TL;DR I visited my friends before they got home from work and encountered their dad/father-in-law who tried to expose himself to be while repeatedly passing it off as a joke when I kept telling him no.
I (24f) was visiting my friend (Emma) and her husband’s (Jake) house last week after my first week on the job at a hospital. We’re all the same age.
Emma has been a close friend of mine since we were 11, and when she met Jake 4 years ago we basically became the three stooges. She jokes that she married the male version of me. I love them both to bits.
I was visiting their house a couple of hours before they got home from work because I was allowed to leave early that day. It was the first day that I’d be able to see them since starting my new job as a healthcare worker and I was excited to tell them everything about it.
I was told that Jake’s dad (Daryl) would be there to do some work on the house. No problem, I’ve known him for four years and we’ve all been together on trips and at family outings and parties. I’m very familiar with this man.
I walked into the house and nobody was there. I didn’t know Daryl was in the garage and he didn’t see my car, so he didn’t know that I was in the house until he walked in and I said hello.
I startled him because when I saw him, his back was turned to me. I apologized profusely for scaring him and he made the following comment:
“You’re lucky I didn’t go into the bathroom to pee and leave the door open, you might have seen something that you didn’t want to!”
I kind of laughed it off and mumbled something that I don’t even remember before Daryl starts saying “Unless you wanted to see it, I mean.”
Daryl is in a long term relationship with a woman that he’s recently moved in with. Also, he’s old enough to be my dad and has taken on sort of a fatherly role in certain situations before. We hug when I leave and say things like “Love you, be careful” to each other. This comment took me off guard, but once again, I played it off like he was making a joke in poor taste.
I went back to the living room after giving the whole “Ahaha, no thanks” to his comment and I went about my business. A few minutes later he came into the living room and mentioned that he probably shouldn’t be picking on me like that, but that he really was just picking on me.
I tell him that it’s fine, I’m not bothered (I was, but I was afraid to say something that would upset him and wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt) and then he tells me that his son doesn’t need to know about it. At this point I’m feeling really weird. I mention again that it’s fine, I’m letting it go.
But he doesn’t stop.
He keeps pushing and pushing and I keep telling him no and eventually he reaches for his belt buckle. He’s playing it off like he’s joking but it was very clear to me that he wasn’t. After several times of me being like “Alright alright, that’s enough now come on” he asks if I want to see a picture.
I’m sure the look on my face is very telling, because he then goes on to say that “Oh I’m just picking on you, I don’t keep things like that on my phone” etc etc. I say that unless I’m seeing something for medical purposes, I don’t think that his girlfriend would appreciate it very much. I also constantly change the subject but he keeps bringing it up.
His response was “Well she never does anything with it anymore anyway.”
He mentioned on three separate occasions that I shouldn’t tell his son, I don’t even remember what dismissive nonsense I said to him. I was freaked out and I couldn’t make eye contact with him anymore.
I spent the rest of the evening feeling weird and kind of sick. I didn’t say anything to my friends. I’m so afraid that they’ll accuse me of starting trouble. The thing is, another girl has told on him for inappropriate behavior and everyone (my friends included) turned against her and said she was lying. Just like that.
Should I limit contact with my friends over this? I don’t know what to do and my stomach is in knots.
Submitted June 21, 2020 at 12:13PM by Uncomfortable_Alone https://ift.tt/3dpdJdk
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