What happens in the video
“That’s what you get for ignoring me!” In a busy diner, a woman in a red blouse pours a drink over a server’s loaded tray. Liquid runs down the server’s green apron and onto the floor. “Why would you do that?” the server asks. The customer replies, “I ordered a different drink.”
“I was bringing your replacement.” The server sets the tray down beside a booth. A woman in black comes over holding a glass and asks, “Why is the tray soaked?” The customer insists, “She got my order wrong twice!” The woman in black reaches toward the table. The clip ends before anyone settles which drink was in which glass.
Continuation:
There were two tall glasses on the table now. At a glance both contained cola, ice, and a wedge of lime. Under one was a blue coaster with the word DIET written on the rim. The ink was beginning to run.
The woman in black turned it so the customer could read it. “That was how Anna marked the replacement. She was trying to find you a straw.”
For several seconds the only sound at the booth was a steady drip off the edge of the tray. Then a boy at the next table said, with the terrible clarity of a child who has been instructed to use his indoor voice, “Mum, is she allowed to do that?”
“No,” said the woman in red, before his mother could answer. “She isn’t.”
Her name was Beverly. She turned back to Anna. “I thought that was the same glass. I’m the one who never gave you time to put it down.”
Anna looked at the plate beside the glasses. A grilled cheese sandwich, cut into four triangles, was sitting in a shallow bath of cola. “That boy’s been waiting for this,” she said.
Beverly had assumed everything on the tray was for her table. Now she noticed the little bowl of tomato soup beside the plate. She could hear the boy telling his mum that the corner pieces were best for dipping. She asked if she could pay for his lunch. His mother thought about it, then said, “We’ve got his lunch. Can you get her something dry to put on?”
The manager found an apron. Anna went to change while the cook made another sandwich. When it came, the boy lifted a triangle with grave ceremony and dunked it so deeply that half of it fell in. It was the first thing that afternoon to make Anna smile.
At the till Beverly paid for the food she’d spoiled and asked Anna what she wanted her to do about the blouse under her apron. “It’ll wash,” Anna said. “I’d like to hear you tell my manager I brought the right one.”
So Beverly waited until the manager was free and did exactly that. Outside, she nearly went back for a takeaway drink. Then she saw Anna through the glass, sitting at the end of the counter with her first cup of coffee since the lunch rush. Beverly kept walking. There was another diner up the street, and she knew how to wait for a drink.
