I guess this could just as easily have gone in the work forum, or even Emotions as I think I need some help processing my reaction to something strange that happened at work.

I work in retail and it's the kind of store that has regular customers, one of my favourite parts of my job is chatting with customers as I work, even though I'm generally a quiet kind of person.

Anyhow a while back a regular customer seemingly out of the blue gave me his number, and tbh it freaked me out a little. Firstly I'm long time happily married (over 20 years) although I wear protective gloves at work so my wedding band isn't visible. This customer has seen me in passing outside though, one time I was with my grown son, another I was actually with my husband (although he mightn't have realised he was my husband), my wedding band would have been visible then.

I took the number because I didn't know what else to do, although I had no intention of calling him and have got rid of it. He's a nice enough guy but even if I were single I wouldn't have been interested in that way. I'm confused as to what made him think I would be. I think he probably got the message in my reaction which was a mixture of confusion and embarrassment.

He hasn't been back at least while I'm on duty, but I figured the best way to handle it was to pretend it never happened. Does that sound reasonable? Keep any chat very brief and light. I think he may have read far too much into daily shop chat.

All the same I'm now questioning myself over my customer handling, in 5 years this is the 1st time this has happened but I'm wondering if I need to take any lessons from it. If anyone does work in customer service/retail I'd be interested to read your take. I didn't tell any of my colleagues because it felt too weird, plus I didn't want to run the risk of teasing about something I'm embarrassed about.

I do feel embarrassed, I'm not entirely sure why, and confused. I didn't even tell my husband because he has a tendency to become jealous and I didn't want him worrying about this customer or reacting in that way. I'm also anxious in case he thinks I did something to lead this man on. I'm pretty sure I didn't, at least not knowingly.

At the same time I feel like this shouldn't be bothering me. Weird things like this probably happen all the time to everyone and I should probably shake this off easier than I have.