Was that flirting?

In line at the grocery store, I joked about the latest celeb divorce playing out in the tabloids at the checkout counter. The woman in line ahead of me, laughing at my routine, offered up a comment about being told her nipples were average by the piercing place she had them done the previous day. Excuse me? I said, she repeated that he has said they were average sized. Oh, so not a value judgment, but a measurable? She seemed not reassured nor amused, more confused really

then I said, there is no way to not sound creepy, but I am sure they are lovely. She got perkier then, and I wandered off, and now it occurs to me that she wouldn’t have thought anything I said untoward, and her forwardness went over my head. I can’t imagine what she made of my thanking her for a unique public conversation at a grocery check out. Overthinking not offending is blocking incoming flirting, signals, messages and messengers, in the context of time and place.