Thank You For Jumping To Conclusions — Really!

The coworker in this story has since left our workplace, but this is one of my favourite memories of her.

Introverted, unadventurous twenty-two-year-old me had just moved away from my parents’ house at the beginning of the month, and I’d regretted it instantly. I was incredibly homesick, not really adjusting well to my (nice but very boisterous) new roommates, and between work and my college classes I hadn’t had the chance to do more than speak to my mother on the phone a couple of times in the past three weeks. I was a lonely, anxious mess. However, it was a holiday and I finally had an early shift with nothing to do afterward, and my parents were going to have me over for dinner.

Just the prospect of going home again had me near tears the whole morning — part of the night before, too. I was feeling so fragile and wound up that, instead of dressing for work like I usually did, I’d thrown one of my boyfriend’s massive hoodies on for the extra comfort factor. I’d shown up and done the opening duties without even really acknowledging anyone else; as an opening shift, it was very quiet, and I’d managed to go three hours without saying a word. When my coworker showed up for her shift, I just gave her the best smile I could and continued quietly.

Then, my boyfriend showed up and came over to stand by my station and say hi.

Having to actually speak, and being able to speak to someone who is a massive source of comfort for me, burst the floodgates wide open. I tried to say hi back and started crying right there in the middle of the floor.

It was at this point that I realized that my coworker had been incredibly worried about my uncharacteristic behaviour, because she literally dropped what she was doing and ran over, grabbing me and putting herself between me and my boyfriend.

Coworker: “Are you okay? Is everything all right?”

My boyfriend, now worried as well, tried to come over to see what was going on, and she barked at him:

Coworker: “Stay back!”

She bent over, physically shielding me with her body.

I realized that she thought I was reacting to him instead of to my own mental state, and I burst out laughing. Once I’d explained that I was just a homesick mess and didn’t really know why I was crying, fortunately a very easy correction to make because I’d been homesick all week, we all had a good laugh.

I count myself very lucky to have not needed that kind of intervention, but even luckier to have had someone — a coworker, even, who didn’t know me that well and rarely interacted with me outside of work — who would have reacted to such a situation with such instinctive protectiveness.