Hi, I'm a 21-year-old young woman. I studied at university abroad and a few months ago I found a part-time job that involves writing articles and content on various topics (the company is in Bulgaria, but the owners are foreigners). My writings are regularly checked by my manager (a foreigner who works from them from his country). From the very beginning we became friends and imperceptibly began to have private conversations. At first, I enjoyed it, we had similar interests in books and movies. I got to know him better afterward, though. It turned out to be a man in his 30s who suffers from all sorts of phobias and is antisocial and does not leave his apartment. He gradually began to become obsessed with our conversations. If he had to do it for a few days, he was rude and distant, and that affected our work. When I was about to mention my sympathies to some colleagues in the office or to express my admiration for one of my professors at the university, my manager took it as a provocation and an attack aimed at him in order to annoy him. He kept blaming me for going and not, always being affected by something and acting like we were a couple, given that we'd never seen each other life and we'd only had a few Skype calls. When I insinuated or tried to limit my conversations with him, he behaved openly hostile. I could feel myself becoming asocial, felt manipulated, and used by him to satisfy his needs. A week of silence on my part and he contacted me supposedly in connection with work and criticized me for trifles, and the moment I had the opportunity to pay attention to him became extremely kind. In the end, I was under tremendous pressure, I couldn't stand it, and I complained to the chief executive at the risk of embarrassing myself. He was aware of my manager's mental state and agreed that it would be good for me and my colleague not to communicate directly with him. My colleague told me that he treated her the same way, did a lot of compliments, and tried to keep her attention, but in her case, she failed. I felt really stupid that I was the only naïve woman who took the bait. He kept texting me and I made up my mind that we decided to give ourselves a chance with our friend whom I love and that I enjoyed communicating with him, but I want real experiences. It's a big blow to his ego and he's blocking me directly. I feel terrible that I had to lie like that, but I don't think we could have backed off because whatever else I told him didn't matter much. Besides, I feel stupid, I don't know what my colleagues think of me, and I'm afraid it's going to affect my work. I'm aware that it's not a good job and personal relationship to mix and I didn't expect it to get so serious. I'd be happy to give you any advice. Should I apologize to him? Do I look too bad on the side? How do I behave from now on?
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