Update: I finally found out how this whole situation got blown out of proportion**

**Title: Update: I finally found out how this whole situation got blown out of proportion**

I posted previously about a disagreement with another member at LA Fitness, and there's been another development that honestly makes this feel like high school.

A friend of his approached me at the gym and asked why I was causing all this drama. We ended up having about a 10-minute conversation, and that's when I found out what the female friend had apparently told him.

Here's the problem:

What **I actually said** to her was, *"I think he likes you."* I also told her I thought he was being hypocritical because months earlier he had lectured me about not approaching women at the gym.

That was my opinion/speculation. I never told her, "He wants to sleep with you."

According to his friend, she told him that **I said he wanted to sleep with her**, which makes it sound like I was stating it as a fact that he told me or that I knew his intentions. That's simply not what I said.

To me, those are two completely different statements:

* "I think he likes you." (my opinion)

* "He wants to sleep with you." (a factual claim about his intentions)

If that's what she actually told him, then she made the situation much worse than it needed to be.

Now I'm sitting here wondering...what exactly am I apologizing for?

I absolutely think I was wrong for gossiping and not minding my own business. I should have kept my opinion to myself. I own that.

But if she changed what I said into something much stronger, then he's reacting to words I never actually said.

What really bothered me was his response. Instead of just texting me something like, "Hey, I heard what you said. That wasn't cool," he immediately started threatening to contact my employer (I'm a 1:1 teacher aide), the police, and LA Fitness if I didn't apologize on his timeline.

Honestly, if he had just said, "I don't appreciate you talking behind my back," I probably would've apologized right away and moved on. The threats are what made me stop responding and eventually block him.

I'm still planning on apologizing to the woman because I shouldn't have involved her in the first place. My apology would basically be that I shouldn't have shared my opinion or put her in the middle of it.

As for him, I could apologize for talking behind his back and for assuming he liked her when I really didn't know for sure. But I don't think I should apologize for saying something I never actually said if the story got exaggerated before it reached him.

Does this sound like simple gossip that spiraled out of control, or am I missing something? What would you do at this point?