Sickly co-worker

[Cauldwell]

Co-worker and I have recently been promoted to management in our company, but in different sites. As a result we are now included in all the managers meetings and have been going to a lot of training sessions together, about once a week. I had never met him before our promotion although I've pretty much instantly decided he's a really awesome guy, a real gentle-man. I'd say he's mid-thirties, fairly solidly built, with olive skin and kind brown eyes and he's always smiling and upbeat, never letting anything get to him. We'll call him Tim.

I had already got myself seated with the other "newbies" when Tim arrived, taking the only empty seat next to me. The meeting was scheduled to be a busy one, broken up with tastings of product in preparation for christmas planning.

The first indication of the impending obs was during the first of these 3 tastings; Tim was in my group and while we were all discussing the merits of the different products he admitted that he really couldn't smell anything at all on account of his "terrible cold". As you can imagine this kinda got my attention

This is where the real obs began in earnest. Sitting next to Tim for the next section of talking I became attuned to how terrible this cold really was.

As it turned out the poor guy was rather unprepared for this monster, quickly reaching into his pocket for a single fast-food serviette folded neatly in his pocket and sneezing a misty sounding He-Ishew! over his right shoulder away from me. He didn't sniff, or even attempt to blow his nose, he just slid the napkin back in his pocket and resumed listening. We were crammed in fairly close so when he reached into his pocket again about 5 minutes later, and started gently pressing the napkin against his (presumably) tricking nose I was onto him. And I was close enough to covertly notice that under his naturally darker complexion was a nose which was starting to show the first signs of turning pink and chapping.

I've either had a very mild cold or allergies myself and so every so often I was trying to get rid of the tickle in my throat with one of those short, sharp and quiet double coughs behind my hand. Perhaps he thought I was getting sick also since it earned me a bessing a couple of times.

Meanwhile this tissue trick managed to hold him over until the next tasting, when he quickly fled to the bathoom.

He must have blown his nose in there which turned out to be a bad idea since in the next session he began to sneeze with increasing regularity and weariness.

Still raising the same napkin to his face, he'd turn away from me and sneeze Heh-shewww! before turning back, only to reapeat the process again 2 minutes later. He was beginning to sound terrible and I blessed him a few times, wishing I could say something else to make him feel better.

At the lunch-break he didn't eat, just making himself a coffee, and when I said I felt sorry for him he merely said stoicly "It's nothing paracetamol can't fix, and sometimes it's our turn" - I wanted to simultaneously hug him, make him soup and melt.

He continued to sneeze intermittently for the rest of the meeting, probably contaminating half the office despite his best attempts at covering.

Being a total cold-whore I don't know whether to be delighted or horrified at the prospect of coming down with this monster, but it sure was sweet to watch

[obsessed]

Oh well doesn't that sound like a fun meeting!

[Dusty15]

Sounds like a very productive meeting to me too Thanks for sharing! He sounds so adorable <3

[BananaTree]

How cute. Though, I don't go for germs cuz of a medical condition, this was adorable.

[party_girl077]

That was a great obs! Did you catch it?

[Cauldwell]

I don't think so, although I've been run down and sniffly ever since, still not sure if it's allrgies or no. If I did catch it I missed out on the itchy, drippy glory of it all

[happybunny]

I probably would have missed everything that meeting was talking about lol your so lucky.

[sexyhankysneeze]

that guy needs a handkerchief.. its better for noses (doesnt make them go pink and chapped nearly as quickly)