Who taught: Random guy sat beside me

Step on toes (source: http://politicalpistachio.blogspot.com/)

People do not smoke in a coffee shop in America. At least in the ones that I go often. A few days ago, something that I did not expect happened. Someone sitting beside me was smoking. Huh?! What is going on? Is it illegal? But, something was different. I could not smell anything.

I quickly noticed that it is not a regular cigarette. All of the other people in the coffee shop seemed to know that it is not a real one.

A few minutes later, the owner was talking to him about his fake-smoking. The owner did not try to have him stop smoking but rather just checking it out.

In their conversation, the guy who was smoking said, “This is completely harmless but I will smoke this till someone says not. I do not want to step on toes.”

In my mind, “Oh, yeah? Let me ask you to stop,” but I did not have the guts to say so. Instead, I was thinking about the expression he used, “step on toes.” You know what? Playing soccer, I do know how it feels if someone steps or runs on my toes. It feels so painful.

So, this was easy for me to feel it. Basically, this expression is the same meaning of causing a problem or bothering someone. It is an interesting way of talking. Don’t you think?

But, in my opinion, I think he was sort of already stepping on toes by fake-smoking.