Bussing Bus Tables

(I’m working at a popular sandwich shop in a college town. I’m closing with two other employees the night of my college’s big winter formal dance. We close at 10:00 pm and we’re all hoping to get out early in order to make the dance. Unfortunately, it’s been a busy night, so come 9:50 pm, we’re only just starting closing procedures. I’m putting chairs on the tables in the dining room when a customer comes through the door looking frantic.)

Customer: “Are you all still open? Can we still order?”

Manager: “Sure, we’ve still got the food out and we’re open for another ten.”

Customer: “Great, thank you so much!”

(He ran out of the restaurant… which is when I noticed the bus. He came back in with about 30 people in tow: a junior varsity and a varsity volleyball team and all of their chaperones. They not only ordered 30-plus sandwiches and beverages, they also went to the dining room and pulled down the chairs I put up, since they planned on eating in. The manager said nothing since we all knew our boss would throw a fit if we did anything to lose the customers. It took 30 minutes for everyone to get their food. I began cleaning up around the crowd, hoping this would signal that we were closed and they needed to hurry up and leave. It didn’t. We didn’t get them out until 11:00 pm, which was when we could finally start closing the front of house. Nobody thanked us as they left, and our tip jar, which we’d divided earlier before the group walked in, was still completely empty. The only good thing to come out of the night was our manager pouring us all a few pints of beer to try to make closing more tolerable — and my friends all waiting for me before heading to the dance.)