Defamation of Character...or, The Burning Flesh Lady Strikes Back!

Tonight I was wronged. Greatly wronged. And I'm still really, really angry about it. After work I walked my female friend to her car. We had been talking for a few minutes when I noticed a coworker of ours (let's call her Cathy, since that is her real name) sitting in her car nearby staring at us through her windshield.

I have known Cathy for about three years and have not liked her at all. She's 60+, a high-up in the circulation department at the library, and extremely, unbearably nosey. For example, I had not come into work one day because I was sick, so the next day she said, "Dude, it's way too early in the hay fever season to be getting sick like that, you need to come to work..." and proceeded to lecture me about sick days, though she has no authority over me or any reason to address me at all, for that matter. She does not know my name--nor has she ever attempted to learn it, so she simply calls me "man" or "dude." Then there was the whole "burning flesh" incident. She's a very excitable sort, I realized one day when the fire alarm went off. She ran everywhere yelling at me and a couple other coworkers, all of whom were standing 10 feet from the exit and not concerned at all, to "get out! Get out! You have never smelled burning flesh before, but I have! I have smelled burning flesh!" She must have repeated the phrase "burning flesh" a dozen times.

Back to tonight: as she watched us, I pretended not to notice and continued talking. A minute later Cathy drove up to us, rolled her window down, stared at my friend sternly, and asked her in a grave voice if she was "alright." My friend responded that she was, which seemed to satisfy Cathy, who then drove off. Clearly, Cathy was intimating that I was somehow harassing my friend--perhaps even intending to attack her, her tone suggested. Once Cathy was gone I tried to laugh it off with a joke about my personal policy to wait until after midnight to begin attacking women in parking lots, but I was quite embarrassed and annoyed at the whole absurd incident. My friend told me not to worry and that Cathy manages to offend almost everyone.

I've decided that I am going to confront Cathy the next time I see her. I will tell her how she greatly offended me, and then I will talk to my supervisor and report her.