Today we had our yearly Christmas luncheon at work. There was food and the big boss came down from the home office and made a speech in front of everybody, the Human Resources lady came down and some other women from the office too and it was 5 of us workers, four supervisors and our lead.
The big boss called each person up for recognition of their work and gave each person a medal and a $25 gift card. The big boss read some statistics, this past year our crew and the other crew vacuumed 3.9 million square feet of carpet! Anyways, it went OK.
There was a guy sitting next to me I’d never met before and we exchanged a little small talk, nothing deep. After it was over I told my co worker I would give him a ride to the bus stop like I do every Friday and then I would head home but out in the parking lot he was with the guy who had been sitting next to me and they walked right past my car. I thought good, I don’t mind much giving my co worker a ride but it was nice that I didn’t have to today.
I drove off and saw the pair walking down the road so I pulled over and asked my co worker if he wanted a ride. He said no but the other guy asks me if I’ll give him a ride to this record shop a few cities away. I was taken aback, I wanted to be nice but the record shop was far away and way out of my way, it was like 40 minutes away. I said no. I didn’t even know the guy I had talked to him for 30 seconds inside.
I felt guilty for saying no but as I drove off I wondered if he wasn’t imposing on me and maybe a little out of line for asking me. What do you guys think, would you have given him a ride? After all, it’s Christmas and supposed to be good will towards all men but the record store was really way out of my way and I had just met him. Do you think I should have given him a ride?