A friendly cashier can make someone’s day.

But, there’s a big difference between being friendly and being interested in someone romantically.

This young man found himself trying to explain that distinction to a friend who had become convinced a grocery store cashier was flirting with him.

The more his friend talked about learning her schedule and asking for her number, the more concerned he became.

Unfortunately, his attempt to offer some perspective didn’t go over very well.

Read on to see what happened.

AITA for telling my friend the cashier is only nice to him because it’s her job?

There’s a new cashier at a local grocery store, and she’s admittedly good looking and nice.

I (m23) was shopping there with my (m24) friend a while ago and ever since then, he’s been ecstatic about going there. He’s obviously into her, and he’s going on and on about how she’s into him too.

The thing is, she’s just being nice to him. She’s nice to me too. It’s her job, right?

At first, he tried to put it in perspective for his friend.

My friend has been saying things like, he’s learning her schedule and that she always makes his day. He also wants to ask for her number.

I tell him that the only reason she’s being nice to him is because it’s her job. He’s a customer. She’s nice to everyone. He needs to get over his obsession.

He got really upset, called me an *******, said I’m jealous, etc.

Angry, his friend stopped talking to him.

And so, I work at an ***** shop, right? We get a looot of weird customers. I’ve experienced harassment at work and even more so have my female coworkers. So I know what it feels like, and I’ve seen real stalker behavior.

In fact, we can’t have our girls closing alone because some people wait outside just to be creeps. I tell this to my friend to explain my reasoning. He needs to respect this girl’s workplace.

He still doesn’t get it. Says he’d never be one of those, and that he knows she’s into him too. Then, he said I’m trying to steal her by being a “nice guy.” He basically stopped talking to me just because I told him to be respectful. I mean SURE, she could very well be into him. But let her take the lead then.

AITA?

Yikes! It sounds like he was coming from a good place, and his friend overreacted.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a mom who is irate after she gave a group leader money for her daughter’s lunch, only to have him pocket the cash and ask all of the kids to pay their own way.

Let’s check out what the people over at Reddit think.

This reader finds his behavior cringe.

This person convinces him to tell management.

Yes, that is pretty common.

Exactly! Great point!

The friend needs to calm down.

Having a crush on a cashier is fine. But convincing yourself that a woman is interested in you because she’s polite at work is where things start to get uncomfortable.

It’s also not fair to the cashier. She shouldn’t have to worry that smiling and making small talk will encourage customers to read more into the interaction than what’s actually there.

If anything, his friend should thank him. He was only trying to remind him that there’s a difference between someone being friendly and someone being interested.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a person who abandoned their own D&D campaign when their friends stopped paying attention.