Hello All,

So there is this girl at work. Im 29 (Just turned 29). She is just 21, soon to be 22. There is a difference of about 7 and a half years between us. This is problem number 1. I’ve been seeing her from a distance for almost a year now. Never had the opportunity to talk to her, as work wise there is nothing common for us (our departments are different). She is always surrounded by her gang of friends. She comes to work a bit late and leaves as soon as the work time is over. So there is hardly any opportunity outside work for me to talk to her. Within work, I couldn’t talk to her much, as despite us having a few common friends, I couldn’t ask any of them to introduce her to me, as that would make it obvious for them that I’m interested in her and rumors would start to spread. I’m now a senior at work so my image is also important. I could not be going after her with no valid reason as it would seem to her im trying to flirt and make her think of me as a low life or a creep. And I have this reputation of being a gentleman, as I’m one of the few men in our work who hasn’t been in a relationship or even made obvious flirting attempts. And I’m from India and things are a bit different here. Not all people are open to relationships, dating and stuff and many even see those as bad (for these lot arranged marriages are the norm). There is a good probability that if I expressed myself to her, she might think badly of me. I also have a feeling that she might know I’m interested in her, as our glances have met numerous times and things like this could be sensed. My really close circle knows I’m interested in her and I’m kind of doubtful that she might know about my interest through someone gossiping even among my close circle. I’m getting torn apart between my yearning to get to know her by talking to her regularly and the fear that she might think of me to be a creep. If I had been 2-5 years older, then it wouldn’t seem that bad. But since I’m so much older to her, I don’t know how she would react. All I can tell is, it’s been hellish in the past few weeks. Any advises?