To say no to sharing table at coffee shop

[OrangeChips1]

I bought a coffee and cookie and sat down with by book to eat it at a table outside.

A few minutes later a couple came in, bought their drinks, stared at me as if I'd done something wrong and then asked if they could sit at my table with me (as it was the only one in the sun).
I was confused ....all the other tables were empty.

AIBU to say no? I didn't want to awkwardly sit there reading by book but pretending not to be able to hear their conversation. I could have moved one of the ones in the shade into the sun, but I was confused about why they didn't just do that themselves since I was already sat down and settled in.

Cheeky fuckers. The only time this is acceptable is if a place is absolutely mobbed. If it's just because you've got the best table they can absolutely get in the bin.

well done!

They were swingers and had you lined up for a 3some!

It was rude of them to ask and in no way reasonable. Well done for saying no.

Well done for saying no OP.

Either that or they had 8,563 holiday photos from their recent week in Blackpool and they were actively looking for their next victim!

I think its weird and uncomfortable to ask if there are other free tables.

I think its fine to say no, why don't you just move one of those free ones into the sun

I think it was weird of them! As people have said, if it was because there was no room fine. But if there’s empty tables, no reason to ask you

I think people are exaggerating the attitude of the people asking to sit at the OP's table. They asked politely, they didn't demand to sit there and they accepted no for an answer so by definition they were not entitled. I don't even think it is cheeky, if you don't ask you don't get, and if the worst is a no you haven't lost anything. The other day I was at a very busy service station, got a meal from McDonalds and went to sit down. There were no completely free tables but several with one or two people sitting at a table for four. I found one with one person sitting at a table with four seats and asked if I could sit down and they kindly obliged, I sat diagonally opposite so as to be as far away from them as possible. The alternative of trying to eat a McDonalds meal standing up with a lot of people milling around would have been a lot more difficult.

YANBU.
They were being ridiculous.
They wanted the table in the sun and they hoped that you would get up and move to another table because you wouldn't actually want to share and have to listen to their conversation while trying to read.
Plenty of other tables available, tough shit if they weren't in the sun.

If all the other tables had been full and you'd said no, that would have been a bit mean and unreasonable but that wasn't the case.

I wouldn’t have moved the furniture around.

But that's exactly what the huge difference is: there were several completely free tables with nobody sitting at them.

The vast majority of people would consider having to share a table with a stranger a much less preferable state of affairs than having one to yourself/just for your own group; and they would only even (disappointedly) consider sharing with strangers if there were no alternative.

Well you know what they say about stopped clocks...whatever he's like generally, your SD was on the nail there and should run courses on Seeing Off CFs in Anglo-Saxon. For a fee naturally. 😁

people are people are people, get a life and either chat and be nice or move tables. Over priveliged folk just sitting reading a book

Their problem wasn't that there weren't any tables...just that the one they wanted wasn't available. My local Caffè Nero has a banquette tucked away at the back which is very popular with people who want to work, study, read, have a heart-to-heart or whatever. The spot on the far left near the wall is particularly sought after and bagging it is a combination of luck and timing. Those of us who prefer it are used to getting it sometimes and settling for another spot if they don't - there's no sense of ownership about it. I can't speak for anyone else, but I know that my reasons for wanting that spot - or being there at all - don't matter to anybody except me. My right to the best seat with the right sort of light doesn't trump anyone else's, or vice versa.

I think they were rude to ask, especially as there was another table they could (and did) easily move into the sun.

If you’d said yes, then you’d be the third person sitting at “their” table, and it wouldn’t be relaxing.

People on their own have as much right to a nice table as those in couples or groups.

This. I’m surprised more people haven’t mentioned it.

Omg! Well done for not giving in to the staring down!

"Can we sit here, because we want to - and we believe that our wants trump yours?"
Exactly!

Oh gawd. Doubly glad I said no!
It was my first moment alone in days, a long conversation would have been so annoying.

Omg! How rude!

Mahabharata by Krishna Dharma. Loving it! Want to curl up and read it all the time but life keeps getting in the way 🤣

Oh I didn't know that! Is there a version you'd recommend? Or are they pretty much the same?
I'm reading one by Krishna Dharma..now that you say it it does say "retold by"

That's a very boundary-less doormat attitude to take. Why must we all 'be nice' and let other people - strangers - decide what we do with our lives and how we must spend our own leisure time to suit them?

I would have said someone is joining me in a bit.