Making Him Wish He’d Stayed At The Base

I work in a restaurant. I had a table today where a man was introducing his baby and the baby’s mother to his mother, sister, and aunt. He was military, and I guess he’d been busy during his time away. They ordered a big chicken nacho to start, which I promptly put in.

Mind you, I was overseeing a party of twenty-five and finishing them up, and the host had told the family that they may have a few minutes of wait at the table. They were cool… at first. Once the food came out, the complaints started.

I checked on them multiple times in passing and nobody asked for anything. They asked for water for the table and also each had a beer or mocktail. Nobody asked for refills or to order another drink. They didn’t have a single auto-refill drink, but… okay, maybe I wasn’t super attentive.

The aunt went to the front and had a hissy fit about having to wait for things. My manager dealt with her, but she pulled me aside.

Manager: “I’ve been watching you, and I know you did your best with them, even if the food was kind of late behind that party of twenty-five. I’m gonna comp four cheesecake slices. You shouldn’t worry about them.”

I went and dropped off the discounted check, and I heard the aunt say:

Aunt: “I’m gonna order cheesecake for us all and get the whole bill taken care of.”

The sister and mom both cringed and made eye contact with me. I dropped off the free fifty dollars’ worth of cheesecake and brought the fussy toddler a free milk just to show I cared.

The aunt stared at the check and then violently snatched it up. I watched the baby’s mother die internally. I could only imagine she’d been dealing with this woman for hours or days and was rapidly approaching her limit. She was super sweet whenever I came back to the table. She wasn’t a problem, and I imagine she’d served before.

Not five minutes after the forty-dollar check was dropped, my manager found me, and we went to a computer to look at ring times and such. She wanted to make sure I had done my best before she stuck up for me. Everything checked out, and she decided it wasn’t worth the trouble and comped the table’s entire bill.

They seemed satisfied and left… finally. On the way out, the aunt called me “slow and shiftless” and said I should work somewhere else. I laughed in response and wished them a lovely evening.

I knew I wasn’t gonna get tipped and just started to bus the table once they were out of view. I found a twenty by where the sister was sitting and a crisp fifty in the middle of the table. I’m betting the dude left that.

As I finished up, I saw the baby’s mother speaking to my manager, who gestured toward me, and I walked over. The woman smashed a crumpled hundred into my hand and whispered:

Baby’s Mother: “I’m so sorry. I know you did your best with them.”

I almost cried.

Me: *Nodding* “Thanks so much. I hope I see you and your baby again.”

She thanked me again and walked off.