When A Regular Behaves Most Irregular

I work in a fairly busy restaurant and have to go for essential surgery just before Mother’s Day, which, naturally, is extremely busy. I’ve cleared things with my boss, and unfortunately, the surgery doesn’t go as planned and ends up being much more severe than I first hoped.

When I’m not completely dosed up on painkillers, I decide to drop in and update my boss and coworkers on the situation and how I may need more time away than planned. Luckily, they’re all awesome, and while I’m there, we end up just chatting and catching up when it’s not distracting them.

I’m fairly tired and just about to leave when one of my regulars comes up to me.

Customer: “You! You weren’t here on Mother’s Day! Why not?!”

I try not to sound too tired or uncaring.

Me: “Oh, uh… Hi, [Regular], I’m actually on medical leave right now. I won’t be back for a while.”

The customer huffs angrily at me.

Customer: “Don’t lie to me; you just wanted to skip working Mother’s Day, didn’t you?! It doesn’t matter; you can get my usual order now. Everyone else ignores me here!”

I am trying to wrap my head around her behaviour.

Me: “I… I’m sorry, but I really can’t do that. I was just about to go home to rest; I only had surgery a few days ago. I literally just came in to update [Boss].”

She starts trying to push me off my chair. Thankfully, my coworkers catch me; my balance is so bad at this point!

Customer: “Stop making excuses and do your job! Lazy! You’re all lazy!”

Coworker: “[Regular], stop! She’s not being lazy. She genuinely can’t move very well right now! I’ll make you your order. Just leave [My Name] alone now!”

Customer: *Starts shouting* “LAZY! SO MANY EXCUSES! SHE JUST DOESN’T WANT TO WORK; THAT’S ALL IT IS!”

She managed to push past my coworker and yank the chair out from under me. Of course, I was not prepared for this and landed hard on the floor, ripping half of my stitches and curling up in agony.

The rest of the scenario was a bit of a blur. My manager came out from the kitchen after hearing it escalate and kicked the regular out permanently for assaulting me. He called my mom to take me to the doctors to get my stitches redone; thankfully, I’d healed enough that it didn’t bleed too crazy but it was still pretty bad. My manager stayed with me and comforted me through the worst of the pain until she arrived, despite getting my blood on his chef uniform.

I was given plenty of morphine to help with the pain but I still had an extra week or two of recovery because of the regular being unreasonable. She tried to come back in to “apologise” but ended up having the police called on her. 

I’m recovering well now, though; thankfully, I didn’t need anything more to fix the damage she caused. I’ve learned either not to go in when I’m on medical leave or to go in full disguise at least, anyway.