Momnesia

Can I Have it Back Now?

So I went to look at a living room suite that a couple had posted on craigslist. I was hoping it was a beautiful blue sleeper set that I had been admiring, and on which the price had been dropping since they first posted it.

It wasn't the same set. It was a nice Lebanese couple in Martinez who were ridding themselves of a hideous turquoise velour set with lovely end and coffee tables. The wife wasn't home, and she was the only one of the two who really spoke English, so I tried to make some small talk. The set wasn't really going to work for me, but I took a photo of the set with my camera and said I'd show them to my husband for approval. Then the man calmly reached over and squeezed my ass. It wasn't subtle; it wasn't accidental. It was deliberate and unapologetic. Yet, somehow there was a gentle nonchalance to it that threw me more than the actual grab. I felt kind of like a cantaloupe in the grocery store.

Knowing that different cultures treat situations like this differently - and recognizing that I was dressed in a manner that highlighted my two best assets, if you know what I'm saying - I chose not to respond, thanked him for his time and left quickly, bidding him "Have a nice day!" Then I called my husband to chortle over the experience. He told me to stop going over to people's houses just because they post something I want on Craigslist. "People have been killed," he warned. "Let me go with you." Agreed.

"At least you know you still got it," A.W. said, when I told her later.
"Well, I'm pretty sure he took a handful of it with him," I replied.