secretlake

It's secretlake summer! I am fast forwarding through spring already. I'm very excited about everything new in the shop. In non shop news, I am having some trouble with a guy who hangs out outside my building. When it started I was vaguely amused, he seemed like a character and harmless enough. It was months ago, my apartment was leaking into the shop downstairs, he knocked on the door asking if he could see what the problem was since they were trying to redo their ceiling. I was wary, he spoke to me through my closed door, he said "Hey! You know me, I'm Carlos, Carlos from Las Vegas." As if that would mean something. I let him in after deciding he sounded reasonable enough. He fixed my leaking radiator while asking me if I had a boyfriend. I am terrible at lying so I said no, I figured it was obvious anyway. He said that he wanted to cook me dinner, spanish food, I politely said sure, in a distracted sort of way. Since then he approaches me on the street nearly everyday, asking when we are having dinner. I always say that I am busy, and hurry on my way. He yells "Hey Patty!" and then winks at me when I look at him, (he thinks that my name is Patricia.) When I get out of cabs he will hurry over, eager to help me with my bags, I always decline his help. He needs to know where I am going and where I have been. I try to be curt, I don't offer much information when he asks. Another thing about him is that he always seems fucked up, even at 1:00 in the afternoon. His eyes always have a glazed over unfocused look, his skin has that alcoholic puff to it. So, in the the store downstairs they have a back room, I can hear all of their stoned conversations when I am sitting in my kitchen. I have heard him talk about me, it's a bit unnerving. I also hear them drunkenly yell things like "So what if I never met my dad, I didn't need to know him to be a man!" For real. So today I went out to walk Jason, Carlos came up to us to ask me if we could have dinner tonight, as he asked he held his hand out towards me, it was possibly to shake my hand or to just touch me, I couldn't tell. It was oddly zombie like and suspended in the air before us as he spoke. My eyes widened in a sort of horror, it was so close and an intrusion into my personal space that I didn't appreciate. To end it I reflexively said "You can't touch me, I'm dirty." I didn't want to hurt his feelings even though I probably just should. I was fumbling with my house keys to get back into the building as fast as I could. I just don't know how to get him to leave me alone. He is outside almost always when the weather is nice, his presence in a sidewalk lawn chair is one more obstacle on the gauntlet I already pass through. It seems like a normal sober sane person would have gotten the gist already, I can't think of how else to get him off my case.