Party Time

There was a party at Pete’s house on Saturday night. Since I had nothing else to do I decided to go. Everyone from the company was invited and attended. Pete has a housemate (who works elsewhere) and a bunch of his friends were there, too. Pete is the director of engineering – I’m guessing he is about 30. He was at the CEO’s last start-up and obviously made a lot of money. He has a house in Cupertino and a ridiculously expensive car.

His house was very nice. On a big lot with a pool in the back-yard. Huge bonus room upstairs. The place is furnished in early frat-boy (am I sounding bitter again?) with a flourish of nerd. He has the Hydro-thunder arcade game – 3 consoles linked together – filling his dining room. These are the kind of video game that you sit inside of and you can virtually race against your friends in the next console. He has a 5 or 6 foot plasma TV in the family room.

It was a nice party and a nice diversion. There was a pretty girl there who was flirting with Pete in the kitchen. He was not really flirting back – but you could tell he was interested. Like many in the technology field, his social skills are not really refined. She was losing interest. She saw me looking at her and came over to talk. She started to flirt with me.

What an awful place to be in. I would like to take this beautiful girl home and make her the “rebound girl” whom I would use, abuse, and toss aside. I know this is wrong. This is even more wrong, as the director of engineering at the new and very small company that I work at has obvious interest in this girl. Not that this makes it any more morally repugnant – I know how painful it can be to be tossed aside – and I would not do that. And it sure would complicate life at the office.

No, it’s best to just chat with her and deflect her advance. I tell her what a great guy Pete is. We have a couple of glasses of wine together, and I work very hard at telling her nothing at all of my past few months.

I leave the party early – it’s too hard not to whine.