But he’s married!

I really, really have a problem with people who are interested in married people. As far as I am concerned, if someone is married they are Off Limits. Completely. Think you have feelings for them? Get over it. They are married. They are not available. Forget it and move on.

When Caradorn and I were newly married he was active in several different sports and I often went to the games to watch him play. At one volleyball game there was a pack of girls sitting next to me who kept talking about one of the players. They were giggling over him and talking about how cute he was. Eventually I realized that it was Caradorn they were discussing. I found it funny, at first. They weren't being at all subtle about it, but Caradorn (being his usual self) was totally oblivious about all of it. At some point during all the giggling one of the girls realized that he was wearing a wedding ring and I would have thought that would have been the end of it, but no. (Bonus points if you just heard that in a Snoopy/Fletcher accent. I did!)

They kept right on, and each time he would glance in our direction they'd giggle more and squeal "Oh, he looked at you!" or "Look! He's checking you out!" at each other. It was rapidly becoming less amusing, because now they knew he was married and they still were trying to catch his eye. It wasn't until the end of the game, when he came over and starting talking to me, that they realized I was his wife. Only one of them looked at all embarrassed; the others just glared at me. Caradorn never noticed any of it and was shocked (and didn't entirely believe me) when I told him about it.

On our last few visits to the Adventurers Club I noticed something similar going on. There was a gaggle of girls there, and one of them (who we dubbed "Stalker Girl") seemed to have a crush on one of the actors. They were really giggly about it and being very silly, and at first it wasn't that weird, but as the evening continued it got odd. It started to seem like more than just a casual crush. Stalker Girl kept staring at him and the group was making all kinds of comments about their interactions. Of course there was the chorus of "He's looking at you!" and "He's totally in love with you!" but then there were also comments about the fact that he was being a jerk because he didn't speak to her at one point. At another point they were calling him mentally ill because he wasn't as nice to her as he sometimes was.

Now if you were to overhear some of my comments at the Club you might wonder about me, I suppose, because as I've mentioned I often joke about Hathaway Browne. Caradorn and I would often talk about our plans for the next day while we were at the Club, and I would often agree to whatever plans we had come up with and then add " . . . unless Hathaway asks me to run away with him before that." Or I'd joke that he'd be on his own if Fletcher needed any help with his artifact. Of course we both knew I was just joking, but I guess it's possible that someone who didn't know us might have thought I was serious. I really doubt it, though - I think it was obvious that we were kidding. So it's possible that I misunderstood these girls and it was all just innocent fun, but I really don't think so.

It was weird and would have made me somewhat uncomfortable anyway, but it was much worse since I know the actor is married. There is a possiblity that the girls don't know he is married, but I suspect that they do. From what Stalker Girl was saying it sounds like she has really researched him. She seemed to know quite a bit about his personal life and if I knew he was married then I would imagine someone who was setting out to learn as much as they could about him would certainly know it too.

Even if he wasn't married it would have struck me as strange that they were talking about him the way they were. I think Stalker Girl actually thinks he's interested in her. The problem is that he flirts with lots of people at the Club. It's obviously nothing personal - it's just how his character behaves. Stalker Girl seemed to be taking it awfully seriously and really seemed angry when he wasn't paying as much attention to her as she thought he should. I got the impression she was really desperate for attention - she seemed to read far too much into it when his character interacted with her. I know big groups of girls do thrive on drama, so maybe it was all just silliness and they'll get over it now that the Club is closed. Maybe the old "out of sight,out of mind" thing will hold true and Stalker Girl will move on to a new obsession.

And maybe I was just overly conscious of it because I know the cast does have problems with stalkers sometimes. Maybe it's just a silly crush and she has no idea that he's married. Or maybe she really is madly in love with him and doesn't know he is married, and she would leave him alone if she knew. However, I really think she does know he's married and just doesn't care.

To be fair, I guess it's possible that he really is interested in her. I would be completely shocked if that turned out to be the case, though. I don't really know him but I know enough about him to believe that he is a good person. I really like him and I would be crushed to find out he was the kind of jerk who would cheat on his wife - but he doesn't seem remotely like that kind of person. I don't think he would be interested in anyone other than his wife. I think he's like Caradorn, and is just oblivious to the fact that he's the object of Stalker Girl's affections.

Hopefully now that the Club is closed Stalker Girl will find someone else to fixate on. If not, I hope she at least leaves the actor alone. I would hate to think that he'd be stuck dealing with Stalker Girl just because he's such a good actor that she believed it was real when his character was nice to her.

Plus, if he's running away with anyone it's totally going to be me. As long as he's willing to stay in character as Hathaway Browne, that is!