love and be passionate about closes off the opportunity of you finding that truly special someone, and may instead leave you with a lifetime of heartache.

Relationships happen for all sorts of reasons. Sex is a popular reason. Another one, perhaps the most common reason for being in a relationship, is that the people involved do not like being alone. It isn’t much of an overstatement to say that everybody prefers to be attached. Frankly, I haven’t made up my mind on the matter. I love living alone. I love the freedom of it, the lack of stress, the peace and quiet. But yes, I would also like to have somebody to take to dinner. I like travel, but honestly I’d rather travel with somebody than alone.

Anyhow, back to the subject at hand. How to tell if somebody really honestly like you.

Where was I? Oh, yeah, I was sitting on my sofa, looking out the window towards Yokohama. It was a beautiful day. I remember a girl I dated once. She claimed that she really honest-to-God liked me. I never really bought it. But I never knew why I hadn’t believed her.

As it turned out, she did leave me, and I tend to believe now, as I did then, that she was with me just because she didn’t want to be alone.

Then it hit me. I knew all of the sudden why I suspected all along that she didn’t love me.

Her kiss was less than passionate. She would give me pecks. Sometimes they were open mouth, but always dry. No licking, no animal ferocity.

When it comes to love or really, really liking somebody, the best indicator in my opinion is how they kiss you.