The cake creeper

I'll try and keep it short.

Got a small promotion at work and bought a chocolate cake to treat my colleagues to some tasty goodness. Half of it was left uneaten. I brought it back home and concluded that there isn't enough space in my fridge for it.

I'm loosing weight anyway and don't intend to eat it... throw it away? Nah, it would be a waste - I'll give it away to my neighbors. Two girls live next to me, we know each others for a several months or so because we have the same landlord. Lucky them.

So I ring the bell, say hi, explain the situation and hand over the cake. They take it and close the door without even having the courtesy to say a simple "thank you", leaving me in the dark. Doesn't matter, mission accomplished! Continue with my evening by doing some work and finally hitting the sack.

Now comes the interesting part.

Tomorrow at work one of my project managers tells me a very peculiar story; It appears one of her friends had a creep ring the doorbell of her door last night. He wanted to get in under the guise of bringing some cake, so she outwitted him by grabbing it and slamming the door. Har har har! Soooooo funeeeeh! She sooo kewl!

I just looked at her with a blank expression... I've simply lost the will to be kind to anyone ever again... Lo and behold, the story spreads throughout the office.

Now everyone at work knows that I was the "creep" that gave that miserable cake away so I had white knight colleagues (same guys that were eating that very cake) bash me, saying that I shouldn't "scare the ladies or be dishonest and pushy with them". Weird things tho is that one of the alpha guys was white knighting me as well by "giving me advice" that was not really welcome or needed.

For the record, I was a typical "NiceGuy™" with a large dose of lone wolf mentality before discovering TRP and people remember me as such. I'm a bit chubby but at least I'm no longer a NiceGuy™ - I'm hovering in some limbo where I'm working out in the gym and waiting for it to pay off. One step at a time...

What I did last night was not asking for favors or "giving secret contracts". It was just a random act of kindness, devoid of any motivation for personal gain.

It amuses me to no end how even the kindest acts can be perverted to look sinister when an undesirable (beta) man does them. Can you guess how things would have played out if I was athletic and better looking (alpha)?

Lesson I took out from this? Be kind only to those people that earn it, because you will be labeled as a manipulative freak otherwise. I believe people are cruel and selfish by their very nature and expect the same from everyone else. So anything that doesn't fit to that model is labeled as "manipulation."

"No good deed goes unpunished" indeed...

UPDATE:

Today was an interesting day.

In order to mock me further, guys from the office ordered a new cake. They were eating it very, very loudly (on purpose).

Did my best to ignore that.

During the day a colleague of mine approached me - he wanted some assistance over a small issue that occurred on one of my older projects that he was now in charge of. (some older website)

I refused to help - "I don't see how that is my problem. You are a big boy, I'm sure you can manage."

"Is this about the cake thing?" - he asked.

"It's about disrespect. I didn't deserve any of that." - I told him.

"It's just a joke man. Why do you take everything so seriously?" - he said while backing away from my desk just a bit.

"I'm not going to help you. Go bother someone else." - I was getting emotional and angry, because no matter what happens I'm somehow always to blame. I turned back to my screen and returned the headset on the head.

Can't take a joke? Really?

I was told in the comments by one of the commenters that I harbor a victim mentality. I know that I most certainly did some time ago, but I am really doing my best to control my actions and thoughts for quite a bit of time now. Could be that some of it resurfaced and I am overreacting now because I feel outgunned and cornered. However, I'm paying good attention to my thought patterns and expectations, in order to prevent NiceGuy™ traits from reappearing. Being served a shit-soup for no valid reason and pretty much being the main laughing stock of the entire office does not feel good I assure you.

Anyways, my colleague walked away from my desk. People start grunting and commenting among themselves that I was angry. Few minutes pass and he comes back and apologizes to me. He said they [office] didn't know that I took it seriously and wouldn't have gone so far if only I said anything. It struck me that I never said anything to them about my outlook on the entire situation. I withdrew and sulked on my own. (Regression to lone wolf mentality). I growled and kept my distance.

I accepted the apology, but didn't really bother talking to much with him.

Now, regarding the alpha guy...

He took me out to sushi for lunch and we had an opportunity to exchange words. You advised me to listen to him so I did. I'm glad I did that, because he was full of insights.

He is the technical director and in some way, he is second in command in the company I work for. He explained to me that I was one of their best workers and that I shouldn't concern myself about petty office politics and inter-personal drama. He asked me if I knew how much money my colleagues earn in comparison to me. After I said I don't know he just laughed and told me not to worry, because "an immature child has no concept of what it means to be mature. You can't bother yourself with opinions of those lesser then you are because there will always be more pricks that want to see you miserable then those that would see you happy. See, it's easier for them that way. They don't have to bother climbing out of the gutters when all they need to do is knock you down to be on your level. Don't fall for it man. Keep your head up".

I thought that was very profound.

However, it was not all roses and rainbows.

He criticized me for being a workaholic and told me to relax a bit because I was way to stiff and hard to approach - supposedly I never talk unless spoken to, I hardly ever laugh and only associate with a small portion of the team with whom I share interests. He called me an asshole because I am not a team player i.e. I rarely incorporate other peoples ideas to my work and hardly ever give my own ideas unless asked directly. He also told me that I have a way to aggres