This actually happened just a few hours ago so sorry if my thoughts are a bit disjointed! And sorry it’s so long.
Edit: it goes without saying that I could have handled this situation better. I like to think that because I’ve lived in Europe for a while and never had harm come to me despite getting into some sketchy situations I think I’m kind of invincible. However, regardless of how I handled the situation I still think this guy was a creep that knew by framing himself as mentally ill or harmless I would be more likely to let him get away with shit.
I’m studying for my masters in a major European city, and today was a very warm and sunny day. My classmate and I decided to take advantage of it and had a couple beers relatively early in the afternoon after our class, and then I decided to keep the party going by heading to a local, public, always-incredibly-busy park nearby. By the time I got there from the pub I was buzzed and decided to look up if there were any bathrooms nearby and as a result was a bit distracted on my phone.
Out of the corner of my eye I see a guy with his bike sit very close to me, but I ignore him until I see he’s trying to talk to me despite the fact that I have two headphones in. Thinking he’s possibly a tourist asking me a question about the city or something innocuous, I took my headphones out and asked him if he needed help.
He proceeded to tell me that he was having an anxiety attack and if I could talk to him for a bit to help him calm down? Since I suffer from mental health myself I told him that I’d help in anyway I could and took my headphones out to listen better.
Then he started telling me that he was just “being polite and respectful” and trying not to make me uncomfortable and that if I’d just talk to him for five minutes he’d be on his way. However, he was speaking very rapidly and English isn’t my first language, so I had trouble understanding him because of how fast he was talking on top of his British accent.
He asked me how old I thought he was and got upset when I guessed he was older than I was. Then he told me he “painted hands and feet” and launched into an in depth explanation of his fascination with how people use their hands and feet. Then he asked me to sit a bit closer to him, and I did. He then grabbed my hands and knees and told me it was ok he was doing that because he was “polite and respectful” and he “touches people because of his anxiety.”
At this point I was starting to get very uncomfortable. However, I didn’t think he was going to harm me as we were in such a public place, and I was also still buzzed and I’m very friendly when i drink, so I decided to stay put. I don’t really know how I would have gotten out of the situation regardless.
He then tells me he wants me to meet up with him once a week for a half hour to “help him with is anxiety” and that he “isn’t looking for a relationship” and he “just needs help” for his anxiety. Then he starts asking me about my feet.
I answer his weird feet questions because I study art history and am under the impression this guy is an artist, and is just trying to figure out how to paint feet accurately? Honestly I don’t know what I was thinking. Before I know it he is holding my foot and asks me to take my shoe off. Like a drunken idiot, I do. Then he asks me to take my sock off and assures me that “this isn’t sexual” and, like an idiot, I do.
At this point he explains that by “paint hands and feet” he means he paints people’s nails and that he’d be happy to paint my nails as long as I agree to meet him regularly to help him with his anxiety. He keeps repeating how “polite and respectful” he every five minutes. He then tells me his mom works for a tour company and he could also get me discounts on tours if I “help him with his anxiety”. This is all while he is massaging my foot in this public park and I am letting him
At some point some guys comes and asks if we want a Polaroid picture of us and after we say no my “friend” makes a face and comments on “how weird that guy was”.
When I finally think my nightmare is over he tells me he has to do my other foot “so it’s fair” and I let him because at this point I am a bit afraid of him and want to do what he wants so he will leave me alone. The entire time he’s making nasty comments about the state of my feet. (Sorry I’m not always prepared to have my feet groped by random strangers I guess?!)
Finally he lets me put my feet back in my shoes where they belong and gives me his number and asks me to text him so he has mine. I tell him I have no service and then run away as quickly as possible, turning back just to see him staring at me as I go.
And no, I do not plan on texting him.
Submitted October 10, 2018 at 09:54PM by Saltylikeapretzel https://ift.tt/2IMozfJ
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