Bullet Dodged

Back in 1989, I had just moved to a new area. I was working at a hotel, and after work, a friend and I would frequent a restaurant between work and home. Over the next few weeks, I ended up flirting with one of the workers back and forth. I was young and naive. Turns out, she was a recent new mother but the father was gone as they were separated.

I worked up the courage to ask her out.

Worker: “Okay, but I can’t commit to a time right now.”

I felt that was understandable. A few days later:

Worker: “I’m off tomorrow night if you’re free.”

Me: “Sure. Where would you like to meet, and when?”

Worker: “Wait until I’m off work.”

That had me waiting in the parking lot until closing. As I waited, they closed. There was another car in the parking lot picking up another coworker, but I thought nothing of it. That’s when the police showed up. The worker walked out with the assistant manager and pointed toward me. The police then came over to me.

Police Officer: “Why are you here?”

Me: “I’m supposed to be picking up [Worker] for a date.”

Police Officer: “Her husband is in that car over there to pick her up.”

A day or two later, I went back there with my friend there and saw her.

Me: “Why didn’t you just tell me you were married?”

She didn’t answer me. As we were eating, the assistant manager came out.

Assistant Manager: “You are harassing [Worker] and you need to leave.”

We did leave, and we didn’t go back to that location again.

Fast forward several months. We had moved, and we went to a different location of the same fast food chain. The new manager there was the assistant manager that had kicked us out at the other location. He was all apologetic, offered us some free food, and explained:

Assistant Manager: “She played that same game with a few other guys, it turns out. She was eventually fired for it.”

I am guessing she wanted to get her husband jealous to get attention or something. It was a learning experience for me, and I became a bit more untrusting of people’s motives after that.