Split Personality

Well, here’s the feedback on my attempt to be assertive, individualistic and French.

It was one of those classic situations: crowded car park, one free space, two cars drawn towards it at exactly the same time.
My instinctive reaction was, naturally, to slip meekly into reverse and get out of the way so that car no. 2 (my opponent) could access the space more easily.
Then a strange, assertive voice inside my head piped up “Hey! That space should be yours! Look, that guy is about sixty, he’s on his own – probably retired – and has all the time in the world to be wandering around shopping centres,” (the assertive voice was not very politically correct…) “but you, on the other hand, are a busy mother with a whining baby in the back and not enough time!”
Yes, I thought, heart pounding, you’re right!
So without further hesitation, I swung the Twingo into the free space a tad more aggressively than necessary, flashing a triumphant smile at my opponent as I did so.

Ha! I turned off the engine, feeling victorious.

But then – gulp – I saw that old guy-opponent had not budged but was still indicating that he was planning to turn.
“Oh no!” fretted strange, meek voice (in my head) “He’s angry! He’s going to wait for you to get out and there’ll be a confrontation and you’ll have to apologise for being so impolite!”
So I slipped down into my seat a little further and pretended to be fumbling around for something on the floor to gain time.
When next I sneaked a glance upwards, I saw that old guy was pulling into the space right next to me!
What a horrible, embarrassing coincidence! Of all the cars in the car park, why did my neighbour have to decided to evacuate right then?? Arg! This meant that old guy and I would be forced to get out at the same time, and I would then be face to face with him, without the comforting outer shell of my Twingo!
A little rosy-cheeked at this point, I continued my futile search for a non-existent object in the glove compartment. Then I turned round and pretended to be having a chirpy chat with BB, who scowled at me impatiently.
Old guy took forever to clamber out of his big car. When at last he did, he glanced over at me with a haughty look of disapproval. I did my best to look defiant.. but the rosy cheeks didn’t help.

So, shall we conclude that my assertiveness experiment was only partially successful?