Mike

So we work with a guy named Mike.  He works the technology desk.  Now he is overly friendly.  Like maybe he is trying just a tad too hard.  But that's okay we all adapt to our surroundings.  He is nice enough.  Very helpful...always getting doors and whatnot.
The littles and I ran into him a couple of months back shoveling some dirt for some raised beds.  It was out of place and put me at unease.  I'm just that way.  About that time at work he started using cutesy names for people at work (or maybe just me).  Anyway he kept calling me the warden. I don't know if someone clued him in or whether he realized it didn't have his intended reaction.  I have never had a conversation with him about any of my life.  So he changed it to trouble, but the unease was just there and not going anywhere.
Finally something changed.  Last week we actually had decent conversation and he just calls me by name now.  Then this week he did a shoulder thing and teased me that the day was almost over.  Now again anyone who knows me knows not to touch me.  So I saw he was going to do it and I tensed up for the flinch.  And the flinch didn't come.  Wow.  Maybe I'm actually outgrowing it.
Anyway I'm glad the unease is gone.  We'll see how I feel next time we run into him in our neighborhood because it is likely to happen.  He knew the people he was shoveling dirt for.  And in all my stepping I have seen his bike there several times.  But better to have friends, than to be uneasy.  At least it wasn't the hair standing up on the back of my neck uneasy.  Just uncomfortableness.