The man I ‘dated’ was my 32-year old boss. I worked at a Wendy’s. I was 16.
He told me he was only married to his wife as a greencard marriage and that they were both seeing other people.
I had just gotten out of a bad break-up and he was constantly helping me with stuff, making sure I was okay. Always kind and helping other people. Spent all of his free time volunteering. Never raised his voice once despite where we worked.
Then one night he texted me and told me he had feelings for me. I was happy because he was very charming and attractive, not to mention very kind to me. I thought he must think I was very special because so many people there wanted to be with him.
He started off very nice still. Just the occasional “please don’t tell anyone, you’ll ruin my life.” “Please keep this conversation between you and I.” “Please delete any text messages we send.”
He started to get scarier and scarier. He would make an off comment about this or that. He would tell me that we could visit his home country sometime, but I’d have to pretend I belonged to him or someone else might steal me for pleasure. He screamed at me in his car one night because I refused to have sex with him in there because I had school the next morning. Constantly told me he was so excited to be with me because he knew it was ‘taboo’ and ‘wrong’.
I told my friend/coworker about the relationship. She ended up telling our higher-up. My higher-up stole and searched through my phone to make sure we weren’t talking about anything together. She screamed at me when she found out and told me I didn’t deserve to work there and I was disgusting. I walked out.
Several minutes later, when my boss came in, he was told to go wait outside. My HR and District manager arrived from our capital and fired him. I have no idea how the conversation went. The police escorted him away from the property. I never saw or heard from him again.
For years I was confused and angry with my friend for ‘ruining my relationship’. I wish I could tell her how sorry I am now.
You never know who is going to be a terrible person. Even the nicest seeming person can be a predator. Even if they try to convince you and make excuses. They are still a predator.