NEED TO KNOW
A woman was sitting alone at a café table when a couple asked to sit with her
She told them no, but they didn’t listen, insisting there weren’t any other places to sit
They only left after she told them again she didn’t want them to sit with her
A woman found herself at odds with another couple after insisting they weren’t welcome to sit with her at a local café.
On Reddit, the 30-year-old woman explained that she was sitting at a table for four outside a café in Italy, drinking a coffee and eating a pastry, when a couple came up to her and asked “politely” if they could join her, as “all the outdoor tables were occupied.”
“I told them I’d prefer to sit alone,” she writes. “Instead of accepting that, they told me there was nowhere else to sit (which wasn’t true) and put their personal items on the table before going inside to order.”
The poster says she “was annoyed” because she “had been clear” and wanted to enjoy her coffee “in peace without listening to strangers’ conversations at such close distance.”
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Stock photo of two women looking at a phone
“When they came back, I told them again that I wanted to sit alone and suggested they ask someone else instead. They seemed unhappy but left,” the woman shares.
She also notes that, although all the outside tables were occupied, “there were also [a lot] of empty tables inside, but they didn’t want to sit there.”
“There were other couples outside also sitting at tables for four, so it wasn’t like I was the only person taking up extra space,” she adds. “I was sitting at table for four, because the cafe didn’t have smaller tables.”
Thinking back on the moment, the woman admits she “felt a bit bad” and questioned if she was “unnecessarily unpleasant.”
While she still thinks her “boundaries were reasonable,” she now wonders if she “was rude or if they were the rude ones for ignoring my first answer.”
People in the comments section were divided on whether the woman was justified in setting what she called a “boundary.”
“Why does everyone call everything a boundary?” one person questioned. “Aside from that, from my visits, it’s pretty common to share tables. Especially outside. Asking is just to be polite. One person at a table for four would be expected to share it. Calling it a ‘boundary’ when it’s a public table at a public restaurant with self-seating takes you into a-hole territory in my opinion.”
Others brought up their own experiences of saying yes to people sitting at their table.
“I’ve always said, ‘Sure!’ If someone asked to share my table, but one time I really got screwed and this guy was so weird and talked and talked and talked and talked and talked and was very invasive and strange and I really wish I hadn’t agreed to let him sit at my table,” another person commented.
“I’m Italian and never heard of sharing a table with a stranger, it’s like invading their privacy, maybe somewhere specifically in Italy, but here near Rome, I’ve never heard about this,” a third person added.
Read the original article on People
