It started last summer. The former journalist came into K’s work and asked to interview her about a restaurant she used to work at that was up for sale. Seemed simple enough but that’s when the unpleasantness began in earnest.

I don’t blame a guy for having feelings or trying to make them known but an interview for a local color article in an online rag is not the time and place. He took to showing up at K’s work and peppering her with irrelevant questions. Phone calls to tell her he planned to email her and texts that he was about to call followed. All pretext and little substance.

It came to a head the day he asked to meet her at the restaurant for what he said would be the final interview for his article. She didn’t want to be alone with him so she asked me to join her.

They’d been there about half an hour when I showed up sweaty from biking across town after the bookstore closed. He smelled like he’d taken a bath in gasoline. He explained there’d been a problem with his car. That was the most normal part of his behavior. He wouldn’t make eye contact and acted like I was K’s mentor or acquaintance rather than what would have been plain to a blind man. It was like a National Geographic sequence on mating behavior among rival males. I did my best to stay neutral and under control.

Afterwards, having a drink at the Clipper, K and I tried to laugh the whole thing off. We took to calling him “Fun Guy” due to his penchant for Hawaiian shirts and something it said on his business card.

The article was published. It featured a photo of K and I looking as if we were the chicken shack’s new owners. Fun Guy receded into the shadows.

A couple months ago he resurfaced, pitching another article for a different local rag. This time it was to be about K’s writing. She was hesitant but I told her like a fool to indulge him since it might gain her some readers.

The awkward encounters resumed. I wasn’t invited to join in but heard lots of details. A couple weeks before the article was due, Fun Guy asked for my number and K gave it to him. He wanted to ask me about her work he said. A day later he called and was above board. Professional. I was pleasantly surprised.

A few days after, he called K to say he would email her. The email came filled with inappropriate and intrusive questions. She didn’t respond but told me about what he’d asked.

I made the mistake of texting him my feelings. It didn’t go well. I had to block his number before I said things I’d actually regret.

This is how things go sometimes out here in the wild.

Saw a great play. No Hawaiian-shirted creeps included.