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Last week, our office Christmas party took place in one of Montréal’s very chic hotels.

It was the the first time in years, that I decided to attend it. The yearly party is quite a big deal, with close to nine hundred employees participating (significant others aren’t even invited), and after the pandemic, G my work bestie really really wanted to see what it was like.

Ok, we’ll go together! – I agreed when she gave me her best Puss In Boots’ eyes.

This year’s theme was ”The beach party”, but Miss G didn’t care at all about Hawaïan shirts, and flip flops.

We’re going princess style… It IS the Christmas party after all, right?

PIB eyes again, and princess style it was, I confirmed.

We shopped for ”matching” dresses (hers golden, mine silvery), found fitting shoes and accessories, and we were all set to go.

A couple of days prior to the party, I suggested that we teamed up to rent a hotel room, so we could have a safe place to leave personal belongings, come to chill during the evening, or to freshen up. And, of course to save on drinks by bringing our own alcohol.

I easily gathered seven other people (total of 2 women – Miss G and I – and 6 men, this will be important later on in the story) to split the cost of the room with, and it was a done deal.

At 5h15 PM, everybody was in the hotel’s lobby, ready to get the party started!

I checked in, and we proceeded to our head quarter of the night. We chatted, took a little pre-cocktail drink, and decided to go back downstairs to enjoy the beginning of the evening.

We had a nice cocktail, played games to earn extra tickets for the late night draws and did a little PR on the side.

And came the time to move to the reception room. In between services, Miss G and I excused ourselves to go mingle with people from other departments (generally, of course) at the other end of the room.

Being in charge of one of the two magnetic cards to open our room’s door, I had to do a few trips to let people in. The holder of the second card was a smoker too, so we spent quite some time getting to know each other outside the main hotel entrance. All in all, a great evening so far.

When time came for the prize draws, Miss G won show tickets, and shortly after,  we all moved to back to our lair to have fun. Being used to be ”one of the boys”, even if I had a glittery gawn with a deep cleavage on, I was totally comfortable being one of the only two girls in the middle of a bunch of men.

And that’s when it happened.

Second hotel card holder guy started hitting on me, big time. By this time, he had drunk more then he should have, and had smoked weed. He was completely wasted.

In the beginning, it was mostly just stupid drunk chit-chat. And I stayed polite (and refused any further drink, feeling like getting tipsy would be a mistake), smiled, and watched him tumbling down the steep slope of drunkenness.

Then  he started getting touchy-touchy, sitting too close to me for my liking, and leaning my way so our shoulders would touch. Things got very uncomfortable, when he started making very inapropriate comments about other guys’ so-called lack of talents in bed (keep in mind that we were in a room filled with at least a dozen co-workers), obviously implying that he was the shit! He kept insisting on going downstairs to ”dance”.

At that point, I put my foot down. I clearly stated that I was not interested in ”dancing” with him, and that I didn’t want to know anything about anyone’s sexual performances.

But he wasn’t listening anymore, and when he went on telling me how I apparently looked like the kind of girl who knew how to have ”fun”, I stood up and went hiding behind some other men, with Miss G to have a break.

The message wasn’t clear enough, I guess, and he stood too, trying to stumble my way again.

I pulled Miss G in the bathroom, and closed the door.

I have no clue what happened during the short period of time we spent in there, but at some point, we heard a loud cry in the room,

Where are the naked womeeeeeennnn?? – shortly followed by – Should I pee on the bed??

After that, most of the other men in the room made sure that he wouldn’t bother me anymore. Two of them, worked particularly hard to do so (we’ll call them Mr F and Mr G), and arranged for his lift to come and pick him up ASAP.

In the heat of the moment, I just considered his behavior to be insanely annoying.

But the next morning, I thought about it again and put the pieces of the puzzle together. I remembered how Mr F and Mr G had come with me when I wanted to smoke, even if they didn’t. And I realized that they had probably just made sure he wouldn’t come and bother me outside the hotel, had I been alone.

And I wondered what could have happened, if they had in fact left me alone with him…

In my forty five years of living, I had been hit on a couple of times. But ”no” had always meant ”no”. Looking back, I knew that given the chance, he wouldn’t have taken ”no” for an answer.

Luckily, the intervention of the other men present in the room has prevented any serious dammage.

Thank God for them!

But still pondering about what did and could have happened, a week later, I think that this was an agression, even if not a violent one. It is insidious, making me rethink a lot of things I thought I knew for sure.

It strangely shook my confidence in men in general. On one hand, I realized that some sheep-looking ones could easily turn into wolves, and on the other, I was glad to see that the majority not only aren’t disguised wolves, but that mentalities have changed enough that they would take action to prevent the rotten apple in the bunch to harm me.

He texted me the next day, to ask me to leave the jacket he had forgotten in the room at the office when I’d go there. He never appologized, even if I told him he owed Mr F and Mr G (amongst others) one.

I also chatted with Mr F, who appologized for not doing more on the night of the party. I made sure to let him know that he and Mr G had been perfect gentlemen, and that I really appreciated how they had handled things in a very classy way.

I never thought this could happen to me, too. I thought I was ordinary enough to go under the radar of potential assailants. But I guess we’re all potential preys in the end….

That would be a sad thought to think, if there weren’t tons of great people to make sure it doesn’t happen.

Yet, I don’t feel as naive anymore… Thanks a lot, MC!