“Actually, I can refuse to offer service to whomever I want. You can put the Ankara back on the rack and leave.”
Her face turned beet red. “You can’t refuse to offer me service because I don’t look like you. That’s being racist.”
“Your color isn’t the reason I’m not selling it to you,” I clarified. “Even if you weren’t being a total bitch right now, I still wouldn’t have sold it to you.”
“How dare you?”
I ignored her.
“You called it animal print and despite explaining what it was to you, you didn’t seem to care. If it were up to you, it would be treated like just another trend.” I met her gaze, unflinching. “It would be cultural appropriation if you wore it without giving it the respect it deserves.”
“It’s a dress,” she snapped, reiterating her point.
Clasping my hands together in front of me, I gave her a small, polite smile. “I’m sure you can find something else in another store.”
I infused my tone with finality.
She huffed in frustration.
Dad always told me that my mouth would put me in trouble someday. I should’ve listened to him because if there was one thing I knew about Karen’s, it was that she was going to plaster this all over the internet as soon as she walked out those doors.
“I’m sure the world will love to know how racist you are. And I’ll be sure to tell my friends and post a review about you.”
Go ahead and tell your ten followers that I refused to let you be culturally appropriate, let’s see who really gets canceled.
“I didn’t even want to shop here anyway,” she huffed. “And the dress isn’t that pretty.”
You didn’t think it was ugly when you were practically throwing a fit to buy it.
When she realized no one was paying heed to her ranting she stormed out of the store. She muttered some expletives under her breath and slammed the door hard behind her.
As soon as she was gone, Lacy turned to me with a grateful smile, “I have had to deal with three of them today. I don’t know why they can’t understand the concept of ‘you can’t have it’”
“That must be hard; you deserve a break.”
“I’m sorry; I shouldn’t be ranting to you.”
“It’s fine, Lacy. In fact, I really admired the way you handled it all.”
“Thank you Adira, that’s really nice to hear.”
I put a hand on her shoulder in what I hoped was a comforting manner, “You deserve a break after all that.”
“Thankfully, it’s lunch time.”
“Well, I have to leave, have fun. And don’t hesitate to get customers thrown out if they’re being overly irritating.”
“Will do, have a good day Miss Adira.”
I waited until she had disappeared into the office before I made my way out of the store. I had barely stepped out when someone bumped into me, effectively spilling coffee all over my tan coat.
“What the hell?”
I took a step back while trying to wipe down my coat and tripped over the side walk.
Great, just what I needed, to fall on my ass and embarrass myself in front of the fucking world. That must have been my karma for being rude to the customer.
Could this get any worse?
