Monday, March 5, 2012

awkward

so i take the train to work every day.  can i just tell you how much i love taking the train?  in the morning it gives me a chance to mentally ready myself for the day.  and in the afternoon?  oh, that afternoon train ride is heaven.  septa has this program called quiet ride, where the first car of every train is the quiet car.  no cell phones, no talking, and if you listen to music, it has to be low volume so your neighbors can't hear it (i can't tell you how annoying it is when you can hear someone's music over your own).  i always sit in the quiet car on my way home.  even if there are no seats, i will stand rather than sit in a regular car.  it is the perfect place to unplug and decompress from my day.

anyway.  after riding the same train for 5 years, you start to make what i lovingly refer to as "train friends."  there is a guy who used to share a seat with me every day, and eventually we started talking.  we've been sharing a seat and talking for about 2 years now, but i have no idea what his name is.  i prefer it that way.  for a long time it was nice to have a buddy on the train.  we didn't talk about anything of substance, really.  mostly about sports or funny stories we heard on the news.  but lately it's gotten weird.  he's started acting like, i don't know, like we're actual friends.  you know how when you're friends with someone, and they're trying to get past you, you might fake-trip them or hit them as they walk by?  it's a silly little gesture, but to me, it's something reserved for people that you're on a more intimate level with.  well, he started doing this to me.  i usually sit on the inside of the seat, even though i get off the train first.  so he has to get up to let me out at my stop.  in the past few months, this moment has become uncomfortable for me.  there has been a few times where he's hit my back as i walk by, dangerously close to my ass.  he's married, and i know he knows i'm married, but i definitely feel like he's flirting with me.  and i really am feeling skeevy about it.  it's gotten to the point where i feel relieved when he's not at the train station because i don't have to deal with it.  this morning, he got on the train way ahead of me, and i acted like i didn't see him and sat by myself. 

i'm not really sure what i should do.  avoiding him seems to be the easiest thing, but it's certainly not the most mature option.  part of me feels like i should address it, but then, what if i'm way off base?  then i'll just feel like an asshole.  what do you think i should do?

1 comment:

C said...

That is so awkward! I would just avoid him because I’m a big baby when it comes to confronting strangers. Maybe just continue to not sit by him and if he asks why explain that you were uncomfortable? Ahhh, so hard!