It's Not Cheating If You're Single

I know some might call me an asshole, but I’ve always been honest about my approach to dating and relationships. Or lack thereof. See, I’m a software engineer by trade, single for years now, and I have no qualms with being that way. It’s not a choice out of loneliness or anything like that; it's just who I am. I enjoy the freedom of not having someone else’s schedule cramp mine. Until recently. A few weeks ago, there was this girl at work, we’ll call her Emma. She’s a bit younger than me and has always had this air about her, something magnetic that draws people in, especially when she’s feeling playful. I knew from the start it wouldn’t go anywhere between us, but damn did I have fun with her while we were together. We’d occasionally hook up during lunch breaks or after work, keeping things casual and under wraps to avoid any office drama. It was strictly for the pleasure of both parties involved, no expectations, just some good old-fashioned fun. We stopped talking about a month ago when she got busy with her new project and I figured it was time to let her go. But here’s where the story gets tricky. Last week, Emma starts dating someone from another department at work, and now everyone's talking. Of course they are; you can’t hide that kind of thing forever in an office environment, no matter how discreet we tried to be. So I’m getting this pressure from my coworkers, not outright condemnation, but enough passive-aggressive glances and murmurs to make me feel like a scumbag. I don’t see myself as one though. I’ve never claimed to be relationship material, and these people know it. They were all fine with keeping our little arrangement on the down-low until someone decided to go public and turn her into this golden girl. So now they’re trying to paint me as some kind of cheating husband type? It doesn’t sit well with me, but at the same time... I don’t regret a thing we shared. We both knew where we stood from day one, no games, no confusion. If anything, her new guy can thank me for helping clear out any unnecessary drama before it escalated into something serious. So yeah, this is my confession, that casual hook-up turned office gossip magnet who never pretended to be more than what she was in the moment: someone I enjoyed playing with without strings attached.