That time I walked out on my job, because of a stalker...

So, this one time, when I was waiting tables in a big city, I quit my job with no warning...

At the time, I used to sit in the local book store/ coffee shop to read and sip coffee or study for my school courses...

I'm a genuinely friendly person who has "never met a stranger" (mom's words, not mine) and tend to make small talk with anyone near me...

Not sure how it happened, but the manager of the book store sat at my table one day and talked for a short (and annoying, to someone who's studying for a test) time...

At some point in the next few months, of which I saw little of him and never thought about it again, he popped up over the top of my book and said they had gotten his coffee wrong, and asked if I wanted the extra. 

Girls, I must aside here, don't take drinks from strangers... Especially men....

My coffee was fine (yes, in my naivety, I accepted it). 

I believe this is where I went wrong. I guess he got the wrong idea. I don't know... 

I do know, I had repeatedly talked of my husband (I think we were only engaged at the time), so I had made it clear I was off the market.

I had never led him on in any way that I knew of, aside from being kind to him as a fellow human. 

So, one day, this dude follows me to work. 

I had NO CLUE. 

I was probably singing to some good tunes & thinking about school. I wasn't paying any attention. 

I got out of my car and turned to walk into work and in front of me, blocking my path, was an expensive car with an older gentleman in the driver seat; the bookstore manager. 

He had his windows rolled down and was telling me he wanted to see me and he would be there tonight. 

I assume he was going to eat in my section at work, but all I could picture was me having to be nice to someone, for an extended length of time, who was giving me the willies... 

I immediately found my managers and informed them I was quitting, got my shift picked up and hauled my butt home, crying all the way...

I don't know that he meant anything by it. True. 

I do know that I was in a parking lot by a noisy highway, blocked in by a man twice my size, in an overcrowded city, where a young girl could easily go missing before anyone were the wiser. 

-Momma always said, "Better safe than sorry."