CRAZY LOVE
Ok, so most of this is LOLWHATTHEFUCKKINDACREEPY. But it's pretty worth retelling.
I had a dude come in two days in a row and sit at one of my tables, barely ordering anything, and waiting for me to get off work. It was a little disturbing, and he didn't tip that much, but he made it really clear that he didn't plan on leaving until I did. The second day, I had a coworker escort me out.
The second day, though, was also the day of the second incident:
Ok, so for background:
A few months ago, my old Toyota was on the edge of dying, and as a young woman who drives alone most of the time, I wasn't cool with the idea of it dying on me. So I started car shopping. One day, in my efforts to see what was in my price range, I stopped at Chestatee Ford, off of GA400. As I'm walking around the lot, a young man, probably about my age comes out to talk to me. I tell him what I'm looking to spend, and ask him to show me what should be around my price range - not that unusual of a request: it's what I'd been doing at every other dealership and had yet to have an issue. He, however, said he didn't know.
So, instantly, I think he's unprepared to do his job, but no big deal.
He goes back in to ask his manager while I wander around looking vaguely at the cars, but not to actively because I don't want to fall in love with something that I'd never be able to afford. Finally, after about 10 minutes, he comes back.
They won't be able to tell me about what I can afford unless they run a credit check.
Now, I instantly know this is bullshit, because every other dealership has been able to give me a rough range without doing one, but I didn't know my actual credit score in spite of having gotten my free credit check online so I decide to go ahead and let him do it.
On the application, as all or at least most of you probably know, you have to state your place of employment, and when I tell him, the dude tells me that he'll visit me at work some time, and that he knows my boss and I just assume it's the basic salesman smalltalk sort of stuff.
Needless to say, I left without buying anything (and without looking at anything, since they didn't finance first-time buyers).
That night, I got home and got online to check my stuff, and head to facebook first. (Normally, it would be OB first, but facebook takes way less time.) I have a pending friend request.
From the salesman.
He took my information that I gave him for my credit check and friended me.
I ignored the request, and assumed that would be the end of it, and for a while, it was.
And then last Saturday, who walks in the door of my work with an admittedly hot chick (who just happens to look similar enough to him to be related)????
He sits there, I give him the most obviously shitty service possible short of not serving him at all; his drinks go empty for a few minutes, I don't make any eye-contact when they order, I don't offer desert, I don't try any up-selling, nothing.
It turned out to be pretty uneventful; he didn't pull anything.
And then it came to the tip: 50%.
Normally, I would be grinning and excited to see a tip like that, but I know I gave him shitty service, and I know he's a creepy stalker, and it's just creepy that he'd pay that much.
I seem to inspire undying affections, however, as you'll see in story 3!
Most of the kids I graduated with, I also went to school with from first grade on; we moved into the county when it looked like Clayton County was up-and-coming, and got out of there just before it nose-dived into losing it's accreditation. Jason was no different; I'd known him forever. We weren't exactly really close friends; I don't think I'd ever hung out with him outside of the hallways at school, and even then it wasn't that much. Fifteen minutes while waiting on the bus a couple days of week, maybe a passing wave in the hallways. Hell, we never even had any classes together, since I was in the "gifted" program and he was always in remedial classes.
So needless to say that on the last day of our senior year of high school when we were waiting on the bus to go home, when he approached me and confessed that he'd been hopelessly in love with me for the past six years, it was all I could do not to gawk.
It's of little comfort that I didn't; I was still a huge bitch, and just said: "Ok. I'm sorry, I don't return the feelings," and turned to my other friends to continue an unrelated conversation without so much as moving a foot. Like it hadn't affected me at all. I wish I was as much of a bitch now as I was then.
That was the last time we spoke. And, since I graduated when I was seventeen, was three years ago.
Fast-forward to three weeks ago. I happened to have a Saturday off, and my little sister had been begging me to take her to the Ren Fest, and I gave in, deciding it'd be nice to spend a day with my sisters before I head on out to the west coast. We were having a fun day; we'd made our way about halfway around the fairgrounds and were stopping for lunch, when Alicia, my 17 year old sister, wandered off. At this point, both my phone and Gina, my 12 year old sister,'s phone was dead, so it was kind of imperative that we stay together, so we wander off to find her.
We do. She's talking to Jason, who she knew from when he helped out with the ROTC at her school. However, he doesn't remember her.
When he sees me?
His face lights up like a little kid at Christmas, and he grabs me and pulls me into a bear hug.
I don't find this too weird, because well. We had known each other forever, and a hug is a perfectly acceptable way to greet old friends/acquaintances, at least here in the south. I return the hug, and we talk for a while, and then we wind up going and hanging out by the stall where he's working so that Alicia can torment an ex she'd run into and his current girlfriend, who he's cheating on with her.
We were there for about an hour.
Highlights from the conversation include:
"Do you have a boyfriend?"
"Well, if anything ever happens between you and your boyfriend..."
"I still love you, you know."
"I bet I could beat up your boyfriend. I mean, I've never seen him, but I bet I could."
"I love you."
"You look really hot."
"I love you."
"Let me get your number, and I'll text now so that you have mine."
"I love you."
"You know, the reason I never said anything earlier before was because I thought I'd never have a chance with you. You were always so smart and so talented, and I was... well, I wasn't."
"I love you."
"Would I have had a chance with you in high school?"
It ended with:
"I love you. You should call me sometime."
Man. What the hell.
I had a dude come in two days in a row and sit at one of my tables, barely ordering anything, and waiting for me to get off work. It was a little disturbing, and he didn't tip that much, but he made it really clear that he didn't plan on leaving until I did. The second day, I had a coworker escort me out.
The second day, though, was also the day of the second incident:
Ok, so for background:
A few months ago, my old Toyota was on the edge of dying, and as a young woman who drives alone most of the time, I wasn't cool with the idea of it dying on me. So I started car shopping. One day, in my efforts to see what was in my price range, I stopped at Chestatee Ford, off of GA400. As I'm walking around the lot, a young man, probably about my age comes out to talk to me. I tell him what I'm looking to spend, and ask him to show me what should be around my price range - not that unusual of a request: it's what I'd been doing at every other dealership and had yet to have an issue. He, however, said he didn't know.
So, instantly, I think he's unprepared to do his job, but no big deal.
He goes back in to ask his manager while I wander around looking vaguely at the cars, but not to actively because I don't want to fall in love with something that I'd never be able to afford. Finally, after about 10 minutes, he comes back.
They won't be able to tell me about what I can afford unless they run a credit check.
Now, I instantly know this is bullshit, because every other dealership has been able to give me a rough range without doing one, but I didn't know my actual credit score in spite of having gotten my free credit check online so I decide to go ahead and let him do it.
On the application, as all or at least most of you probably know, you have to state your place of employment, and when I tell him, the dude tells me that he'll visit me at work some time, and that he knows my boss and I just assume it's the basic salesman smalltalk sort of stuff.
Needless to say, I left without buying anything (and without looking at anything, since they didn't finance first-time buyers).
That night, I got home and got online to check my stuff, and head to facebook first. (Normally, it would be OB first, but facebook takes way less time.) I have a pending friend request.
From the salesman.
He took my information that I gave him for my credit check and friended me.
I ignored the request, and assumed that would be the end of it, and for a while, it was.
And then last Saturday, who walks in the door of my work with an admittedly hot chick (who just happens to look similar enough to him to be related)????
He sits there, I give him the most obviously shitty service possible short of not serving him at all; his drinks go empty for a few minutes, I don't make any eye-contact when they order, I don't offer desert, I don't try any up-selling, nothing.
It turned out to be pretty uneventful; he didn't pull anything.
And then it came to the tip: 50%.
Normally, I would be grinning and excited to see a tip like that, but I know I gave him shitty service, and I know he's a creepy stalker, and it's just creepy that he'd pay that much.
I seem to inspire undying affections, however, as you'll see in story 3!
Most of the kids I graduated with, I also went to school with from first grade on; we moved into the county when it looked like Clayton County was up-and-coming, and got out of there just before it nose-dived into losing it's accreditation. Jason was no different; I'd known him forever. We weren't exactly really close friends; I don't think I'd ever hung out with him outside of the hallways at school, and even then it wasn't that much. Fifteen minutes while waiting on the bus a couple days of week, maybe a passing wave in the hallways. Hell, we never even had any classes together, since I was in the "gifted" program and he was always in remedial classes.
So needless to say that on the last day of our senior year of high school when we were waiting on the bus to go home, when he approached me and confessed that he'd been hopelessly in love with me for the past six years, it was all I could do not to gawk.
It's of little comfort that I didn't; I was still a huge bitch, and just said: "Ok. I'm sorry, I don't return the feelings," and turned to my other friends to continue an unrelated conversation without so much as moving a foot. Like it hadn't affected me at all. I wish I was as much of a bitch now as I was then.
That was the last time we spoke. And, since I graduated when I was seventeen, was three years ago.
Fast-forward to three weeks ago. I happened to have a Saturday off, and my little sister had been begging me to take her to the Ren Fest, and I gave in, deciding it'd be nice to spend a day with my sisters before I head on out to the west coast. We were having a fun day; we'd made our way about halfway around the fairgrounds and were stopping for lunch, when Alicia, my 17 year old sister, wandered off. At this point, both my phone and Gina, my 12 year old sister,'s phone was dead, so it was kind of imperative that we stay together, so we wander off to find her.
We do. She's talking to Jason, who she knew from when he helped out with the ROTC at her school. However, he doesn't remember her.
When he sees me?
His face lights up like a little kid at Christmas, and he grabs me and pulls me into a bear hug.
I don't find this too weird, because well. We had known each other forever, and a hug is a perfectly acceptable way to greet old friends/acquaintances, at least here in the south. I return the hug, and we talk for a while, and then we wind up going and hanging out by the stall where he's working so that Alicia can torment an ex she'd run into and his current girlfriend, who he's cheating on with her.
We were there for about an hour.
Highlights from the conversation include:
"Do you have a boyfriend?"
"Well, if anything ever happens between you and your boyfriend..."
"I still love you, you know."
"I bet I could beat up your boyfriend. I mean, I've never seen him, but I bet I could."
"I love you."
"You look really hot."
"I love you."
"Let me get your number, and I'll text now so that you have mine."
"I love you."
"You know, the reason I never said anything earlier before was because I thought I'd never have a chance with you. You were always so smart and so talented, and I was... well, I wasn't."
"I love you."
"Would I have had a chance with you in high school?"
It ended with:
"I love you. You should call me sometime."
Man. What the hell.