Call Me, Maybe

I’m serving a middle-aged couple that seemed nice enough at first.

Me: “What would you like to drink?”

Customer: “We’re ready to order.” 

They ordered their meals, and I had to again ask if they’d like something to drink.

Customer: “A glass of rosé and a Coke.”

Great. The woman requested a modification to her food, but we were slow, and it wasn’t a big deal. After their food arrived, I made sure everything looked good and asked if they needed anything else.

Customer: “Nope, we’re good, thanks!”

A good bit later, I noticed that both of them had pushed their plates to the middle of the table, away from themselves, and had stopped eating. To me (and to my bussers), this was a signal that perhaps they were finished or needed to wrap up. 

I first approached and was about to ask if they wanted me to wrap their food, but the woman rudely cut me off before I could get more than a word or two out.

Customer: “I’ll call you over when I need you!”

Okay… No problem, I tended to my other table and did some other things around the restaurant.

My boss had noticed the plates pushed away and asked my busser to go over and see if they wanted to be wrapped up. Well, the woman at the table did not appreciate this, apparently, and lashed out at my (fifteen-year-old) bus girl.

We both watched from across the dining room as they sat with two raviolis and some pasta pushed away from them, untouched for at least half an hour. I didn’t ask them if they wanted refills on their drinks when I noticed them empty, because I hadn’t been “called over.”

Eventually, the woman started waving me down like a madwoman, making me look incompetent and inattentive (two things that I am not).

Customer: “We’d like to wrap up.”

It felt like some sort of weird power move, and I’m not really sure why she was acting like that. I swear, as a server, you get s*** on for not going to the table enough/not being available, but also s*** on for being attentive and doing the job.