You Can Go Ahead of Me

Today, at the grocery store, someone standing in line said to me, “You don’t have very many things, you can get in front of me.”

I said, “Really?”

“Sure,” she said.

“That’s so nice of you, thank you,” I said.

“No problem.”

I got in front of her in the line but then noticed there was a possibility I actually had more things in my basket than she had in hers.  I suspect she probably didn’t notice a couple of the items.  So, I thought about telling her to go ahead and go before me, after all, because she really didn’t have very many items, either.  But wouldn’t that be kind of weird and awkward?  I just switched places in the line with her.  And she suggested it.

I decided to go ahead and keep things the way they were rather than trying to do a reverse line-switching maneuver.

“This shouldn’t take long,” I reasoned.

When my purchases were being rung up by the cashier she couldn’t find the price for some of the fruit I was buying and she had to do a price check.  While we were waiting for the price check—for what seemed like an extraordinarily long time—I looked at the lady who let me go ahead of her.  I smiled and shrugged my shoulders as if to say, “Well, it’s crazy how things happen, huh?”

But she was leafing through one of those gossip magazines and she didn’t seem very happy. 

I felt really uncomfortable.  “How long can a price check take?” I wondered.

My guess is she was thinking, “Why did I let this guy get in front of me?  He looks like he actually has more stuff than me.   Why didn’t he tell me he had so much stuff?  Well, I should have known better.  No good deed goes unpunished.”

Several hours later my purchase was finally rung up (hey, it seemed like several hours while I was standing there) and I paid for my items.  As I was leaving the cashier’s area I turned back and said, “Thanks again, for being so nice.”

The lady waved a gossip magazine and said, “Uh huh.”

How is it possible that even a basic trip to the grocery store can become strangely unpleasant?  I don’t know.  I sure hope that fruit tastes good.