Gym Rat

Submitted by Claudia:

Eric asked me out after months of flirting at the gym. I was so excited and couldn't wait for our date.

He took me out to an Italian restauant where we talked about him the entire time. I began volunteering information about myself, but he never seemed curious or asked me a follow-up question. Was he just being nervous?

He excused himself to go to the bathroom when a girl in a black coat and sunglasses walked by and slipped a note onto the table. It read, "Get out of here. He's going to rape you."

I looked around, suddenly afraid — who was that woman? How long had she been watching?

When he came back, I asked him if he knew the handwriting. He shuddered and said that it was his ex-girlfriend's. He paid the check and we left.

Once we were outside, the girl in the black coat and sunglasses came up to us. She grabbed my wrist and pulled me towards a wall, but I broke away and slapped her.

I heard Eric saying, "Jenny! What are you doing?"

She turned to him and buried herself in his chest, then whispered something I couldn't hear. Eric looked up at me and asked, "Can you give us a couple of minutes? Jenny and I need to talk."

I intended to take a walk around the block. A couple of minutes turned out to be 20 minutes, and I gave up on Eric and the whole affair.

He called me an hour later to apologize and ask where I was. I told him that I thought the whole date was a catastrophe from start to finish, and good luck with life. I never saw him at the gym again after that.