Don't grab the staff. She's a black belt. First things first, I've been hearing these

stories on YouTube, and the discussion with my wife came up if I'd ever seen anything like this

in my time in retail. This story took place in the mid-1990s, so I'm a bit fuzzy on the specific

details, and of course, names have been changed to protect the innocent as well as the guilty.

Back in my 20s, I worked at a local hardware store that was just down the streets from the

city university, where I ended up being promoted to store manager. This was my college job.

I had a small staff that included several other students, in particular, a young lady cashier, Maria, who aside

from being an employee, was also the girlfriend of a friend, or classmate of mine, who happened to be

the manager of the barbecue restaurant in the same strip mall with us. So I kind of looked out

for her. She was the sort of young lady who drew attention from her looks and figure that tended to receive unwanted advances from random customers.

This was typically dealt with by a passing comment of,

This is not a dating service from me to the cashier.

We'd already worked this out.

I wasn't getting after her.

I was giving her an escape route.

In this shop, the cashier

station was basically a booth with two cash registers just at the front door of the store.

The break room's in the back room and you have to walk through the paint department to get

to the break room. At her break time, Maria was walking back to the break room to relax and

break out her books for class. I was making my rounds

through the store, checking inventories, etc. When I heard a polite, excuse me, some muffled words

I couldn't hear, a more irritated, excuse me, not the kind like, please let me pass, but more like

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