loveshack near ikea

Submitted by: Karen

I'm a jeans and t-shirt sort of girl, so I never understood any of the extra attention. I avoid making eye contact on public transit and keep to myself to avoid awkward encounters. It's only within the last year that I've "upgraded" to business casual clothing for work, which frankly isn't what I would call provocative attire. This happened in October 2007 a few weeks before Halloween, I was at the Gladstone doing an interview assignment for class and it ended up being later than I had anticipated -- I missed the last subway train, so I was stuck with the Blue Line buses. Not being entirely familiar with how to get home, I went on the wrong bus and then switched to a streetcar before getting on the right bus. While standing outside at what appeared to be the back of a club, I waited for the bus to arrive and take me back uptown. I sat near the front section of the bus and held onto my cell phone in case of emergency.

A few stops later a guy in a black sports leather jacket comes onto the bus and sits next to me. He apologized for "accidently" brushing up against me and I said, "that's okay," thinking that it seemed innocent enough. He took this as an indication that I was receptive to having a conversation with him, and I suppose I'm a pretty friendly person, but to be safe, I kept my responses short and impersonal. Things seemed pretty harmless until he started telling me about his apartment which he shares with a roommate. He indicated to me several times that I should visit him because he lives near Ikea. He kept staring at my lips and reeked of alcohol, despite the fact that he said he doesn't frequent clubs or drink often. Before he got off the bus, he asked me for my phone number -- I gave him my old msn, which I no longer use, instead -- the smarter thing to have done would have been to say "no" or give him a fake number. He said we should "get together" sometime, not so subtlely hinting that I should pay him a booty call visit -- he definitely used the word "sex" in the last few sentences before leaving.

I'm not opposed to a random and superficial conversation with a stranger, but I am opposed, however, to a random stranger soliciting sex and misconstruing friendliness for sexual interest.