The Cake Is A Lie, But At Least It’s Free

My father and I are meeting up because it recently was my birthday. Unfortunately, neither he nor I have time for more than a short trip to the local video game shop and coffee and cake afterward, and the next time we can meet up won’t be for another two weeks. 

But we decide to make the most of it and Dad takes me to a very posh, old-fashioned café. However, it seems understaffed for as big a crowd as it has amassed. Additionally, you have to go up to the counter and pick out your cake which the waiter will then bring to the table, which is when they also take your orders for coffee and other food. You get a small piece of paper with the price and a number on it to make sure you get the right order. 

We order and everything is fine, if slow at first, but we are feeling the time pressure. After we finish our food — my dad has a cake and I a soup — he tells me there’s just enough time for me to get a piece of cake, too, if I want, which I do, of course. So, I go to the counter and pick out my cake. However, it takes so long for the waiters to bring it to us that we flag down the waitress and ask her to pack up the cake to go and bring us the bill. She does — taking several more minutes — and when we get the bill, my cake is not on it. We point this out to her and she tells us to pay at the counter where we will also pick up the cake. She takes the little paper with her.

We go up to the counter and ask for my cake. The person behind it wordlessly shoves it towards me. A little stunned, I take it. My dad asks how much it costs. The person frowns and calls the waitress, who is at the other end of the café and doesn’t hear. I notice that the person behind the counter has put my paper on a spike next to the register. As I point this out, however, the person leaves her position, again wordlessly, to go all the way through the café to speak to the waitress. The person doesn’t even bother to come back to us, instead opting to shout across the entire café that we already paid for it.

This is the point at which we decide, “All right! Fine, then. Free cake it is,” and we leave. Fortunately, both my dad and I make it to our respective appointments in time, and the cake is absolutely divine.