He probably has a drinking problem.

At the YMCA this afternoon, as I was dripping sweat all over the step mill and breathing unattractively heavily, a man walked into the gym and seemed to do a double take when he saw me. Holy crap that link suggests working on that machine at levels that I have never even attempted, let alone sustained for 15-20 minutes. The picture looks like the old girl that I like, but damn level 13 would murder me. Let's be honest: level ten is a rare and torturous mistress that I usually leave to her own affairs. The machine in the picture is probably a different brand of machine with easier levels! Yes!

So. The YMCA. I'm huffing and puffing and this guy looks at me like he knows me, and it takes me a second to place his face. To tell the truth, I'm not 100% sure that that guy was the guy in the forthcoming story, but I'm going to give it a solid 86% sure. He could just be a guy that comes into the winery where I work, but lets go with the gym story. I go to the gym, you guys!

I was sitting at the bar at a favorite local spot, minding my own business and my own beer while my boyfriend visited the little boy's room. Man from the gym apparently had not noticed that I had come with a man, ordered food and drink with him, laughed and flirted with him, and quietly waited for his return from the dunny while contemplating IBUs. Man from the gym approached me and said, "I hope this isn't too forward, but I just had to tell you that you are prettier than a field of daffodils. And I should know because I am a daffodil farmer!"

How did this strange man know that I am obsessed with daffodils?!? That I feel a shift in my personality in the spring when I see the first daffodils bloom? Oh psh, I know. This guy is, in my usually-inaccurate estimation, probably 55 years old. I cannot imagine a situation in which he thought he was hitting on me and not just paying me a lovely compliment. I blushed intensely, which is something I wish I could control in any way, thanked him for such a flattering compliment, and tried to disappear. My bright red cheeks would not allow it.

And then the boyfriend came back.

Man from the gym was probably ten feet away from us, standing with some friends since the bar was full. They seemed like regulars. As soon as the boyfriend came back, it wasn't three minutes before he was next to us, beginning to apologize to the boyfriend for the compliments he had paid me, worried that the boyfriend would find fault and get pissed off. There was no such animosity, of course, but I continued to blush whenever I made eye contact with him.

EDIT 1/14/2012: I went for three and a half minutes on level 10 today. WINDED. Different machine. Must be. Yes.