misinterpretation of social encounters

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Yesterday something happened to me that was really interesting. I was in a cooking supply store with a friend. We got help from a stores lady on finding some stuff. After we left she was like "that stores lady was really rude." I said "Really?" (I was surprised, I thought she was acting fine/ polite). Then she was like "yeah her tone of voice was really rude."
I was thinking, is my perception of social situations really that off? Has anyone ever had an experience like this?

I'm thinking maybe your friend is paranoid.

That does happen: neurotypicals DO misinterpret within a social context. They're not perfect, either.

I've had a few moments like that. Even though I think I'm good at reading people's tone of voice and body language, a lot of little things still get pointed out to me by my friends.

Everyone is prone to misinterpretation, even NTs, and so I always try to be objective. Maybe that's someone's normal tone of voice. I don't care if someone at a store is rude to me, as long as they're doing their job and I get what I need.

And to be honest, I like people who are rude to me. They tend to be easier to read since they don't hide their emotions well.

Unless they start swearing at me or make derogatory comments, I wouldn't know rude if it poked me in the eye with a stick. I would need to be told like the OP. Strangers are the hardest to read because I don't know how they act normally.
When I know people well, I can see they're acting out of character but I can't work out the emotion behind it. For example, a woman I work with seemed unusually abrupt one day and I knew she was acting strangely but I couldn't work out if she was angry, tired or didn't want to be bothered. Later someone said, "Mary's really upset today." And I never would have picked upset. It's like a lottery for me. I lose many more times than I win.

Some neurotypicals misinterpret other peoples intentions a lot more than Aspies. Try living with a borderline for a while and you'll know what I mean.

I have come to believe that different people have different taste in interpersonal behavior. Why do I think this? Because there have been many times over the years when the following scenario has happened. I would be in a group of (2 or more) people and someone person interacted with the group then left the group. After the person left the group, some people might say, "oh, I really liked her", while I thought in my head, "actually she seemed unpleasant to me." Or it might be the other way around. I might really like the person on first impression, then another person in the group would make a comment to the effect that they didn't like how the person interacted. He or she was "rude" or "cocky" or "too quiet" etc.

I have also noticed that I will interact with a range of people in a day, and each time I will feel like I am being naturally myself. So, I feel as though I am being essentially the same in each interaction. However, some of those people will give me the impression that they don't like how I am interacting with them. Or so I interpret it. They might seem to be frowning or they might respond with sarcasm or those mysterious double-meaning comments. Other people however seem to really like what I am saying and encourage me to continue. They might respond with an obvious smile, etc.

So, to sum up what I hoped to say, it seems like some people would prefer that people act one way, and some people would prefer that people act another way.