I don’t consider myself a pushy person generally.

I perhaps sometimes come across as more confident than I feel, actually.

But the other day my inner pushy-person came to the fore.

I was pottering around the charity shops after my business advice seminar.

I’d been to most of them and found nothing. I thought: one last stop, then I’ll head for home.

And, as often happens, the last shop was the best. My eye lighted upon a box of linens…

But unfortunately, so did another lady – at exactly the same time.

“I just spotted those too!” she quipped, in a jokey-with-an-edge sort of way, through almost-gritted teeth. She wanted me to step aside, I could tell. In fact, I think she expected me to step aside.

I smiled at her. And, like gunslingers in a Western, we both reached for the box.

And my hands hit treasure first. I started to rummage, pulling out a lovely bit of barkcloth curtaining…

However: much more pushy than I had anticipated, my rival was not so easily put off. As I lifted the barkcloth out of the box, she dived – and grabbed a big handful of the contents!

“How rude!” I thought. And, I’m ashamed to say, I got my elbows out and I got in there. (But only metaphorically, not literally – there was no actual physical argy-bargy, I assure you.)

As my rival inspected her hastily-hoisted haul, tutting at a hole here and a stain there, I got busy.

I’m pretty sure I came away with the best of it. I didn’t realise I had it in me.

But even I can see that sometimes it pays to be pushy. ♥