Tricky Situation... Please help!

I've got this real pain of a problem. Firstly, I'm a 19 year old male and I work at a fast food place in a shopping mall along with many other restaurants
cafe's etc.

I've been there for almost two years now, but only recently I've noticed this girl that works in a cafe nearby and I think she's pretty cute! Only twice have we passed by closely, but on both occasions it was at a sharp corner in a corridor behind the shops that leads to the back dock, so I've never really had the oppurtunity to say 'hi' to her.

Sometimes I pass other people that work in her shop but I don't know whether to say hi because only some people say 'hi' back, others just ignore you making you feel like a damn fool! So I just play it safe and sorta smile when I pass anyone from other shops... The point of this post is coming soon, please hang in there!!

The cafe she works at is out in the middle of the eatery area of the mall, and since there wouldn't be enough storage space in their shop they have
a separate store-room in the corridor directly opposite the back door to my shop.

Now here's the problem... Of all timing and bad fortune, some d**khead has vandalised the label on the door to the storage room of her shop. The code
number of the room has the letters F C K, so some smartass thought they would be clever and write a 'U' between the the F and C, this only happened about
two days ago. And yep.. You guessed it... I have a bad feeling they think it was someone from our shop since our door is the closest to their storeroom
door! And worse... It seems like they probably think I did it!

Why do I wonder this? Because in the past couple of days if on an occasion I've passed someone that works in this girls shop, I just smile and continue
on as I do but they have this sorta disapproving, p*ssed off look on their faces. Maybe I'm wrong, but still!... When I first saw the vandalism the other night I pointed it out to another workmate and he jokingly said, 'Oh, they'll think it's you!' and we laughed and I didn't think anything more of it. But today when I noticed the vandalism was removed I remembered and suddenly realised what they must be thinking and why they weren't smiling back.

Damn, I wish I hadn't acknowledged anyone now, they probably think I'm smiling because they think I did it or something! And now this girl along with everyone in her shop probably thinks I'm a moronic, disrespectful, immature jerk when I am far from that! They're probably not p*ssed off enough to complain to my manager even if they do think it was someone in my shop, but I was kinda hoping they would so I could explain to them it wasn't me, that's if they'd believe me anyway.

I was sorta thinking of going up and starting a conversation with this girl at some stage but now that this has happened I don't think I can even face her again without feeling humiliated for something I did't have anything to do with! By the way, nobody else knows I like this girl so it is definitely not a setup, just really, REALLY bad timing!

Any advice would be appreciated, sorry for writing so much but as you may understand I'm a bit stressed about this!

i think that you're over reacting. they might think that the vandalism was from you, but the possibility from that is very unlikely. now the part that your friend said something about this incident in front of the eatery might have something to do with their unapproving faces, but most likely, i doubt they'll care too much. not to many people care if their working places get vandalized because not that many people take a great deal of pride in the places that they are working at, so most people won't really care, besides the fact that someone was so childish to write on walls. i think that you should start a converstation because if you continue to trip, you won't get anywhere, and some other guy will soon see her attraction and take it upon himself to be her gf. now would you want that? so quit stalling and talk to her. raverboy

Exactly! I know I seem to be overreacting, normally something like this would very trivial, but it's not the vandalism itself that's the prob, it's the content of the vandalism, how they changed the letters on the door to spell The 'F' word!

Dare I say it but anyone can tell that only a fellow male would be immature enough to do something like this, and seeing that all of the staff at this cafe are female they might think the vandalism is suggesting something! This is the reason I've been fretting about it!

Well, if I happen to pass this girl by sometime soon I may take my chances and say 'Hi', and if I get the cold shoulder well I guess thats just tough luck... Thanks for your word though!

honestly they wouldn't be thinking of sex. it probably never even crossed their mind. guys are always thinking with sex on their mind so i can see why you would think this is the case but the thoughts never did cross their minds. they only see it as vandalism from an immture person who wanted to write profanity on their door. i highly doubt they are thinking the person who wrote it was thinking of ****ing at the time. raverboy

Well I'm not really stressed about that vandalism thing now. I decided to stop worrying about it anyway, then the other day I was out the back loading dock and passed one of the other ladies that work in this cafe and we both just said hi and smiled so 'no problemo' there!

I've just decided now not to worry so much about this girl, I still have a crush on her and everything but I'm not going to try going out of my way anymore to get friendly with her, only if we pass by sometime. If it happens it happens! If not, then oh well. I'll just see if fate leads us to start talking by chance some day.

Besides, she has definitely noticed me around but she shows absolutely no sign at being interested in me at all. Our shops face each other across a short distance in the centre and every now and then I have glanced across to see if she is looking over at all but she never has so I don't bother trying to get her attention at all now. Chances are she may not even have the kind of personality I'd like anyway, so what am I worrying about? Not that she looks like a snob or anything, but you know what I mean - At this stage I'm interested in her from only how she looks. I don't know her name, or anything else about her!

Thanks again for your advice though Raverboy, at least I'm not as worried about this at all now.