Help!!! Please help me feel better about this awkward hug!!!!!!

I need to know more about the plumber story 😂

Haha I feel physical pain at the awkwardness of this. I can't cope. I'd like to say you'll forget with time... But I know if it was me I wouldn't. I still vividly remember every single awkward moment in my life. So... I stand in solidarity and offer my sympathy

Great stories. Kissing the plumber is so funny but mortifying not doubt. At least once he’d finished the work, you didn’t have to see him again.

There’s clearly a lot of other people in worse situations. So I wouldn’t feel too bad. They’ve probably forgotten about it already. Or it will be “remember when…” and you’ll laugh about it.

These stories are great and have hopefully made you feel better, OP.
I hug my family, but I must admit I find kissing and hugging people I am introduced to or just met very awkward and over familiar. I much prefer a handshake!

An external consultant I did a bit of work with in a very formal setting said "love you, bye" (to me) at the end of a work call recently. I suspect she was cringing for days.

My friend fell asleep on a train and woke up half an hour later to find she’d rested her head on the shoulder of the man sitting next to her and had dribbled on his suit.

I used to get caught in this hug nightmare so often (doesn’t happen now im older thank god) and it always ended up with the other person kissing my cheek whilst I would be trying to lightly pat their back with distance between us. Makes me cringe just thinking about it.

I REALLY hope you meant the bereaved son…

I'm reading this on a flight and have my face to the wall trying to control the lolling. That's absolutely hilarious.

I once accidentally kissed my mother-in-law on the lips.

Sympathies OP! I am a hugger and air kisser and still managed to misjudge and end up sort of weirdly half pecking a Spanish business partner on the mouth at a conference. 3 years ago I think and it still gives me the absolute horrors.

😳
😁😁 Oh the horror! This made me lol with empathy. I felt embarrassed enough when I once accidentally ended a text to a builder, confirming the type of flooring we wanted, with two kisses. I then panicked and sent another text apologising. which made it even worse, somehow!

No-one would have noticed or give a shit.

And even if they did, they'd have said 'that looked awkward' and not 'she was doing something weird because she wanted to touch his head, give him a smacker of a kiss'

I did this is Africa once. Tried to give one of the safari guides a hug and he recoiled in horror.

I also very nearly absentmindedly kissed my FIL on the lips goodbye one day when I was very tired. I thank my lucky stars every day that I stopped myself in the nick of time. I think I got away with it....

I once kissed my plumber goodbye at the front door as he finished work for the day! - the first work day of a job that was to take several weeks.

To this day, I don't know what possessed me.

I think it had been a long day and I wasn't fully focused on reality.

And before y'all ask, no he wasn't a demi-God - he was a portly, middle aged, grey and balding gent in a scruffy boiler suit - with a slightly shocked expression on his face.

I'm even older.

I didn't see him off the premises thereafter.

Being a man of a certain age where hugging other men wasn't "macho" when you were young and now, thankfully, it is. I recently attended a funeral where the deceased son came up and hugged me unexpectedly. I ended up virtually poking him in the stomach because I expected a handshake.

But it is nice when I met with a younger guy I know very well just after his granddad had died who he was close with and it was nice to hug without awkwardness.

I live in France and once kissed my boss wetly on the neck when he came in to give la bise (cheek kisses). And have kissed people on their ear or hair in more social settings...

It's normal when you're not used to such embraces/kisses. Don't worry about it :)

(But I'm glad since Covid that all that kissing has died off a bit)

Don't worry about it 💐

Is he Italian by any chance?

Dont feel too bad, my husband as was reaching up to my aunt to hug who was bending over and reaching down, touched boob and was mortified.

I felt similarly after the time that I went for a platonic hug/ cheek kiss greeting with a male Muslim friend as that was how we usually greeted one another in the work context that we know one another. Both our spouses and our kids were there and I thought nothing of it but he recoiled in apparent horror and sort of jumped backwards so fast that I nearly fell over!

The trouble was that this was his daughter’s birthday party and it was in front of his parents and all his older relatives so I should probably have known that any touching of a woman not your wife was a big no no.

Super embarrassing at the time. Life lesson learned.

You're fine

In a couple of months when you know each other better, just drop it into conversation.

"I remember when I first met you, Dave. We went in for a hug and I'm not a hugger so I ended up weirdly cradling the back of your head. I worried you'd think I was a right knob"

I really wasn't expecting such a bland story after reading the thread title.

I thought you were going to say you kissed him on the lips or accidentally touched his arse.

I wouldn't worry about this at all.