I went to a seminar today, and walked to the back of the room and was about to sit in a seat but then saw a bag at the chair so I figured that someone was already sitting there. The room had four tables people were sitting at three of the tables so I went to the empty table and sat down. At this point a guy said to me " do you need help sitting at a table" and I said “no Im fine thanks” and sat down at the table that was empty. This all happened within less than 40 seconds. So seminar ended, I walked out to the elevator and the same guy who spoke to me about needing help apparently followed me out. He said to me,
“you hurt my feelings by not accepting my help to sit at a table”
and I looked at him, I was searching for his face for a smile or a okay im joking, and then realized omg this guy is serious. all i could say was ok… to acknowelge that i hurt his feelings… then he said to me “arent you going to aplogize?” and I’m thinking to myself… are you serious? Im going to say sorry to a stranger because I walked in a room and sat in a chair at a table that I wanted to? I was freaked out at this point and got into the elevator and left.
So it seems that by “do you need help sitting at a table” he meant “would you like to sit with me?”
But certainly isn’t a clear implication, at least not to me. You couldn’t find a seat initially, he thought that was his chance to ask you to sit with him, and you wound up sitting elsewhere.
I don’t see how you could have done it any other way. And no, I don’t think you owe an apology. If that’s what he meant, he wasn’t very clear at all. (Of course, had he asked if you wanted to sit with him and you declined, then you’d still have nothing to answer for.)
When I first came to the sentence “Do you need help sitting at a table,” I thought sarcasm was implied. Like “Excuse me, retard, are you incapable of sitting down? Perhaps you need some help to stop wandering around and distracting people from the seminar!”
I’m glad you didn’t apologize, only I wish you had laughed in his face too.
Well, he does sound a little odd making that statement, but I probably would have apologized for offending him anyway. Of course the next thing out of his mouth probably would have been “Are you free for dinner tonight?”