Yesterday I was hit on at the gym by someone who has hit on me on a few different occasions. So let me preface this story with I met this guy at a bar about 6 years ago. We had a good conversation and hit it off so we exchanged numbers and chatted for a couple weeks but I quickly realized he only cared about working out and not much else so I told him I wasn't interested and that was that.
Then about 5 years ago he came up to me at the gym and asked where I was from not realizing we had met before. When I said Wisconsin he goes "That can't be right, they don't make girls like you around here. You must be from Miami or Vegas". Cue the eye rolls. Gave him a fake name/number to get him to leave me alone. End of story.
And then, yesterday I was on the stairmaster at the gym and he approached me AGAIN. This time claiming he had met me at Sally's on the U of M campus and remembers me. Wrong. Now mind you I'm in the last 10 minutes of the hardest part of my workout, drenched in sweat, face tomato red, hunched over just trying to make it through and this person wants to have a conversation. NO. Inappropriate. Not happening. But I'm a nice person so I entertained him for a little until he said we should get to know each other and start working out together. I told him no. That didn't matter, he continued.
After saying no multiple times, I told him I had a boyfriend and then he finally backed off a bit but it wasn't until I said I had to be somewhere in 30 minutes and need to finish my workout quick that he finally left me alone. It angers me that I even had to play the boyfriend card because it shows how little respect this person had for me as a female that I had to use a male (aka my "bf") for him to start to leave me alone.
Here's my advice to anyone that has dealt with this, male or female. If you want someone to leave you alone, simply tell them that. It might come off abrasive, but it's disrespectful of that stranger to not pick up on your cues and disrupt your time. If they still don't leave you alone, then tell them you farted and that they better evacuate before they pass out. OR, a more reasonable option is to inform someone at the gym that this person is bothering you because at this point, it's harassment.
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