Because I thought this was a funny story:
I was in a great mood while grocery shopping on Sunday. It helped that Staci at the deli counter did a fantastic job slicing my cold cuts. And that everyone at my preferred H-E-B is so nice.
While unloading my cart onto the belt, my bananas apparently caught the eye of the woman ahead of me who was preparing to swipe her card.
“Oh, I just remembered I forgot something!”
“What did you forget?” the cashier inquired in a way that suggested he would wait to process her transaction if she wanted to grab whatever it was she forgot. Because I was in such a great mood I would have been okay if she opted to grab her forgotten item too, but no one asked me.
“I forgot a banana, but it’s okay.”
“Are you sure?”
“It’s fine. It’s only one banana.”
I’ve been in my fellow Sunday shopper’s position more times than I would like to admit (which is why I ALWAYS use a grocery list nowadays), so I chimed in, “If you only need one banana, you can have one of mine. I only need four.”
I only selected the bunch of five because I was being lazy and felt it was silly to tear off one banana. It wouldn’t go to waste in our house, I just didn’t need it.
“No, that’s okay.”
“Are you sure? If it’s going to make your life easier I’m happy to give you one. I really only do need four and I know what it’s like to remember something at the last minute.”
“Well, if you really don’t need it that would be great.”
“It’s not a problem. If it was I might not have offered,” I only half joked because if I had needed all five bananas I probably would have kept my mouth shut – or said I was happy to wait while she went and grabbed her banana.
“Well, if you’re sure I’ll take two or three of your bananas. Thank you.”
Um, what?
You said you needed one. I said I needed four. We can both see that there are five bananas in the bunch.
But what really got me about the whole transaction was that I responded to her request with, “I’m really sorry, but I need four bananas so I can only give you one.”
There was literally nothing to be sorry for, yet there I was apologizing. D’oh.