Lemonade Betrayed

I’m kind of the bad customer in this story.

At the pub I would regularly go to with my friends, I would sometimes be given a lemonade that tasted “wrong.” The first time this happened, I said:

Me: “Excuse me. I think you’ve accidentally given me a diet lemonade instead of a normal one.”

The staff just made me a new lemonade, I tasted it to make sure it was right, and we all moved on with our lives. Whenever the lemonade tasted wrong again, I told the staff they had given me diet by accident.

Today, I’m at a different pub with my family. I order my usual lemonade and take a sip. It’s the exact same “wrong” taste, so I say what I usually say.

Me: “Excuse me. You’ve accidentally given me a diet lemonade instead of a normal one.”

Employee: “No, I didn’t.”

Me: “But I just tasted this, and it’s diet.”

Employee: “That’s not possible. We don’t have diet lemonade.”

Me: “Well, you clearly do, because I’m holding it right here.”

The back and forth continues for a few minutes, with my tone of voice getting progressively more abrasive, until the employee calls a manager over to deal with me.

Manager: “What’s the problem?”

Me: “I asked for a lemonade, but I’ve been given a diet one.”

Manager: “We don’t sell diet lemonade.”

Me: “But this is a diet lemonade. I don’t want a diet lemonade; I want a normal one.”

Manager: “You have a normal lemonade.”

Me: *Gritting my teeth by this point* “It tastes like a diet lemonade.”

Manager: “It cannot be diet because we don’t sell diet.”

Me: “Well, it tastes wrong!”

At this point, the manager pours a bit of lemonade into a shot glass and tastes it.

Manager: *To the employee* “The syrup’s out.” *To me* “Give us a moment and we’ll get you a new one.”

Me: “Finally. Thank you.”

After they sorted the syrup, my lemonade tasted fine. I went back to the table my family was at.

Me: “I think maybe I can’t actually taste the difference because it was a syrup thing and not diet.”

Dad: “I can’t believe you actually spoke to them like that.”

Me: “Like what?”

Dad: “You were getting quite aggressive with your words there.”

Me: “I wasn’t being aggressive; I just wanted my lemonade to be right.”

Dad: “Yeah, but you should’ve been nicer about it.”

I know I was getting annoyed, but I hadn’t quite realised how bad I was behaving until afterward.