October 7, 2008
The Commuter
Remember when I made a passing reference to the dude I think has been hitting on me during my commute? The one who got all handsy that time?
Well, since then he’s become a fixture on my way to and from work. He’s overly friendly and chatty and STILL handsy- what the heck is that all about anyway? At first I thought he seemed like a decent guy, if a bit presumptuous, but now I’m not so sure. He’s kind of annoying the hell out of me. Okay, maybe not kind of; he is.
Literally every morning I see him pacing the platform looking for me. That is, if he hasn’t tracked me down on the bus to the train first. And before I get off the train, he tries to nail down the exact train I will be on after work so he can also take that train and ride the bus with me. Again.
And then last Wednesday, he unwittingly took my phone from my hand and proceeded to type his number into it and call his own (so, what, now we’ve exchanged numbers?). Since then, he’s been texting constantly for me go on bike rides or join him for tea at Argo or meet him out at a bar or come over and watch The Office. Emo, my friend at work, says I should tell him to “slow his roll.” A wise man that Emo.
The thing is, in addition to the angst I’m feeling toward The Commuter for hijacking my beloved reading time, I’m not interested. At all. Which means it’s a very big deal that I’ve even tolerated him for as long as I have (I do realize this makes me sound like a total biznatch).
So, in an effort to avoid him and catch up on some dearly missed reading, I’ve begun switching up my routine. Yesterday, I took a different bus route and sat in a different train car than usual. I even got the train conductor in cahoots with me by keeping my whereabouts on the train a secret (which is good because apparently I was being looked for).
This morning, I even managed to take an earlier train (no small feat for someone who HATES MORNING) and ended up sitting in front of Angry-Page-Turner-Woman (I nearly asked her why she was so pissed at the magazine she was tearing through for forty whole freaking minutes. Unless it was an article about how *awesome* Palin is, I can’t see what a magazine could do to receive such abuse….sorry, couldn’t resist).
As for avoiding The Commuter, last night I wasn’t so lucky. I took a super late train home, but then there he was the only person waiting at the bus stop. Wait, let me rephrase- he actually came running from an adjoining park where I guess he’d been “hanging out.” He wasn’t even on the train I was on! WTF!?
On the bus, he proceeded to high tail it to sit beside me (while I immediately dialed my mom and blew him off). And, what’s worse, he stayed on the bus past his stop. Not because he had anything to do- he did this last week as well- but because, he told me, sometimes he “just likes to ride the bus all the way to the end.” Again, WTF!?
Maybe I’m overreacting, but it’s starting to give me the creeps.
