Thursday, September 1, 2011

"You could write a book about how to find a loser in a pile of winners"

I've been cocky, apparently. All these years, being the bar business, constantly meeting new people, young and old, I thought myself to be an excellent judge of character (as I've mentioned in the past). And in certain respects, I am! I can pick out a hobo from a mile away. However, my last crush, really made me wonder where I went wrong. I met Steve probably 5 years ago, as a patron in the bar. He was rarely there, just for a quick beer after his shift at a nearby restaurant. I've been playing softball for fun on Sunday afternoons for the last couple years, and he sometimes attends. Recently, I thought about him differently, and we began sending flirty messages over Facebook and flirting incessantly at the games. A couple weeks ago, I was having a glass of wine with a friend in my bar, and he showed up! I was excited and pounced. I found out a few things about him that night that floored me. Firstly, he's 39 and he's been engaged 4 times but never married [RED FLAG!] He never drank or anything while we played ball, so I figured him to be a fairly responsible person. I learned that night that he's really into cocaine and drinks like crazy. I let it slide, as I always do when I'm drinking, because he didn't do any coke while I was with him that night. Of course, I ended up drinking far too much and invited him to sleepover. I told him it was period week and we wasn't getting any, but he wanted to come anyways. We had a pretty PG sleepover and in the morning, I woke up and showered and tried to make myself look as if I hadn't been drinking until 3AM on a MONDAY!!!!!!! I woke him up and said I had to go to work, and we had to get going. He said he'd escort me by bus to work so he could get some food. Okay??? When we got there, he was trying to kiss me and hug me in the bar - which I HATE. This is where I work and it is not appropriate during the day when I'm working. It makes me extremely uncomfortable, especially since everyone in the bar at that time of day has known me since I was born. It's like making out in front of your grandparents - not cool. Long story short - he spent the WHOLE DAY drinking at the bar. I couldn't tell him to go home, and I didn't want to see him anymore that day. It was too much. He invited me over for dinner, but after working all day, super hungover, all I wanted to do was go home (alone) and pass out on my couch. When I was leaving, I went through the bar and tried to say goodbye. He put a shot in front of me and then expected me to pay for it. I didn't want the shot to begin with, so I sipped it, and made him pay for it. I went home thinking "this isn't going to work one little bit". I learned later that week that he had the Monday night bartender put all his drinks on my tab. I didn't realize it that night because I left without signing off on it. He had told me to my face that night that he had settled up with the bartender before we left. This was a very shady thing to do on his part. He put my bartender in a very compromised position and took advantage of my level of intoxication. I felt a fool and couldn't believe I'd read that situation so wrong. Another one bites the dust. When will it be my turn to find love? I feel like I deserve it, after all the crap being flung at me. It's like I'm sitting in between two monkeys in a poo-flinging competition! P.S. Did I mention that Mike will not leave me alone about getting together for a drink? As if he wants to be my friend now, after all he put me through last year. He had the chance to be just friends, but he decided to continue sending me mixed signals and buying me flowers instead. And now I have to see him this weekend at work, and I'm SOOO not looking forward to him trying to be nice, while I do what I can to ignore him. ARGH!!!!!!!!