_sarah_

I was at Lowe's earlier, buying some things to finish up the painting. I needed a little allen wrench to remove the (ugly-ass) towel rods in the bathroom, so I headed to the tool section.

I wandered for a bit, thinking I'd start at one end of the tool row and find them at some point. I caught the eye of a young, male employee, and he headed over with a smile.

"You need help?" he asked.

"Yes, I need an allen wrench."

"Oh, I can show you where they are."

"Great. I figured I'd just start at this end and look. I'm on the wrong end, aren't I?"

He smiled adorably (he was, maybe, 18) and walked me across the section to The Kingdom of All Things Wrench.

I started to make a joke about always being way far off when looking for something. That's when he smiled again and said, "This is why guys shouldn't let their women come into a hardware store."

He actually thought he was being witty. He was beaming with his wit until he caught the look on my face.

I was going through a veritable Rolodex of come-backs, since he'd hit on two major beefs, but I suppose my sparking glare was enough. I could actually feel those roses of color I get high on my cheeks when I get really pissed. He actually backed up a half-step and said, "Okay... okay... do you need metric or regular?"

"Regular."

"Here they are."

And, with that, he ran away.

Good boy.