Crying in Restaurants is a series by Sarah Hepola about …
crying in restaurants. Today’s
piece is the fifth installment.
5. Try not to involve the waitress. She's had a long night. She's
probably a very nice person who would like to do nothing more than kick off her
heels, do a bump of coke and lose an hour or four at the bar before going home
to her loft and boning her scraggly indie-rock boyfriend. So leave her out of
this. But sometimes you mean to, and you can't.
Like when she
comes to take your order, and you say, "Do you think I should have the
fish or the steak?" and the man you are with says, "Order whatever
the fuck you want," and then it's like the air was vaccuumed out of your
lungs — why is he talking to you like this? — and the tears gush out before you
can even stammer a response. You're just going to have to work the tears; they
are no longer optional.
