A pregnant woman has taken to social media to ask if she was in the wrong after she deliberately sat on a guy's hand when he refused to remove it from an empty bus seat.
Sharing her story to Reddit's 'AmITheA**hole?' forum, the 30-year-old woman - who uses the handle 'Tiredthriwaway55654' on the site - titled the post: "AITA for sitting on a man's hand after he refused to remove it from the empty seat?"
In her post, the woman revealed that she is currently eight months pregnant and takes a public bus to work daily.
"I'm always exhausted cause I have to work extra time to be able to afford basic necessities," she writes, adding that although the bus is often "packed", there are times when "decent folks volunteer their seats for me."
She continues: "Wednesday, I get on the bus like usual but this time there's one empty seat, I go to sit but I find a guy in his business attire sitting there with his hand on the empty seat (sort of like resting it?).
After asking the guy to remove his hand, the businessman responded by telling her it was "taken". After asking who the seat was reserved for, he said it was for "his hand".
"I laughed a little but wasn't feeling well so I ask him to remove it so I could sit but he refuses again," she writes. "I tell him I'm tired and needed to sit and he replies saying my pregnancy isn't his problem.
"I had enough at this point, my legs were burning and my back was hurting, so I go ahead and sit on his hand."
In response, she says that the guy "freaked out" and tried to remove his hand quickly while shouting at the mom-to-be.
"He then starts arguing about how disrespectful I was to do this inappropriate thing and in public no less," she writes. "He gets off after saying I was being inappropriate and disrespectful. Everyone stares at me and I just sit there feeling a bit of shame about what happened."
After telling her husband about the incident, the woman says her partner agreed that she had acted "inappropriately" and "shouldn't have made this guy uncomfortable".
She adds that her husband told her that she had "f***ed up" and "was totally inappropriate".
After admitting that she could have potentially de-escalated the situation by talking to the driver, the woman writes that the man didn't pay for the bus seat, so she had a right to use it.
After asking the people of Reddit if she was the a**hole in the situation, the post amassed more than 2,500 comments, with most users agreeing that the woman was, indeed, NTA (not the a**hole).
One Redditor joked: "NTA. Though, I can't believe you stole the seat from his only lover!"
A second added: "NTA. Seats are for butts, not hands. If you don't want a butt on your hand keep it on your own seat."
"NTA. I've been 8 months pregnant on public transportation and I 100% would have done exactly as you did," a third added.
"NTA one seat per passenger unless space permits which it didn't because you as a passenger wanted to sit. He's an entitled a**hole and so is your husband," wrote a fourth.
