If He Does It In Public...

The gym is full of stories. Just watch and you've got a zillion jump off points for characters for your fiction.

Braided Pony Tail Psycho Man showed up again at the gym. And like a hawk hones in on its prey, as soon as BPTPM hit the top of the stairs and did a quick look around, he was standing between my stairmaster and the object of his stalking. Again, he pleaded from the bottom of his corazon for another chance, talked about how much they have to lose being apart, blah blah blah. I kept the headphones low for a minute, but decided listening to the Glitter soundtrack was much more exciting, not as repetitive as BPTPM's shameful begging/pleading/stalking... and I just kept an eye on the body language, just in case things got crazy and I needed to duck. (And before you go off on me about the Glitter soundtrack, let me say... it's not as bad as everyone makes it out to be. It's one of my favorites among the Mariah Carey collection... but I digress...)

For the second half of my workout, I went to the elliptical machine across the room. Glitter transitioned to Lee Ann Womack (yes, again!), and I had an eye on another situation. Let's call him Controlling Husband, who apparently thought he was as well-versed in personal training as the paid professionals are. Now, I know some people have picked up some fitness tips, but this was definitely their first visit -- I could tell by the outfits they wore. Anyway, after about five minutes riding bikes, Controlling Husband's wife wanted to join an aerobic class about to start. She stood up to go in the aerobic room. He stood up, grabbed her, yelled at her to get back on the bike. She did. Five minutes later she saw another elliptical machine open up -- the one next to me. She stood up. So did he. She resisted for a minute his pulls. Controlling Husband chilled, and then jumped on the elliptical machine his wife wanted, and told her to get on the bike. The nerve. And he smelled. And he didn't know how to use the machine. And I refused to help him learn how to turn it on. (Another gym pet peeve... go through orientation and actually learn how the machines work please!!!) I digress. I couldn't stand the smell after a minute or so, so I moved to bikes a little bit away.

But seeing the behavior of Braided Pony Tail Psycho Man and Controlling Husband made me realize a few things:

1 - Everyone deserves to be, and should be, choosy about relationships; there's nothing to write home about settling;

2 - Red flags in relationships should not be ignored... no matter how cute, charming, or heartwarming they may seem in the beginning; and

3 - If he does it in public, like the men at the gym, that means the behavior in private must be ten times worse.

I think I need to stop being so nosy at the gym. It gets me a little riled up and a little discouraged about the state of relationships. Hmm...
fs