alice-in-hotel-land

[alice-in-hotel-land]

We can flirt and get close in a totally casual way but I'm still gonna need to know I'm ur fav.

[alice-in-hotel-land]

Oct. 15th, 2024

I was a little too high when I got to work tonight and my manager (whom I'm pretty sure thinks I'm cute and/or has a crush on me cause she lowkey acts flirty with me) was wearing a hella attractive fit with a new top that I haven't seen her wear yet & tbh she was serving hot eccentric corporate femme realness. I literally was just so focused on how good she looked & practically tuned out the work stuff she was filling me in on. All I could think was "She looks so fucking good I'm such a fucking lesbian oh my god...."

"Ok good to know," As soon as it was my turn to talk I didn't even bother addressing whatever work thing she was conveying to me and gave the blouse a quick look up, saying, "I just want to say I love that shirt btw! You look.....really nice in it." (had to pause for a second because my high ass opened my mouth to say like "you look good as hell/you look hella good" which i knew would be a little too inappropriate to say, especially considering one of the pm desk girls, May, was standing like 4 feet away from us at the other desk, and she hates Alice and is also a gossip so...) After i said that, her face immediately lit up with a beaming smile, she started saying 'thank you' and other stuff while sputtering, then she goes "I could kiss you for that!"

When I tell you it shocked me so hard and was so unexpected that my face instantly turned into the 😳 emoji, I'm not exaggerating in the slightest. I could feel my face getting flush (I turn pink really easily when I'm too warm, doing extraneous physical work, anxious, embarrassed, flustered etc. so its not like i could hide it from her.) Like exCUSE ME??? What was that, ma'am??? What to run that by me again?

I think she noticed my shock and the fact that it got quiet for like .5 seconds and she laughed loudly, backpeddeling, saying like "I'm kidding, I'm kidding!!! I'm so sorry, no seriously, I'm just joking. You're face was so funny though haha 😅" I'm just standing there shocked and trying to recover from that curveball, but in hindsight like.....it's ok girly, if you're gonna say it then say it with your chest. Like I'm sorry, what was that? I don't think I heard you very well. You're gonna have to speak up, don't be shy lmao. When she started apologizing I actually opened my mouth to say "It's ok even if you weren't joking haha," but I clamped my mouth shut because, again, gossipy coworker just feet away from us and I'm not trying to get Alice or myself in trouble. Needless to say that's what it took for me to finally be aware that like, oh shit maybe she actually has been flirting with me for months??

[alice-in-hotel-land]

About / context:

Some odd months ago (I want to say around spring this year, if not earlier, 2024) I began to notice what I thought might be flirting behavior coming from my manager, Alice.

It started subtle, with her greeting both if us night auditors in the mornings with "Good morning, sunshines", "Hello my loves", etc. but quickly (like within a months time) she started using the singular form and making eye contact with me while smiling warmly. This was while she was just a front desk associate like me. At one point during the spring/summer, Nathan (a security guard we had at the time) developed a hard crush on her and would try flirting with her on occasion (not smooth flirting tbh). She always (to me) seemed disinterested and would let him talk to her and such, but she never really seemed to be feeding into it. She was sweet (friendly) to him but not sweet (flirty), but i dont think he picked up on it (pretty sure he's autistic cause i am too and his brain works very similar to mine). Eventually he worked up the courage to ask her out and she said yes. They went on one date and she started being more aloof/distant with him (I'm assuming the date didn't go well for her, but he said it did). Around the same time he started talking/flirting with her, she started growing more friendly with me. A small uptick in the frequency of the petnames (sunshine/my love/babe) directed at me, always with a bright smile and eye contact. She would also have a conversation with Nate (mostly one sided. him talking to her and her nodding/keeping her responses short) then turn her attention to me to start talking. Eventually I got a hunch that she wasnt digging him at all and she was actually being flirty with me, so I started playing into it a little (mostly just to see how she'd react and if she fed back into it more). I'm not a petnames person, but when she'd greet me warmly, I'd greet back with her same energy. Eye contact, a bright smile, petnames ("Good morning gorgeous/Hello my love/Hi sunshine" etc). She took it well. Her demeanor was more cheery when I'd see her.

When she was still working the desk in the mornings, her tone got more affectionate and she would hold eye contact longer (like, long enough that it didn't feel casual anymore and I would have to break it before getting flustered). Then when she got promoted to management and started working evenings, there'd be one or two nights a week (mostly weekend nights) where she'd stay until after we got there (11pm) and when she would see me walk in her face would light up and she'd greet me sweetly. If she happened to be busy with a guest or on the phone, she would come up to me after and say her sweet hellos.

Over the last few months, she's become much sweeter, constantly saying that I'm awesome, she appreciates me, I'm so great/wonderful, she started staying behind later to talk (used to leave at like 11:15, but on nights I worked she'd start staying until at least 11:30 or 12, sometimes a little later. Always telling me to text her if I need anything.

A few facts:

I work in a large, duel property hotel chain in my city's downtown area

Alice and I were both just front desk/guest associates. I work the night audit shift (overnight) and she used to work the AM front desk shift. In like July this year she applied for/was promoted to guest services manager (front desk manager)

I turned 26 this May & she turned 22 this August (24 is the youngest i'll date & even the couple of 24 year olds I've been in dates with this year hasn't worked out because of the difference between my maturity/life right now & theirs)

I want to say Alice is bi, but thats just an assumption tbh. I've never actually heard her talk about girls/dating women/pride etc so idk. I'm a non-binary masc lesbian.

Im currently actively dating someone (a very hot non-binary lesbian), but they want to keep things casual atm because between their work/schooling there's not much time in their week to. We did agree that if we feel the need to see people outside of our situation, it's fine as long as we communicate that effectively. I have not told them about Alice because that would put them in a position where they have to decide what we are in terms or relationship/labels and I don't want to put them in that position before they're ready. And also due to the fact that I cannot/will not actually do anything with my manager besides flirt because I'm genuinely head over heels for the person I'm dating, I'm not the cheating kind and management can't be involved with staff.

Im just genuinely having fun practicing my flirting on Alice & it seems that she gets a kick out of it too. We are in no way actually involved, nor will we ever be

Now that that's out of the way.