You are getting downvoted and I can't figure out why. You were absolutely right to ask that he not touch you. You were absolutely also in your rights to just

You are getting downvoted and I can't figure out why. You were absolutely right to ask that he not touch you. You were absolutely also in your rights to just put up with it rather than deal with the potential consequences of trying harder to stop it. My story: I worked at a place with a guy who I didn't particularly like, but I didn't really dislike him, either. One St Patrick's Day, I wasn't wearing green, and told people I don't like being pinched and not to pinch me. One person did it anyhow. Out of reflex, I raised my fist as if to punch him. I didn't actually punch him, but my instinct was to do so after having been bullied as a child. I went to the general manager and reported the incident. I was told that what he did wasn't wrong at all, and that if I'd punched him, I'd have been fired. I stood my ground. I looked him square in the eye and told him that it was assault. The manager insisted that it wasn't assault, and I kept stating that it was assault, and that I'd just finished telling him not to do it when he did it. After going around a few times, the manager finally stopped saying it wasn't assault. That incident never happened again. However, now the other employee was sure that I didn't like him, and things were tense between us for a year or 2. The story does have a happy ending, though. Eventually, that employee came out as gay and told everyone. Apparently, he thought I would react badly to that and looked particularly worried about what I'd say or do. I was just like, "Alright." and nothing was different on my side. However, he was much nicer to me after that, and so we both treated each other better from then on out. That's a long way to say that "people are complex" and "it's okay to deal with the situation how you did". Taking the harder path was indeed harder for me on an on-going basis, even though I didn't end up fired or anything.