I (M 30) made friends with a coworker (F 25) who turned out to be pretty mean. How do I create boundaries now and distance myself from this relationship?

I started a new job and it wasn't long before one of my coworkers was regularly stopping by my work station to chat. She would tease me about being new and make light hearted jokes, usually at my expense. She kind of lingered a bit long sometimes but it was fine. I was kind of happy to be gettingto know my coworkers in what I thought was a fun and lighthearted way. Over time we became friendly, like a lot of people in the workplace, and I don't remember how but we decided to go hangout at the beach one day. It was there I began to get some vibes that she wanted to hookup or date, and I did not.

Flash forward a few weeks and I see her at work walking down an aisle not far away, so I smile as I'm walking by. She sees me and says something like "why are you smiling at me with that creepy smile?". I was kind of floored, I didn't know what to say so I just walked away, but it really hurt my feelings. Who the fuck does that?? There's no way she would have said that to me if we hadn't spent time together and gotten comfortable with each other. I couldn't stop thinking about it and I became angry that she felt so comfortable that she would just say something nasty like that to me.

I shouldn't have just let her make cute little jokes at my expense when I started working there. I WAS a bit uncomfortable when I was new and she would drop by and linger too long and make too many 'cute' belittling jokes at my expense, but I just put up with it and tried to have fun with her. I shouldn't have let this person get close to me. One of my coworkers actually warned me that she's not a great person, but I guess I wanted to judge for myself. He was right though.

Now that she's openly acting this way, what can I do to make it clear I'm not ok with this relationship?

Tl;Dr I let a coworker get close to me and she is a pretty mean person. How do I create distance now?

Submitted March 19, 2023 at 06:00PM by MisterHippoChip https://ift.tt/wY3Qlf7