Saturday, August 06, 2005

Calling Out Dos Caminos Philanderer



First of all, please excuse all the random pics. Have just acquired digi cam for the first time and am loving it.
At Dos Caminos Friday night with moms (above) and three friends. I'm being my usual exuberant, animated (and apparently loud) self, whilst dining and catching up on the week's events. A few sangria pitchers are being shuffled around the table as well. Sitting next to us are two men in their mid-thirties or early-forties. I notice them looking over at our table throughout our meal, but nothing out of the ordinary.
At the end of their meal, the older of the two, seated next to me, leans in and says, "I just have to tell you that listening to you talk all-night has been more entertaining than any television show." Oh-kay, I think, and my friends and mom giggle politely. I had noticed that these two men hadn't actually been talking that much during their meal, but had not realized that they'd been eavesdropping on our entire conversation over the duration of a couple of hours.
"Well," I retort, naturally taken aback, "I am a writer, so I suppose that is a compliment. Just don't quote me on anything you overheard tonight."
"Oh, I promise this is off-the-record, heh, heh," he responds lecherously. Eww.
They get up to leave, and my friend J. says, "Steph, you do realize that for most of the meal that guy had his wedding band on his finger but when he started talking to you he removed it?"
Double eww. No, actually, I hadn't realized that.
"Very observant of you J. I never notice stuff like that; I guess I need to be a little more on the lookout for that sort of thing?"
"Yeah," piped in my other friend S. "They were both checking you out the whole night."
I understand a little harmless flirting if you are married, but at least have the decency to be upfront about it. I mean, what, did he think that by removing his wedding band my girls and I would be all up in his stuff? I don't think so. Maybe I'm entirely too naive; but maybe his wife should, like, tattoo on a nice, graphic wedding band. I found the whole encounter very creepy. Cut to Monday eve, when I'm buying my dinner for work at Gourmet Garage and the very same married/not-so-married man was behind me in line, again, trying to flirt with me while I was paying and talking on my cell phone. "Look at this one," he says to the cashier and to me, "An accomplished multi-tasker, paying and talking on the phone." I look at him in horror, roll my eyes and scurry out of there as fast as I can.
WTF? Why is NYC only a small city when it comes to really creepy circumstances such as these?