Dark Pact

I had a very strange discussion at lunch with some co-workers this week. We were discussing cheating (in the sense of extra-marital affair cheating), and at the end of the discussion, all involved concluded that it was the wrong thing to do. Not surprising.

After the conversation, one of my co-workers, who I'll refer to as James for this post, messages me to continue the conversation. He says that we should make a pact: that if we are going to cheat, we should do it with each other.

I thought it was a great idea, as we aren't attracted to each other at all, so the likelihood of us cheating is zero. But five years ago, I made a pact that if MrFodder and I ever broke up, and Person was still single, I would sleep with him. It's actually pretty effective, because even when I'm angry, I think to myself, "Is this worth sleeping with Person over?" and the answer is almost an immediate "No way!" When I find myself hesitating, that's when I know that there's a serious issue at hand, and it's something worth discussing with MrFodder.

I told James about my pre-existing pact, we both laughed it off, and nothing more was spoken about it.

Later that night, I tell MrFodder about it and his immediate response is that it was really creepy. He explains that James was probably hitting on me. I express disbelief, and explain all the context behind the pact, and that just makes MrFodder even more convinced.

I ended up mentioning to Maddo, darkpast and kawarimi at lunch today. Maddo just laughed and said James was probably sussing out whether I would be willing to have an affair with him. He hit me with the armour-piercing question: How many other women do you think he has this pact with? I'll never know, because it's not really something you'd discuss with other people - "Hey, James made me this great offer - he said that if he's ever going to cheat, he'll cheat with me! Has he ever asked you something like that?". It's the perfect cover: he gets to ask, and if the answer is no, you both laugh it off because it was just a joke. Ha ha.

Come to think of it, he was the one who steered the conversation towards cheating in the first place.

It's actually quite lucky I brought it up with MrFodder, because to be honest, if he asked again, I would have agreed to the pact, seeing as I have no intention of cheating (and if you think about it, the real pact is the marriage vows), so there was really nothing to lose by accepting. And if it happened to help him stay honest, that would have been a bonus.

I'm actually a bit annoyed at myself for not seeing it. darkpast said that he "finds my innocence adorable". The aggravating A-word that is used to describe baby animals. Maddo said it is a guy thing, but Special K saw it right away when I told her. :(