No idea where to post this or what I want to hear but it's just a horrible feeling.
When I started this job I was taken on as a temporary member of staff (very small business, I was known to the staff as a student). I got on really well and firstly the period of the job was extended, then the boss asked me if I'd like to stay permanently. So I did.
A couple of the other employees weren't getting on with the boss and I sort of feel like I became a scapegoat for this - I think they didn't benefit from the extra staff cover I provided as much as the boss benefited, and they resented me for this. There was some other stuff going on that they were dissatisfied about, and these two were very pally, and they sucked in a couple of other staff members in being very childish and snide about the boss, to the extent of being rude about him in front of clients and generally behaving unprofessionally. The atmosphere at work was horrible. Of these two people, one of them is someone I generally respect, who had never seen eye to eye with the boss, and who I don't really hold any bad feelings towards. The other, however, I would never trust. She's devious and malicious, thinks the world owes her something and I found out from others that she had been fairly widely criticising and mocking me. Please bear in mind that at this point in time I was very young and new to the profession, and in a fairly high pressure job.
Eventually things became untenable and they eventually left, and the work was much harder until we got staffing sorted out but it was a much happier place and since then the working dynamic has been great and we've got along brilliantly.
The thing is, the one I really can't bear is back in town. As far as I know she's got money problems (always has had) and her family (overseas) have refused to support her so she and her husband and child have, for some reason, returned here. Their son is going to attend the same nursery as mine. I just know I'm going to bump into her around the small town where we live.
The thing that bothers me is that she actually makes me feel cold, and I just want her out of my life. I don't trust her not to try and damage my (now very happy) life in some way. It's a real fear - there's nobody else I can think of who makes me feel this way, and I look at the situation objectively and think "What's the big deal?", I know she'll never work with me in this business again, I know the boss fully supports us all and I don't have to have anything to do with her. But she has this big jolly facade of friendliness and bluster and to be honest I despise her for being so horrible and I want nothing to do with her, ever again. I just want her gone, far far away from me.
It's irrational, isn't it? How do I overcome it?