Reaped

For a while, I was really into Dead Like Me. Eventually the novelty wore off, but for a few weeks, it was all I watched and I liked the concept a lot. You're about to die a violent death, so someone collects your soul so it's not traumatized and you get to pass on. Except that so often when the reapers are collecting souls they make the physical contact to collect it really awkward, like a long tender stroke on the arm or something.
     At my work it is incredibly uncommon for anyone to touch me. Even coworkers honestly, but the fact is if a guy set hands on us we'd kick him out. Most women are so nervous that they wouldn't dream of casual physical contact. I can count on one hand the number of times someone has set hands on me at work, all were women, and it was weird every time. Once a drunk lady grabbed my arm to share a joke with me and that was bad enough. But the worst was actually a super nice woman, who gave me the screaming heebie-jeebies. When I was talking to her she was very soft spoken and sweet, listening attentively, never interrupting, and asking relevant questions. And then before she left, for seemingly no reason, she reached out to stroke my arm. It was gentle, and not actually creepy in a "she's hitting on me" way, it was  like a soft farewell. I immediately panicked and rushed over to a coworker. I asked her if she'd ever seen Dead Like Me, and she said no, so in rapid fire bursts I explained the concept and my absolute conviction that the woman had just collected my soul and death was imminent for me.
     It took days for the panic to ease off and for me to admit that maybe the woman just had a really calm sad sort of way of bidding people farewell, but it was a few weeks before I stopped looking over my shoulder or up at the sky for the random shooter or falling piano.