Past continuous or Simple Past

[nouamaneer]

Dear all,

I hope you can help me on this upcoming sentences. I need to know which tense is more appropriate and grammatically correct. The sentence goes as: I (not be) ........... rude when I left the party earlier.

a. I wasn't being rude when I left the party earlier.
b. I wasn't rude when I left the party earlier.

Thanks for your help,

[doodles]

That's a tricky one but my gut feeling tells me to go for (a) as it suggests a temporary state in the past. In other words, I'm not rude generally, and I wasn't being rude when I left the party earlier. To further illustrate my point, compare the following two sentences:

You're rude
You're being rude

Hope this helps!