His Mom’s Family Made A Reservation For 25 People At His Dad’s Restaurant And Expected To Eat For Free, But He Forced His Relatives To Foot The Bill And Threatened To Call The Cops If They Didn’t
This 17-year-old boy’s father, 44, owns a restaurant; his mother is 41. Some of his mom’s relatives were visiting his family’s hometown, and they wanted to go to his father’s restaurant during their stay. So, her relatives made a 25-person reservation.
Most of the time, his father manages all restaurant-related matters, but if he has to leave or is too exhausted, his father appoints him or his older brother, 19, to run all restaurant operations. These responsibilities include verifying that all ingredients are delivered in the morning and counting the register.
His brother ran the restaurant during the day and was unavailable at night because of late college classes. He took over in the evenings and has worked at the restaurant since he was 16.
Since he’s been working for his father for a few months now, he’s become familiar with the operations and procedures of running the restaurant. Because his father was meeting with an investor to discuss opening a second branch, he wasn’t going to be at the restaurant when his mother and her family came in for a meal.
“So, the day arrives, and the relatives (my aunt, her family, and in-laws and their friends) arrive at the restaurant, and they order a lot of food, and everything goes smoothly,” he said.
His relatives enjoyed their meals and were thrilled with the exceptional service. When they were done eating, a server provided them with the bill. Several minutes later, his aunt walked downstairs to find him, questioning why they received a bill. He explained that she had to pay for the meals they ordered.
“She says that she didn’t expect she would have to pay since her parents don’t pay when they dine here. I tell her that’s just for two people, and they only visit our city once or twice a year,” he explained.
After that, his aunt was furious, reiterating over and over that she refused to pay such an expensive bill and that she shouldn’t have to since she was in the family of the restaurant owner. Since she wouldn’t calm down, he didn’t know what to do to de-escalate the situation.
He called both his father and brother, but neither of them answered the phone, so he left them voicemails with a summary of what was going on, asking them for help solving the issue.
Andrii Oleksiienko – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only
While he was frantically trying to get in touch with his father and brother, some of his relatives began leaving the restaurant.
His aunt and most of her family began to leave the table and make their exit, too, but he didn’t know where his uncle had wandered off to. Thankfully, a guard who stood at the restaurant entrance overheard that his aunt hadn’t paid her bill and refused to let her leave.
All of the other restaurant patrons were looking in the direction of the commotion, giving his aunt dirty, disapproving looks. His aunt called his mom and explained what was happening; his mom eventually wanted to talk to him, so his aunt handed him her phone.
“My mom asks me to exempt them from paying. I tell my mom they are going to have to pay for what they ate, and I would call the cops if they refused,” he shared.
With that, his aunt had another meltdown, and he walked away to check his phone for calls or texts from his brother or father. Because of the timing, his aunt and the rest of her family assumed he’d walked off to call the police. His aunt began cursing him out, accusing him of not wanting to help his family.
Then, his uncle, who had apparently been upstairs for a while, came back into the main area of the restaurant.
His uncle asked him what the total was for their bill, and he paid it in full before ordering all of the other relatives to walk out and get to the car. Before leaving, his uncle told him he was sorry for his aunt’s behavior.
Less than an hour later, his brother showed up at the restaurant, and he filled him in on the whole ordeal. His brother sided with him and thought he handled the situation in the right way. The following morning, though, he discovered that he was bombarded with texts from relatives on his mother’s side of the family, accusing him of being a jerk.
What would you have done if you were in his shoes?
You can read the original post on Reddit here.
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