Okay, Shoe-mer

I’m on my break, and I’m fixing my shoes that have started to come apart at the back. I’ve cleaned them and am applying the shoe glue when one of the younger guys comes up to me.

Coworker: “What’re you doing?”

Me: “Oh, fixing my shoes.”

Coworker: *Laughs* “What? Just buy new ones.”

Me: “These shoes cost £40; the glue costs £2. I’m going to try to fix them first.”

Coworker: “They are just going to fall apart again.”

Me: “Not in my experience. If done properly, the repair outlasts the shoe itself.”

Coworker: “Whatever you say, boomer.”

I am thirty-five!

Only a few weeks later, the same coworker sheepishly comes up to me to ask if I have the glue still.

Me: “I thought you just bought new shoes?”

Coworker: “Yeah, but… well, I thought about what you said, and you might be right.”

Me: “Was that your apology?”

Coworker: “No, this is. Sorry. Could you show me how to fix my shoe, please?”

I did it for him while he watched. Both his and my shoes seem to be lasting six months on. And I don’t get quite so many stupid comments from him.