Dear Level

Fellas, Having an Office Wife Is Disrespectful to Your Spouse

It’s all fun and games until somebody catches feelings

Aliya S. King
LEVEL
Published in
5 min readOct 31, 2020

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Illustration: Olivia Fields

Update 6/7/22: Level has a new home. You can read this article and other new articles by visiting LEVELMAN.com.

Back in the 1990s and early 2000s, I worked at a music magazine. I was in my twenties and having a blast. I tagged along while Redman and Method Man filmed How High. I watched Common work on Like Water for Chocolate at the legendary Electric Lady Studios in NYC. I interviewed every member of Wu-Tang Clan at a photoshoot. It was the good ol’ days.

But being a staff writer had its challenges. It was competitive and everything moved at breakneck speed. (Nothing like an awards show interrupted by Suge Knight wearing a Dead Man Walking T-shirt with Snoop’s face on it to make you realize work could involve a stampede!)

Because my assignments were always last minute, it was helpful to have people on staff that I was cool with back at the office.

Across the hall from my office was my boy D. D and I were platonic friends; he wasn’t my type at all — and vice versa. I thought he was fusty and stodgy. He thought I was reckless and unpredictable. We were both right.

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Aliya S. King
LEVEL

Aliya S. King is an author, freelance writer and editor.