A Different Restaurant, Next Time?

Story Submitted by Jason:

Adrienne and I had been friends for our first two years of college, but we traveled in different social circles and saw each other seldom. One night, we were at a party together, we caught up, and I ended up asking her out to dinner.

She asked if we could go to one restaurant in particular. "I have a couple of friends who work there," she said. While the possibility of her taking the time out of our date to interact with her friends was a bit unsettling to me, I guessed that she picked out the place because, as her friends were close by, it was a comfortable first date location for her.

On my way to the restaurant, she texted to let me know that she'd be late. When I arrived there, however, she was already there, sitting in the lobby with two waiters, a guy and a girl, around our age.

She introduced them to me as her friends, Ryan and Mackenzie. They seated us and took our drink orders.

We started talking, and everything was going well, but every minute, literally every 60 seconds, Mackenzie would come by, put a hand on Adrienne's shoulder, and ask, "Everything okay?" The first couple of times, I ignored it. The third time, I had to say something.

"Why is she doing that?" I asked, "Does she expect something to not be okay?"

Adrienne brushed it off, "She's just a concerned friend. Everything is all right. I'll tell her to stop."

Next time Mackenzie came by, Adrienne told her, "Everything's fine. You don't have to keep checking on me."

Mackenzie then flashed me a look as if I had killed all of her relatives, chopped them into itty-bitty pieces, and eaten them with relish. I had never beheld such a look of contempt and hatred before in my life, and it still unsettles me to think about it.

Sure enough, a few minutes after Mackenzie left the scene, Ryan came around, put his hand on Adrienne's shoulder, and asked her if she was okay. The first time, I let it go. When he did it again, less than a minute later, I said, directly to him, "She's fine. Now leave us alone!"

Ryan frowned at me and walked away. Mackenzie came by a moment later to take our orders. I should say, Adrienne's order. She wrote down what Adrienne wanted, then left the table without even asking me what I wanted.

"Excuse me," I said, and when Mackenzie didn't come back, I yelled, "Excuse me!" loud enough for everyone in the restaurant to hear.

She whipped around and yelled, "What? What the fuck do you want?"

I stood up, went right into her face, and said, "Get me your manager in ten seconds or there's going to be trouble."

The manager, a short, middle-aged woman, came by and stepped between us. She asked me to explain the situation, which I did, and the manager turned to Mackenzie and said, "You're fired."

Mackenzie's mouth opened and she said, "You're firing me? But—but—" I was so curious as to what she would say, but instead she said nothing and stormed off, to a back room.

While the manager apologized to me, saying that she had heard Mackenzie's outburst, Mackenzie emerged from the back room, strode past me, walked to where Adrienne sat at the table, whispered a few words to her, and then Adrienne stood up, gave me a dirty look, and walked out with Mackenzie.

"Adrienne! Where are you going?" I asked, but she only hurried her pace and left the place with Mackenzie.

The manager offered me a free meal, and I took it to go, as my date had left without me. I didn't see Ryan again, but I wasn't exactly looking for him.

I called Adrienne a couple of times and left her voicemails. She wrote me an email bemoaning what an asshole I was for having Mackenzie fired. I wrote back to inform her that I was actually proud of myself for doing it, and that I'd do it again a thousand times. No response to that