The Good Family Man - Or So We Thought

 I was watching some documentaries on feuds between celebrities.  I know.  Trash.  They were, but kept my mind off of things.  I watched one with Scooter Braun and Taylor Swift.  It played the two sides of the story.  Who do I believe?  I believe Taylor.  I don't know about this record deal mumbo jumbo stuff but it just sounds like something shifty happened.  I am not a Swifty fan. I have a few songs downloaded on my iPhone, but I was shocked when I heard how much people paid.  She is generous with donating to food banks, she gets young people excited about voting and yeah, I'll take her a role model over Kim Kardashian.  Young girls, please stop it with the lips pushed out selfies.  Back to my point, the speech Taylor gave about being bullied and how there's a perception of this man who is perceived as such a good guy and he's always been nice to me reminded me of the whole perception thing.    I got a story.  I got a good one about a guy who has a head shaped like a watermelon but this watermelon head could crush me like a bug if I crossed him.

I never really got to know Gary until our office moved to a new building and I sat outside his office. I thought he was kind of condescending and demeaning and I wasn't wrong.  I thought he could be kind of funny and one of the girls.  Most of the others had offices away from the lowly assistants so lucky Gary got to sit near the peons.  

Every time I'd have a good laugh with Gary, he'd say something really awful.  He said that he knew I spent my evenings with double D batteries because I'm single.  My remote control doesn't take those type of batteries.  Oh, wait. I get it.  He was implying that I had something that vibrates.  How did he know?  Did his wife see me at the store buying one when she needed one?

He was the good family man.  He had a boy and a girl and a very nervous wife.  Frick and Frack wound up sitting outside his office before he left and they would hear him give his wife a critique of dinner.  Wow.  I don't cook and when I did, it wasn't great.  So when my mom burns me something, I say more please.  When someone makes an effort for you, it's not an opportunity to fill out a restaurant review.  It's a marriage, not Yelp.  

When he was decent, he was very decent.  He loved my mom's chocolate peanut butter bars and it tickled her when I said he ate half the pan.  He never admitted it but someone else would tattle on him.  When his wife had surgery, my mom made some for his wife and their family.  Gary gave me a Christmas card that was also a thank you from his wife and his family.  My mom looked at the card and she said his wife looks so nervous and so does the little girl.  I thought the same but didn't think anything of it.  She did looked like she was stressed when I met her in person one time and she thanked me for the bars.  

There was a moment where our managing attorney left or was fired and the hunt for a new one was on and Gary wanted that job.  We had someone come in once a week until a replacement came in.  Gary would come by my desk and lecture me about how I talk to him.  I could joke around but when there were days that he wasn't in the mood, I stayed away.  He was so up and down with his moods.  I had walked past him one day talking to his assistant and I said, Why are you looking at me in that tone of voice? or something on that order.

I was in trouble.  When I was leaving, I was getting my stuff out of my desk and I could feel something standing over me and it was Gary.  He was angry and he hissed, Are you trying to ruin my career?  I had no idea what he was talking about and he was in my face.  I said no, I don't know what you mean and he brought up my comment and that people could hear me.  No they couldn't.  I am not a loud talker.  It was matter of fact. I started shaking and said I was sorry and he did the one thing that I hate with someone like him.  He said NOW don't cry.  Too late!  I can't stand people like that.  They get you upset and they say don't cry.  Oh, go to hell Gary or in your case, go home.  I didn't do anything.  He would find ways to single me out when he was mad.  I didn't have to say anything to him one day and when he asked the group a question, he pointed at me and said, If I want shit from you, I'll squeeze your head.  One woman jumped up and started clapping and laughing.  How I wished she would have split her pants.  

I just tried to get away from Gary and he said I didn't mean to make you cry.  I just shook my head and walked out. I thought I'm going to look for another job if he gets the job.  He tried to apologize the next day and asked if we were ok and I said no.  

When I would tell my mentor what would happen, he always took Gary's side.  He said well, he has a family and he's stressed.  When Gary finally was leaving, I had to work as his assistant for a few days and I stopped talking to him.  My mentor pulled me aside and said why don't you go talk to Gary and make it nice with him?  I said How would you like Gary to talk to your wife and daughter the way that he talks to me.  My mentor wouldn't listen to me and I walked out.  I had the next day off so I didn't get to say goodbye.  I was ok with it.

I actually had someone call me and ask me why I didn't show up at Gary's going away party. I had my own party.  I thought why am I the bad person here?  Gary had bullied others.

One of them was Corinne.  Corinne has no idea what Gary did and in my opinion, he helped her make an early exit.  I walked out with Corinne on her last day and so did Gary along with my mentor. I was disgusted that Gary had the nerve to make out like it was someone else's fault.  No, he and Betsy helped with that situation.  He's lucky I didn't push him under Corinne's jeep when she pulled out.  I never said anything to Corinne but I was very happy that Corinne sent him an angry email about his support of Trump after January 6th happened.

It was always a perception that it was ok that Gary acted the way he did because he was a good family man.  No he wasn't because he's not married anymore.  Frick informed me a couple of years ago and Cassie found his wife's social media pages where she's looking happy.  I found her page too and she looked relieved.

It was all a big smoke screen.  Man of the community.  Good family man.  He's a bully and he would crush someone if he could.  There was a period of time that I had to deal with him for maybe 2 plus months and the new firm he worked with.  I never joked.  I never said anything funny.  I kept it all professional because yeah, he kind of scares me.  It was a relief when I got reassigned.  

I found the paperwork he had one day for his church where he was applying to be an elder.  Another assistant and myself looked at and wondered if it was a good idea to lie on a job application to God.  

It's all about the perception, I guess.