The following excerpt is an ~anonymous~ contribution from a Mack in Style reader in her early twenties living in NYC. All opinions in this article are not my own…but you won’t belieb it.
In my 3-year relationship, there have been times when I wondered if I was missing out on “enjoying my 20’s”. If I should, like most of my girlfriends, remain single for a while and see what’s really out there while I find myself. I never saw myself as settling in my relationship, but there is an odd amount of pressure to remain independent and single when you’re young. I blame the ~*wanderlust*~ propaganda of my generation for these moments of doubt. It’s easy to flirt with strangers when you’re out at a bar or socializing at work events, and in my relationship I’ve admittedly dabbled in these waters, even developing an innocent work crush here and there. However, it wasn’t until recently that I realized what’s out there in the dating world, at a Justin Bieber concert no less, and how good I really have it.
I met Mike* through my coworker at happy hour one night. He was very nice and polite, and we had a lot in common. We continued to hang out with a group for a few weeks, and he would text me occasionally. It was all pretty innocent, but walking that thin line of flirtation. Mike was fully aware of my spoken-for status, and that I live with my boyfriend, so he was always appropriate and never made advances. I thought I was making a friend. So when my boyfriend asserted his belief that the platonic male-female friendship is a fantasy, I told him he was being an ass.
I hate when he’s right.
One night, I was hanging out with a group at a friend’s apartment when Mike mentioned his company having a hookup for the Justin Bieber concert the following week and extended an invitation. I’m not a huge fan of Bieber, but he has had a few bangers lately and I wasn’t about to pass up a free concert, so I was down. Plus, it would be a group event with the usual suspects I had been spending time with, so I knew I would have a good time. We met at his office the day of the concert and I immediately noticed that Mike was acting differently. He had started the pregame early apparently, and started making tipsy passes at me, attempting to put his arm around my waist. I made it clear I wasn’t having it, but his gross behavior continued until we got to the concert.
We arrived at the concert and found our seats – which were pretty solid – and Mike left to buy a round of beers. He returned and handed me the last beer along with a kiss on the cheek. I pulled away from him, so he then shouted at me, “Oh! So you’re just one of those girls that USES people?” Becoming irritated I reminded him that HE had invited me, and that I didn’t ask to attend. So he mumbled that I didn’t deserve to be there, while snatching my beer pouring the remainder into his cup. For the rest of the night, whenever someone went for more beer I was not allowed to have one – per Mike’s orders.
The show itself was terrible. Bieber did a subpar job of pretending he was singing, and at one point laid down on the stage and complained about being tired. All the while, this creep is trying to grab on me and dance with me, and every time I pulled away or ignored him, so he would point to the exit sign and shout at me to leave.
I would like to add as a side note, this 28 year old man was wearing a skin-tight tank top that said “Rosé all day” on it, paired with bright red jeans that faded into a pink ombré situation.
By the end of the show Mike was not speaking to me, and I’m having zero issue with that. He tries to hail a green cab – which, if you live in NYC you know don’t drive to Manhattan, but when I informed him of that, he yelled at me for correcting him. Whatever. When we finally got into a cab, I was seated between him and his friend’s girlfriend, and Mike goes back to trying putting his arm around me and continues to make me uncomfortable. I told him to stop touching me, so he looked at the girl seated next to me and commanded her to switch places with me. As all of this shit was going down, our cab was PULLED OVER for changing lanes without signaling. Just my fucking luck!
Mike, ever the gentleman, was loudly proclaiming that the police are terrible, criminals, and a bunch of assholes throughout the traffic stop. At one point, the officers checked to make sure both signals were working, and Mike described it as “a witch hunt” – *insert rolling eye emoji here*. As the officer gave our cab driver his ticket, Mike began blasting music from his phone. I told him to turn it down and that he was being rude, so he shouted “I’ve had a-fuckin-nough of this,” and requested that the cab driver drop him off, and ran out. He actually RAN out of a cab to get away from me. YEP!
So I’m there thinking about how relieved I am that the night was over and that my hellish ordeal had ended, when I received an email notification of a VENMO request for the cost of the concert ticket! This fucking tool yelled at me all night, was rude and inappropriate, and then had the nerve to ask me for money for the tickets which I thought he had gotten for free (apparently, their company only gives them a discount). You go, Glen Coco!
After this experience, I was left with a lot to think about. Part of me wanted to blame myself; had I brought this behavior on? What could I have done differently to prevent this? Was I overreacting? However, upon receiving a text two weeks later after no contact or apology from Mike, which simply said “hola mamacita”, I realized that I had fallen victim to another fuckboy in sheep’s clothing. I wasn’t guilty of anything except assuming that there were guys out there interested in just being friends with a girl without secretly wanting to go to pound town.
Needless to say, I learned a lot from this evening, namely that most men are swine, what happens to an ignored Venmo request over time, and that Justin Bieber loves to hit the snooze button. Same, Bieber, same.
Have an absurd date story you can eloquently share with our readers? e-mail mackenzie@mackinstyle.com
