Someone Pinch Me

Story Sent in by Kendra:

Cal and I had already been on one date. He was a good guy, if a little immature, but he was gentlemanly and I liked most of our time together.

For our second date, he offered to take me to one of my favorite museums in Manhattan.  It was on a Saturday, and one of the first 60-degree days of the year.  Everyone was out, and that included underground, in the subway.

After brunch at a local cafe, we went to the subway station.  We squeezed into the packed subway car and the doors shut behind us.  I was pressed against him, the subway lurched forward, and everyone teetered in the same direction.   I laughed at the situation.  He smiled down at me.  The subway powered on.

Someone nearby, a woman around my age, said, "Okay, who just did that?"

My first thought was that she was referring to a fart.  I braced myself for the smell, but no smell came.  The same woman, jumping away from us, deeper into the car, said, "Hey!  Cut it out!"  She glanced back in my direction.  I didn't know what she was talking about, so I looked away.  The car was packed tight enough for the space she had just occupied to be easily filled by another person, a slightly older woman.

I looked at Cal, and he was looking at the ceiling.  Then, the older woman next to us squealed and turned to him.  "Was that you?" she asked.

Cal shook his head and said, "No.  I don't know what you're talking about."

The woman glanced at me, then said to him, "I can have you arrested.  Do you know who I am?"

Cal said, "Shut up, lady.  We're all packed together, here."

She hissed, "You just pinched me!  You know it!"

The girl from before, the first one, yelled, "He did the same to me!"

"You both need to shut up," Cal said.  I felt him tremble.

"Tell everyone," the first girl said, "That guy pinches people."

A third woman, standing on the other side of Cal, shrieked.  I looked down to see his hand snaking back to his side from her direction.  The third woman saw it, too.  She looked at me and said, "You saw it, too, right?  He just pinched me!"

I did see it, although I hadn't wanted to.   The subway slowed as it entered the next station.  The first woman kept demanding his name.  The second one said, "Get the police," and the third one repeated "How dare you!"

Cal shook madly, yelled, "Shut up!  All of you, shut up!  Shut up!"

He repeated that until the doors opened.  He ran through the crowd at the platform, shoving people as he drove straight through them.  That second woman chased after him.  The other two and I remained in the car.  More people squeezed in, the doors shut, and off we were carried.

Cal didn't contact me after that, and that's likely a good thing.