‘From the very first day she came to work, I was smitten’

Flavia and Peter Mukwana. He was her boss at the time they started dating. COURTESY PHOTO

What you need to know:

When Flavia Nakamatte started working at Micro Save Consulting Limited in 2009, she had no idea what else was in store for her.

When Flavia Nakamatte started working at Micro Save Consulting Limited in 2009, she had no idea what else was in store for her. The new environment would later bring an end to a bad relationship she was in then, and open a door for Peter Mukwana, a man whose last name she now carries. Esther Oluka writes.

HIS STORY

“Flavia joined Micro Save Consulting Limited in 2009 as the projects officer. I had been at the company since 2001 and I was one of the directors of the company, implying that I was her supervisor. She would report directly to me.

I must admit that from the very first day she came to work, I was smitten by her. I liked her, and my feelings towards her grew gradually.

Despite how I felt, I did not approach her immediately because the code of conduct at our work place did not favour in-house relationships. I later also learnt that she was in a relationship at the time.

Even with these things in place, my feelings towards her did not fade away. I would constantly greet and inquire about what was happening in her personal life.

It was her openness that made me discover eventually that she was in a sore relationship with her then partner. There were times Flavia would, for instance, call to inform me that she would not be able to come to work because she was filing an abusive case in police against her companion.

On some occasions while in office, she would really seem so down. Of course I just could not take a back seat and watch her bear all the pain alone.

From time to time, I would console and tell her that everything was going to be okay.

Meanwhile, I was also in a hurtful relationship. I had been seeing someone who had fallen out of love with me. My then partner just did not care about the relationship any more.
After I eventually broke up with her, I started declaring my feelings towards Flavia and also told her that I wanted to settle down with her.

But, of course, you know women with pretending. She would always tell me that she is not interested but I also persisted. We officially started dating seven months later from the time she had joined the company. This was immediately after her previous relationship ended.

We kept ours tight-lipped because we did not want to be the subject of gossip at work. Also, I did not want our colleagues to start saying that I was using my authority and powers as the boss to favour her.

I only had a problem with Flavia once at work when she became furious after discovering that I went on a business lunch with a female associate. Although she eventually calmed down, I knew that it was something that should not be repeated in her midst.

At work, Flavia was very assertive, aggressive and outspoken. During the meetings, she would raise whatever issues were at the work place rather than keep quiet. I sometimes wished she would have toned down a little bit.

But regardless of this, I still loved her so much.
I finally proposed to her on October 22, 2010. We had the introduction on October 15, 2011 before finally formalising our relationship by having a church wedding on October 22, 2011.”

HER STORY

“I felt the same way as Peter. I also had feelings for him but I did not want to jump into a relationship straight away. I was in a hurtful relationship at that time with another man and I was focusing on ending it before eventually moving on.
Peter was very supportive and caring after learning of what I was going through at that time. For instance, he would ask if I had always eaten something and if I had not, he would take me to have lunch just within the workplace. Also, very often, he would inquire about my health.
Around 2010, he started being very open to me. He would tell me about what was happening in his life, involve me in most of his plans and would request that I accompany him to certain places.
That sort of closeness was what made us start dating officially in the same year.

But as he stated earlier on, we decided to remain discreet about the relationship because we did not want to be subject of gossip among our colleagues.

We also agreed to be very professional at work. Perhaps it is for this reason why no one knew that we were a couple.
In fact most of our colleagues were very shocked after learning that we were getting married. They wondered how we were able to hide something as intimate as love.

The one person who was not so delighted with the news of me getting married was my ex-partner, the man I was in the painful relationship with. He would send me messages on a daily basis urging us to reconcile. These later became hateful ones.
He did not interfere with our wedding though. It was only after Peter and I moved in together that he stopped bothering us.

Since we wanted to give each other a bit of space after the wedding, I decided to apply for a job elsewhere. I now work at Finance Trust Bank as a project manager. He no longer works at Micro save consulting Limited as well. Peter left the company and is now the managing director of Sky Mark Consulting Limited.