I started talking to this guy online recently. He sent me a picture of himself and he seemed very cute. I knew that he lived close where to I do as a lot of our online chat was about the local neighbourhood and we also frequently discussed the irony of how we never seemed to run into each other. We also had a few acquaintances in common so I thought it was safe to ask him to pick me up.
When he pulled up in his sports car I was really pleased at what I saw. He looked exactly like he did in his online picture and he was really cute. However I could not figure out why he looked so upset. Instead of coming up the laneway towards my apartment he pulled out a cell phone and was calling someone.
My phone rang. When I answered it he told me in a really embarrassed tone that he did not know how to tell me this but he wasn’t allowed to come into my building. He said his ex lived in the apartment complex and that she had a restraining order against him so I would have to come out to the car by myself. He wasn’t even allowed to come on the property.
I know. I know. I should have hung up at the words “restraining order” but I just didn’t feel like I could take one more disappointment. I go downstairs and I get into his car. He is sort of slouched down inside of it like he is hiding from her view.
We talk about where we would like to go and then he tells me he wants to get as far away from my neighborhood as possible. I agree. Then I find out that he does not know the neighborhood at all and only knows it because his ex lives in my building.
So he starts driving and we end up at a little cheap Mexican restaurant on the other side of town. Nothing at all seems that wrong except that he seems really nervous and keeps encouraging me to down Margheritas. After making the usual small talk I finally worked up the courage to ask him a little more about his ex.
That’s when he tells me that she is not really an ex and that they were not really together but they should have been. In fact he went into a very long story that included descriptions of the two times he went to jail for just sending her flowers and phoning.
I soon realized I was having dinner with a serious stalker.
Thankfully I got out of the date okay but of course now I am on edge wondering if he might stalk me too. I tried to talk to the woman I think is his ex about it but each time I see her she is with her boyfriend and I don’t want to embarrass him. Hopefully he will just take the hint and leave me alone as I am not answering his calls.