Chris and I never dated. I was never attracted to him. I never had one iota of desire to be romantically in his company.

But he thought I wanted to hitch my horse to his wagon.

And he was my manager.

Chris looked like the blue muppet on Sesame Street who was always getting frustrated by the nonsense put forth by Grover.

The blue muppet was the one in the skits who said with great exasperation “waiter there’s a fly in my soup.”

I worked for a restaurant several years while an undergraduate in college and for a bit after graduation.

Chris started working there during my last year and we got along fine. I never had problems with my managers for the most part anyhow.

We had been working together maybe three months when one day Matt, the store’s general manager, and I were chatting alone about one thing or another. He said to me, “by the way Sip and Go Girl, Chris says you’re coming on to him.”

I looked at sideways and furrowed my brow.

“I’m doing what?”

“Chris says you’re flirting with him I guess. And it’s making him uncomfortable,” Matt said.

“I’m doing what?”

“Are you?” Matt asked.

“NO!” I said. “Oh my god. What does he say I’m doing?”

Matt shrugged. “He just said you’re flirting and it’s making him uncomfortable. I guess just don’t do that.”

I was flabbergasted plus a wee bit angry. I was embarrassed too.

I didn’t have a clue what I could have been doing to cause Chris to think I was drawn to him. I had no interest, no attraction, and the thought never entered my mind.

I told my coworker Linda. She thought for a moment.

“Well you do talk to him all happy all the time. The rest of us don’t really. And you…I don’t know….you’re so…I don’t know. You just talk about anything and you’re so approachable. Sweet and friendly. A cat.”

Yes, I was a friendly worker who was always chatting with my cohorts and, of course, knowing everyone’s business.

I remember one night several people including me, Chris, and Linda were bustling in and out of the little room we called the “service station.” It was an area against the kitchen window that also housed coolers, soft drink dispensers, and other related items the food servers needed to grab while waiting on customers. There were walls but no doors.

Chatter was flying around in bits and pieces in a sporadic disjointed way. One topic was weekend plans. Food service employees, like TV newsroom employees, are incredibly social.

I was standing next to Chris for a moment. I might have been getting ice from the machine.

“Do you keep busy outside of work Chris? You have a girlfriend right?”

“Yes,” he had answered. “I keep busy too I suppose.”

I thought maybe it was one of the moments Chris believed I was moving in to make a kill.

I stopped asking questions of him like that. I remained friendly, but kept my distance from then on and certainly didn’t share any details of my life nor did I ask him anything about his life.

I didn’t realize the Sesame Street resemblance until years later.