My previous post is here: Is my future mentor "harassing" me?
I should've trusted my instinct and rejected his mentoring. However, after talking to my friend who was his mentee, I was somehow convinced that he was the best mentor in the world.
In our second meeting in his office, he was extremely inappropriate, with examples being touching and staring at my body, smelling my hair, commenting on my bra size, asking for kisses when I didn't offer, etc. I ignored him straight away as I was terrified by how he treated me. Then he kept messaging me. I didn't read his messages and blocked him instead. Then he got really mad and sent me a long email sating how rude I was.
I decided to stand up for myself and told him how he was being creepy and unprofessional the other day. He claimed that he was just trying to help and said that I would not succeed with my attitude like that. I ended the conversation quickly.
My question is if I could've handled it in a better way. I would never use my body or put up with any harassment just to progress in my career. However now I burned all bridgets with him I wonder if i could've just rejected him in a 'polite' way. Having said that, I tried the polite way before and he wouldn't stop annoying me and convinced me to work things out.
If it helps, he is not someone who is, shall I say, important. I thought about the consequences of telling him how he was inappropriate but then I got really emotional and just wanted to stand up for myself.