When I was working in a shopping mall, a very handsome musician named Doug worked in the music store next to me. We used to do some harmless flirting all the time, but it never went any further than that. I had recently broken off a long term relationship and the last thing I wanted was another one.
In the same mall was a young woman. I will call her “Little Miss Mall”. Little Miss Mall fancied herself to be better looking than she actually was, and she had a bit of a reputation. Doug used to joke about how she was always in his store and he could never get any work done. We both agreed that she liked him.
One day, Little Miss Mall walked past my store and saw Doug in there chatting with me. She didn’t stop looking at us as she walked past. Later that day she came in to the store pretending to look around and then struck up a conversation with me. I knew she was only doing this to get information on my relationship with Doug.
Months went by and every day Little Miss Mall would come into my store and tell me about her sexual conquests with various men — whether I liked it or not. She asked me if I liked anyone and when I said no she told me she could tell that I liked Doug. I denied it at first but admitted it after she said she was interested in Doug’s friend John. We spent the next half hour joking about how we could go on double dates with the guys. I was actually starting to like the girl, and was thinking we could be friends, even though there was an age gap between us.
The next day, she came into my store telling me how she was at the pub with Doug and John, and John had to go home early so it was just her and Doug, and they got drunk, one thing led to another and she went home with him. While she was telling me this, she had a cruel, smug grin on her face. She could not have been happier telling me this. It was clear to me that she was never interested in John at all. The whole story was just a set up to see if I had feelings for Doug.
Weeks went by where she would come to the store to tell me every detail about their sex life and how she was his girlfriend. I knew she was over exaggerating because I had actually seen him out at gigs without her, and he would flirt outrageously with me. I warned him that this girl thought there was more to the relationship with him and to be careful, but he said that they had only slept together a few times had he made it abundantly clear to her that it was not a relationship. So I knew that when she came into my store with her stories she was sugar-coating things to make me jealous.
Doug was in my store again having a chat when I saw her walk by, staring in and looking very annoyed. Not long after he left, she came in and said that Doug must be so proud that he was he had a young sexy girlfriend instead of being stuck with some haggard, fat old woman. At the time I was carrying a little bit of extra weight, and the fact that I was older than her made it clear that she was aiming her comment at me to make me feel bad.
I spent the afternoon stewing over this and I thought, that’s it, I’ve had it with this girl. No more nicey-nicey from me.
That afternoon I strutted into the music store, walked straight up to Doug, ignoring the other guys in the store, and I told him how good he looked today. His face lit up and he blushed. Then I simply turned around and walked out of the store.
Lo and behold, within 10 minutes of me walking out he came into my store with a stack of CDs as a gift, which had his business card attached. Then he asked me for my number. I gave it to him and sent me text messages all afternoon. He asked me to come to a gig with him that night, but I didn’t want to seem too easy, so I declined.
Over the next few weeks he continued to call me, text me and bring me gifts. I finally gave in to his advances, but told him that I didn’t want a relationship because I had ended and engagement a year earlier. However, I would be up for some “harmless fun between two consenting adults”.
Over the coming months, Doug and I occasionally saw each other, but we both made it clear we could see other people.
One day, I was sitting on my front porch and I had had a bit to drink, when Little Miss Mall walked by and she came over and told me how she had not heard from Doug in months so she got revenge on him by sleeping with other men behind his back. She was giggling the whole time she was telling me this and she was big noting herself yet again when something in me snapped.
“Don’t gloat too much. He is sleeping around too,” I said.
She looked at me in shock. “How do you know this?”
“Because he is sleeping with me,” I replied.
Tears welled up in her eyes and I just started to feel sorry for the girl when she blurted out, “How could he possibly want to be with YOU when he has ME?”
She told me she didn’t believe me, so I went inside and brought out some items that he had left at my place. She just stared at the items then screamed “I can’t believe this!” She walked away yelling obscenities at me.
I have to admit I felt pretty darn good seeing how hurt she was. Does that make me a bad person?
All names have been changed. Picture posed by models.
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