After I posted about the “moth” client, my DMs lit up like fireflies. Did he ever tell her how he felt? Did she feel the same? The romantics were rooting for fate, the HR crowd for restraint. TL;DR: earlier this week he joined our call, half-deflated/half-dazzled; the emotional posture of someone who can’t tell if they’ve been rejected.
***
ME: You look like you’ve been through an unscheduled performance review.
CLIENT (half-laughs): Something like that. Remember my coworker? The one who made work feel like good chaos? She’s… different.
ME: Different?
CLIENT: Colder. Pulling back. I can’t figure it. One week we’re practically finishing each other’s thoughts in meetings, joking, laughing at stuff no one else catches. It wasn’t just me, I’m sure, she was responding.
ME: Why so sure?
CLIENT: There were moments. Like the other day, we were joking about deadlines, and I said something risky. You know, that sweet spot where you can deny it if you need to?
ME: I’m familiar with ‘plausible deniability.’
CLIENT: Exactly. I said, ‘Guess I’ll have to make it up to you,’ and she laughed, and said, ‘Careful, people might think you’re flirting.’ And I said, ‘You think?’ She smiled. We both did. It was nice. 2-days later – quiet, polite but distant. Like I got downgraded to a line item on her task list.
ME: That’s a sharp turn.
CLIENT: Tell me about it. I was convinced something was shifting between us. She’d catch my eye in meetings. Long looks. I wasn’t imagining it. Then silence. (Quietly) And then I saw it. A picture on her desk. Her and some guy. I don’t know how I never noticed it.
ME: That hurts.
CLIENT: Exactly. I keep replaying everything…every message, every smile, trying to see if I invented it. But I didn’t. I swear, she was engaging. There was connection.
ME: I believe you, but maybe it wasn’t meant to be more. Sometimes people respond to each other; they like the spark… but then reality taps them on the shoulder. Maybe she caught herself in the story too, then pulled the brake.
CLIENT: So, I wasn’t crazy?
ME: It sounds to me like you’re just human. You felt something. Maybe it was mutual, but that doesn’t mean its sustainable.
<He lets out a breath, like a deflating daydream.>
CLIENT: I miss the buzz. It made work feel alive.
ME: Then that’s the part you need to hold; the feeling, not her. She didn’t give it to you; she reminded you it was there.
<He nods, reluctantly, still orbiting the what-ifs.>
CLIENT: So how do I get that back without her?
ME: You don’t get it back. You redirect it.
<We talked a bit more about how to start…>
***
Most people think heartbreak only lives in romance. But in my experience, it also lives at work. Because the office is full of projection screens; places we cast our longing for recognition, belonging, or possibility. And when that projection pulls back, it feels personal.
So, spill—have you ever had to reframe a connection that meant more to you than it should? Drop a single word below: spark, story, or lesson.
