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It occurred to me yesterday that the "you're so patient" she delivered after I'd helped her write her job application actually has quite another implication. Have I been a trifle slow on the uptake here? In addition while we were working on the app I made some throwaway comment about the sacrifices I'd made for her and she said something like "yes I know you have" and touched my foot with hers, not once but twice. I'd got into such an "I've been rejected" mindset I barely noticed these things, or if I did just found them slightly annoying, but in the normal course of events they'd be a cue for considerable optimism.

Now that I think about it she touched me several times last Thursday as well, after my unsuccessful caress - a touch on the foream as we talked, the hand-holding (admittedly initiated because we had to get up a steep slope, but continued long after) and then the kiss at the tube station. Even though this takes us no nearer to one another than Mrs K's sister and I have been for years, it's still movement in the right direction. Perhaps even a clumsy and rejected pass breaks down a barrier?

Perhaps out of desperation I've been consulting websites on seduction technique and I have to say that almost all the classic signs of attraction are there - lots of eye contact, she doesn't flinch away if I brush something off her hair, she tells me about what she's not getting from her husband, she gives me compliments, she keeps appointments and doesn't stand me up, she initiates us being alone together and of course there have been suggestive e-mails and some out and out flirting. Some of it could be put down to normal workplace banter, but probably not all. She invited herself round to my flat, dammit. I've also been looking at Neuro-Linguistic Programming techniques, and the funny thing is that she's already mentioned several of the themes they suggest introducing - connection, communication, relaxation, holidays... perhaps she's been using the NLP techniques on [i]me[/i]... (Oh, and apparently begging is very bad, so I may have to rethink that plan...)

So what I'm increasingly thinking is that perhaps I did the wrong thing at the wrong time, and I need to put in some more work - increase the privacy and then direct the conversation better, talk more about her moribund marriage, the drawbacks of monogamy and why I think people should be free and make the most of life, ask her what she really enjoys doing and have her tell me why, explain about the special connection I think we have, perhaps talk about sex in general terms, make a lot more eye contact, touch her a little more (but not for so long she feels the need or opportunity to remove my hand) and watch out for a moment when I think she wants me to kiss her.

The website also recommends sleeping with ten other women immediately you get fixated on any one, which is sort of in accordance with my idea about getting hold of Sam & Jenny, but a little more extreme and not terribly practical. Looking less keen if brushed off is also recommended, so perhaps my instincts on all these matters are correct. Now that I think about it she's been a little peremptory recently, possibly as she's realised how keen I am on her. Certainly I have to wait for her to call me now, not the other way around. Then I think the next step is to suggest that we go somewhere where there's no danger we'll meet anyone either of us knows, somewhere we can fully relax and be ourselves...

I dare say even in the best case scenario there are still plenty of ways to screw this up, and in the worst my initial impression was correct and she's not interested, but I certainly think there's scope to give this another shot. Now I have to keep myself busy until she calls...