Ron, who's very confused.

It's been a very strange day.

It started off normally enough. I woke up, followed my morning routine, and drove in to work. As I walked in, I noticed something a little different immediately. Sarah, our receptionist, was unusually flirty with me. She's definitely one of the most attractive women in the office, and while she isn't frigid she doesn't reciprocate the overly warm smiles and enthusiastic small talk many coworkers greet her with.

Today, though, she seemed very happy to see me. "Ron!" She practically shouted as I walked in. "How was your weekend, man?"

I engaged in a little chat with her and it became clear she wanted an excuse for me to stick around her desk as long as possible. At one point I thought I caught her checking out my ass, but I dismissed it as wishful thinking. After a few minutes, I realized that if I stayed any longer I would be late to my first meeting of the day. I told her I had to run and she responded with startlingly transparent disappointment.

In the meeting things just got even weirder. I walked in at 8:30 on the dot and I was one of the last people in the room. All eyes turned to me. The boss was going over project statuses and I was behind schedule on mine, so I had already composed a list of excuses in my head. As he cleared his throat to get started, I winced internally. As he got to my numbers, though, he seemed eager to pass over them without comment. Jim was normally a fair boss, but I was shocked that he didn't even ask for a brief progress report.

Then something even stranger happened. He got to his project and started stammering. It was also slightly behind schedule, but only by a day or so. He was uncharacteristically nervous as he listed reasons it wasn't as bad as it looked. After a few minutes I realized what was so odd. He was apologizing to me! He was waiting for my response and getting increasingly flustered by my silence.

I awkwardly spoke up at a pause. "Uh, don't worry about it, Jim. It's not a big deal. I'm sure it'll be back on track soon." His relief was palpable. He continued the meeting, obviously glad to be past his report.

After the meeting, I pulled aside my coworker June. We'd always had a good relationship and could vent freely to one another about our colleagues. "Hey June, did you notice Jim acting weird today?"

She shrugged. "Yeah, he seemed a little off. Why?"

I wasn't sure how to describe it. "He was, like, really nervous. It was like he was worried about what I thought about his project. What's going on with that?"

"I don't know, maybe he's hungover or something." She replied distractedly. "He didn't give you any shit about your project, so I'd take the win and move on." She walked away toward the break room.

Just then, I heard a voice from behind me call my name. I spun around and saw Sarah approaching with a big smile. "Ron!" She said warmly. "I'm glad I caught up with you! Wanna grab lunch today? My treat."