Some Customers Literally Ask For The Moon, Part 2
It’s late June in London, so our sunsets are way past 9 PM. A guest storms up to the desk about 8 PM.
Guest: “What time does the sun f****** set in this d*** country!”
Me: “Sir, please don’t swear. The sun sets tonight at 9:21 PM.”
Guest: “Jesus! Where are we, the North Pole?!”
Me: “Where are you from, sir?”
Guest: “New York.”
Me: “Yes, that is a fair bit further south than London.”
Guest: “It’s just, I have a dinner reservation tomorrow before the theatre, and I wanna propose to my girlfriend.”
Me: “Congratulations, sir!”
Guest: “You don’t understand! It’s her dream to get a proposal under the moonlight, so I booked some crazy expensive outdoor place for dinner before the show! But the sun… never… sets!”
Me: “You can’t do the proposal after the show?”
Guest: “No, the restaurant already has the ring! They’re gonna put it in champagne for me!”
Me: “Sir, you could always have dinner after the show?”
Guest: “That restaurant is booked solid for months! You have no idea how much I planned for this!”
Not enough, if you didn’t even look up sunset times, if moonlight is so important to you.
Me: “Sir, I’m afraid there’s not much I can do about the sun. If you like, I can set up a private cocktail table at the rooftop bar for you tomorrow night. If you can get your ring back from the restaurant, I could arrange for the bar to present it in a glass of champagne here instead.”
Guest: “You’d do that for me?!”
Me: “In the name of true love, of course!”
Guest: “Oh my god, that’s amazing! Thank you! My girlfriend is in the spa now, so I’m gonna run to the restaurant now!”
He dashes out and is back in the lobby within the hour. I organise all I need to, to orchestrate his plan.
The next night, everything went off without a hitch, so I was told.
Except for the fact that this is England, so it was cloudy all night and the moon was obscured, but she said yes anyway, so I guess it worked out all right in the end?
