Originally Posted by Exo

This reminds me of the time a dude at the bookstore thought we were friends and would routinely bust my balls calling me a pussy and a bitch. They were harmless as I could tell this was his weird way of interacting. It's kind of the culture in NJ/tri-state area to constantly bust your friends balls over stuff. The only problem with this dude was that, well, we weren't friends. We were "friendly" at work but nowhere near the type of relationship where calling me a bitch and a pussy would be welcome.

I let it slide for a few weeks as it was almost always just between me and him. I'd get some digs every once in a while to try to make it less awkward but then he started doing it in front of other co-workers. Then, one day, he did it in front of customers. Customer asked where a book was while we were standing at the customer service desk and his response was "I can show you. Joe here is kind of slow with those things. I'm basically his boss and I've been here three weeks. He's been here three years". The customer looked at me with this sort of "Wow, you let him talk about you like this?" look and I just shook my head with a kind of nervous "I don't know what to say right now" smile and they left.

I was furious. Decided to handle it. I waited til he got back and asked him if I could talk to him over by the gift department where nobody ever goes. This is verbatim what I said...

"Louis, I understand that you and me, mainly you, like to bust balls every once and a while, and that's fine. I can take it most of the time even though I'm not quite sure why you think it's okay after knowing me somewhat for only three weeks. However, if you ever say anything like to me or about me in front of customers again...I will smack you in the f*cking face". I then stopped, stared at him right in the eyes without a smile on my face, and said "got it?"

Dude looked at me with shock. Got all flustered and said he was sorry. He thought it wasn't a big deal. I told him that it's okay, but it won't happen again, because I'll seriously knock him the f*ck out if he does it again.

I'm not telling this story to try and portray myself as some kind of badass. I'm really not a violent person and can be kind of a bitch when it comes to certain things. Heights. Bugs. My ex girlfriend. F*ck with me at work though and the teeth come out.