He’s Gonna Teach Them A Lesson. Genuinely.

I work in a café. For several months, the same huge, moody, scary customer comes in, orders exactly the same thing, has his meal in silence, pays with two notes that conveniently add up to a 20% tip, and leaves having said barely a word. He doesn’t do anything wrong, but my colleagues all hate him because he is intimidating and gruff, so I always get to deal with him.

One night, he’s seated eating his meal when a couple of college frat boys come in. One of the boys clicks his fingers at me.

Frat Boy #1: “Hey, sugar t*ts. Get that sweet a** over here and get me and my friend some beers.”

Frat Boy #2: “Yeah, Mamacita!”

I’m Latina.

Frat Boy #2: “Shake that thing, and if you’re real nice, you can come back to my place.”

They both go on like this, making lewd comments, leering, and touching themselves. I’m the only server up front, and I’m a bit nervous, but I’m not putting up with that.

Me: “Right, you can either start behaving like grown-ups, or you can leave. I won’t be spoken to like that.”

[Frat Boy #1] suddenly turns nasty.

Frat Boy #1: “Watch yourself, b****. You start getting uppity and I’ll…”

He stops as there is a distinct scraping noise as [Scary Guy] pushes back his chair, stands up, and looms over him.

Scary Guy: “You’ll what? Wet yourself?” *To me* “You all right, miss?”

I nod.

Scary Guy: “Why not take a little break? I’ll have a chat with these boys.”

I step back from the counter, shaking, and he leans in toward them both.

Scary Guy: “Now, you two, I want to tell you that every week I come here to visit my mother, who is in a care facility just down the road. She’s got Alzheimer’s and barely recognizes me. Afterward, I come down here, and these nice people take care of me, even if I am in a bit of a mood or feeling sad. They put up with a lot from people, and they don’t deserve your disrespect, so you can either apologize to the young lady and behave yourself, or you can leave, but you will be definitely doing one of those two things. We clear?”

[Frat Boy #1] and [Frat Boy #2] both nod their heads and then turn to me.

Frat Boys #1 & #2: “We’re really sorry, miss. It won’t happen again. May we please have some beers?” 

[Scary Guy] gave me a look, and I nodded again. He sat down in his seat and then spoke to the frat boys for about half an hour in the sweetest way, without any animosity, talking about mistakes he had made when he was younger and how he had come to regret them.

I tried not to accept payment when he left, but he wouldn’t hear of it. Both of the frat boys apologised again before leaving, and one came by the next day to drop off flowers and a note.

It just goes to show that you can’t judge people by their outward faces, just their conduct, and sometimes people can be led to be better.

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