This is sort of an odd prompt but I'll elaborate.
I've always been a lone wolf. Primarily it has been due to intense social anxiety. I also fall somewhere on the asexual spectrum. So I've mostly gone though life by myself. Friendships and relationships have just never been a thing for me. I'm also in my 30s, so it's not as if I'm going to change the way I am.
Several years back, I started working my current job. Most people I worked with were either ok or were assholes. But there was one who was always kind to me. She always jokes around with me and was cheerful and happy when everyone else was a grumpy asshole. We work only a few feet from each other for hours almost every single day.
Through the years, I noticed myself getting happy when she would arrive at work or when our schedules would overlap more. I am happy every day to see her and enjoy spending time with her. I absolutely never get tired of seeing her and look forward to it every single day. She has even called me a friend on numerous occasions which I have almost never had anyone do before. We spend our days simultaneously working and also trying to out goober one another. She started referring to me as her friend at one point and it made me really happy whenever she would say it.
She is married and has children and has her own busy life outside of work. I often feel bad whenever I end up texting her outside of work because I know I am taking her away from where she wants to be. She's not one of those parents that spends their off hours getting away from the household...she is the opposite...wanting to spend every waking moment not at work with her kids.
It's selfish and wrong of me, but sometimes I get jealous when she interacts with her other work friend. Or it sometimes makes me sad to know that I most likely don't mean as much to her as she does to me. I would do honestly absolutely anything for her. I even let her family stay with me for a few days when they were temporarily without power or water.
When I see my other coworkers, I honestly could take them or leave them. But my whole day gets brightened when I see my one coworker that I am close to. I never get tired of seeing her.
I've almost never ever had this happen before. The only ever time this happened was with another sweet, funny, coworker who eventually moved away. I liked both of them very much and it pained me so much when the other left. I was depressed for months.
Since I'm an asexual, I never really see people and want to make out or have sex with them. But is that what is happening with my brain? Is my description normal friend behavior or is it wrong for me to feel this level of happiness and connection around my coworker? Is it normal to like a friend this much or is there something wrong with me? Am I supposed to try to find other people instead to have this sort of feeling with instead of my coworker? Is it wrong to want to hang out outside of work? Where is the line supposed to be drawn between what is socially acceptable and what isn't?
Thanks. I'm stupid ig.
Thank you very much for these words. I have never had someone in person who I would consider to be a good friend, so I wasn't sure if my feelings were normal or not. Looks like most people in this thread are calling it normal, while a few others saying maybe not so much. I don't have sexual feelings or anything for her. I just like her a lot and for some reason never get tired seeing her.
Her other friend is actually difficult for me to get alone with. She is mostly nice, but occasionally I somehow inadvertently say something that will for some reason deeply annoy her and she gets short and cuts off the conversation. It's not the same with her because I can't be authentically me and I have to be careful not to set her off. So we will never quite be the 3 musketeers. I have a hard time mentally and emotionally dealing with people like that.
Honestly, a similar sort of scenario happened when I used to have one other friend that I worked with. My current friend didn't get along with her to an even more significant degree and it caused some degree of conflict. People are just hard I guess.