The Bakery

This is a story based on what once happened at a local coffee shop, where I worked briefly for two months as a busser-dishwasher on the weekend. In my mid-thirties, these people in their twenties and teenagers seduced guy who worked as a pastry chef. I saw him when I came in for an interview, after the supervisor left several messages for me.

I came in and was hired on the spot, without a resume. I don't recall sending a resume or calling them. She told me that the management and others, had insisted that she hire me only. I don't know any of them, so the matter seemed strange to me.

The harasser never spoke to me directly and refused to look at me. He let me and the entire staff know of his obsession with me, as well as his disappointment at my lack of interest. I was still trying to get over the rejection I experienced, by a man I had fallen in love with. He was not interested and even forgot my name, so I simply wanted to be by myself. Loner status is a safe and normal situation for me.

When I refused to take an interest in him on a personal and sexual level, the staff at the coffee shop began to treat me badly. The management felt I should work separately from other people and attempted to alter my work schedule after I complained about his campaign of harassment.

After I quit, he came to my other job for no reason and bothered me on a shift there, with his girlfriend and group of friends. His girlfriend dropped by with one of his friends two days later, and I wondered how they knew of my shifts.

On Easter Sunday, he called me five time. I counted the number of times he called, pointlessly, from a cell phone that belonged to his friend, at the coffee shop. He texted me several times and emailed me, even sending a picture via text message. I became upset and emailed the restaurant, since I had no other means of contacting him.

To this day, I am not certain how he found my online dating profile, work schedule, address of my other job, cell phone number and email address.

People like him have odd ways of obtaining information. I sent off an email that stated that I wanted no contact with him, with details of his harassment and stalking activities and instructions for him to avoid me, or else, I would seek a restraining order. Subsequently, he was fired and investigated by the police.

My roommate reminded me that it was possible that he was doing other things and capable of other things. Since I had to buy a new cell phone and change jobs to get away from him, I feel now that his firing and investigation by the police is justified. It is always possiblethat he is highly mentally unstable and capable of anything. Why take a chance?

I even emailed the restaurant and called once in protest of his firing, until I realized that they had done the right thing. He stopped bothering me, a good thing since his friends stopped hanging out in the area around the basement suite where I lived.

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