I recently became the 'lucky' recipient of a marriage proposal.
Yes, I thought that might get your attention. 😆 but this is true, and came as a shock that I am still recovering from. This proposal came despite the fact that not only the groom wannabe didn't know me from Adam, he also didn't even know my full name. And oh, have I mentioned that I am also married?
Our 'whirlwind romance' started during my recent stay at a 5-star hotel in the Middle East. He was the manager in charge of the restaurant which I frequented for my 3 square buffet-meals a day, as included in my travel package. His English wasn't fluent but passable enough to enquire if I found the breakfast, lunch and dinner spreads to my satisfaction. Day 3 of my stay saw him asking me if I was married, to which I said Yes I am in fact very much married. That deflated him for all of 5 minutes, then his extraordinary 'attention' to me started all over again, as if I never said a word that I am married. I thanked him graciously when he sent a fresh batch of croissants to my table that morning. This followed by a plate of a local delicacy at lunch. The strange part was I had in fact hoped to sample as much of the local cuisines as possible during my short stay there. It's like he could read my mind. I only had to think it, and this little genie just snapped his fingers and poof! The exotic local delicacy that I had thought about suddenly appeared on the table. Was I happy? Yes, I was. I thought the hotel really takes care of all the guests. Turned out it's only me. He fed me lots of delicious foods, hot chocolates, coffees and teas, and who wouldn't be happy? He's my own little genie, and he made me feel very special indeed, which soon after turned into a weird am-I-in-Hotel-California feeling of uneasiness. OK. I might have gotten a little carried away in my exaggeration of this amazing story, but it was nothing short of 'amazing' to me. But not of the feel-good-that-makes-you-feel-all-warm-and-fuzzy variety.
Because how could someone in the hospitality industry take it upon himself to assume that a hotel guest who is friendly towards him could be anything but that - a friendly guest? This is what I just cannot fathom. I was in no way encouraging him or leading him on, and neither did I exhibit any behaviour that could be construed as expressing my romantic interests in him. His excessive attention to me even caught the notice of my roommates, and this embarrassed me to no end as they started teasing me when they saw him coming over. It once became too much that one day after an excursion out of town, I skipped dinner. The man was frantic to find out where I was, and insisted on sending a huge fruit platter to our room, which, to his disappointment, I asked my roommate to answer the door and accept it from him. When I came to breakfast the next day, he came over and asked why I didn't come to dinner, and that he missed me and that if I was ill, I should have told him and he'd take me to see the doctor. A day before I was leaving, he said he would miss me, asked me to give him my photo, and wallahi he needed to marry me. I mean...come on! 🙄🙄🙄
To those who have known me from way back know that I stay at hotels a lot. In fact, for two whole years in Indonesia, I lived in two hotel suites in two different locations. I have always behaved and treated everybody respectfully and politely, and this common courtesy is also extended to members of the hotel staff. That is the only way to go. Respect everybody. More than anything, I dislike seeing people mistreat hotel staff, and I have seen many of those who feel justified to treat hotel staff with an air of contempt just because they have paid for a room for the weekend, they feel that they are lords and therefore they can rule over the staff in whichever manner they see fit during their entire stay at the hotel. I secretly hope the hotel staff will not spit in their coffees, or maybe I actually hope it's the opposite, forgive me for my bad thought. But I've digressed. 😆😆😆🙈🙈🙈
So coming back to this predicament of this amazing proposal of marriage. I I had to let him down gently, stating the obvious reasons again that 1) I am a married woman, 2) I treat him respectfully and politely like I do everybody else, 3) I don't share his romantic feelings in any way, shape or form, and then I asked him to leave me be. He apologised and that was the end of my 'whirlwind romance', if you could call it that. I sure hope he has not pulled the same fast one on every female guest who travels with no male companion.
Since leaving the hotel, I have been asking myself why this happened. My roommates said I didn't encourage him in any way, because we had our meals together all the time we were there, and they could see everything. They said he was smitten with me, for some reasons I couldn't understand. It makes me feel a bit weary now of accepting the kindness and generosity of men, men in the service and hospitality industries included.
Your thoughts?
