u/thehofstetter

I walked into a coffee shop a long way from home.

The one open seat was next to a man who was reading. This was not a shared couch - these were two separate seats with an end table in between them. I quietly sat down and opened my computer. The reading man gave me an incredibly dirty look and let out a loud "how dare you" type sigh.

For the next ten minutes, I made no noise or significant movement other than some light key tapping and coffee drinking. Yet he continued to audibly be annoyed at me, even going so far as to mutter "come on" in my direction when I shifted my weight. Finally, when the two girls across from us left, he loudly and purposefully gathered up his belongings and went over to one of the now empty chairs in a huff.

A few minutes later, he got up to go to the bathroom, reserving his seat with his book. Just then, a woman with a toddler approached me and asked if the seat next to me was taken.

"Sorry, I'm waiting for my wife," I lied. "But one of the seats across from me is open."

The reading man returned from the bathroom to find the seat next to him loudly occupied by a woman with a toddler on her lap, watching a cartoon on an ipad with no headphones.

Two morals of the story: A coffee shop is not your living room, people can sit wherever they please. And I've never met someone who I can't out-asshole.