Gravity Prevails

Story Sent in by Alice:

Eddie and I were enjoying dinner together at a nice restaurant on our first date. He ordered us a couple of cocktails, then pointed out something about the waitstaff who happened to be carrying martinis from the bar to various tables: the glasses were unusually shaped, and two of them together interlocked in a way such that the waiters could carry them in one hand.

"Awesome," I said, impressed.

He said, "Yeah, but unstable. Like if their hand slipped, they'd have twice as much mess to clean up. Still probably better to use one carrying hand per glass."

I nodded. I believed him. Then, he said, "Watch, I'll prove it at some point. Not right now."

I wasn't sure what he had in mind, but I found out soon enough, during a lull in the conversation. He looked at me and said, "Sometimes, I feel like just doing this!" and just as a waitress walked by with two martini glasses in a hand, he swung his hand up from under the table and hit it under the glasses, splashing out their contents and sending one of them to the floor.

"Oh my God!" she yelled.

Eddie's hand went to his mouth but he couldn't mask his smile. "Whoops! Clumsy me," he said.

The waitress gave him a look, then said, "Don't worry about it, sir," but the way that she said it made me think that perhaps Eddie did indeed have something about which to be worried. She went to work cleaning up the spill.

After she had left, I said to Eddie, "That was dumb."

"Why? Just proving a point."

"You did it on purpose."

"Shh," he said with a wink. Was I supposed to be impressed?

A well-dressed woman came up to us shortly thereafter and asked Eddie, "Why did you knock a glass out of my waitresses hand?"

Eddie said, "Oh, that was an accident." He turned to me and asked, "Right?"

I replied, "I guess. Accidents happen."

Apparently I wasn't sufficiently convincing, because the woman (who I guessed to be the boss) said to Eddie, "I'm going to have to ask you to leave, sir. I'm sorry."

I was anticipating an argument from Eddie, but his eyes shot down, he stood up, and left without making eye contact with the woman or myself. I was then expecting the woman to turn to me and say something, but instead she just went back toward the kitchen.

Eddie texted me about five minutes later and asked, "Is she still there?"

I texted back, "In the restaurant? I don't think she's leaving."

He then wrote, "Want to go somewhere else?"

I replied, "No, thanks."

He wrote back, "K," and that was the last time I heard from him.