Have a Nice Day

Gina works at the twenty four hour diner during the day. She has the most seniority of the servers so she can pick her shift. The day shift is always busy and that helps the time go by quickly. Nights are hit or miss. Gina would rather be busy so she picks the day shift. Days can be long and hard but she is grateful for the job.

“Morning, what can I get ya to drink?” Gina asks a young businessman that just sat down at the counter. He is focused on his phone, scanning for any missed messages. She makes a game with herself guessing what the customers will order before they actually do. Coffee with cream and sugar and a dry toasted bagel. She is usually right.

“Large coffee with cream and sugar,” he says “and a toasted onion bagel.” He quickly checks his phone in case he has missed anything in the past minute. “Can I get that to go?”

Gina smiles. Nailed that one. “Sure thing. Coming right up.”

Gina prepares the order and hands it to the young man, still focused on his phone. She could have given him anything because he was not paying any attention to anything except the small electronic screen in his hand. He takes the to-go order and gets up to leave.

“Have a nice day,” says Gina somewhat in a sarcastic tone.

He mumbled something and was out the door.

“Already?” asked Rocio, another one of the servers at the diner.

“Yup, could tell that was gonna happen as soon as he walked in,” answered Gina.

Gina started a long time ago, probably to keep her sanity, telling customers “Have a nice day” whenever they were ugly, mean, rude, demanding, and a host of other adjectives to her or others at the diner. If she did not, then she would keep the unpleasantness bottled up in her and that was not good. She had to let it out somehow, so she began saying this pleasantry, even if it wasn’t that at all. The other servers knew her code and would sometimes use it themselves.

The rest of the morning went pretty well. It was not overly busy but steady. One of the things that Gina enjoyed was seeing the mix of regulars and new comers. The newbies were mostly tourists that came in. The regulars had it down. It was quick, to the point, thanks and see you tomorrow types of interactions with the regulars. The tourists, typically families or a group would want to soak everything in. The diner was just a couple streets over from the most famous part of the city where everyone would go to visit. One of the travel apps rated the diner as high as you could, so Gina would see a lot of people from all over the country. One day she would travel and see their world.

The lunch rush saw the same mix of people. It also saw a group of middle aged women that came in about noon. Gina could not tell if they were locals or tourists, but she had seen there type before.  They were all dressed the same. They all had the same hair style. They all had the same brand of purse. They all apparently also had the same cosmetic surgeon.

 There were not many tables open that would accommodate the group. Only one could and it was in Gina’s section. “Looks like a fun bunch,” said Rocio as she saw the sorority sisters from Cosmetic University.

Gina glared at her. “Wanna trade?”

“Hell no,” answered Rocio. She leaned over and gave Gina a peck of the cheek. “Love you girl.”

“Funny way of showing it,” said Gina. Rocio laughed out loud and went off to her tables.

Gina walked up to the table of matching boobs and lips and smiled to the group. They tried to smile back but the Botox treatments wouldn’t allow it. Salads, maybe a tuna fish sandwich from the bigger woman in the back. Waters for everyone. Attitude all around. Gina passed out the menus and asked “What can I get you ladies to drink?”

The self-appointed leader of the Botox squad went first. “I’ll have a Topo Chico with a glass of ice and a straw” Gina would have smiled if she did not see the cosmetically enhanced leader  quickly check her out and give a slight smirk. It only took a second or two, but she had assessed that Gina would never be a part of their group and made sure Gina knew it with a huff.  This was not going to a fun bunch.

The rest of the women ordered waters as well. Why are these women so predictable? Gina was already starting to write down another water for the last woman, the bigger one that didn’t really seem to fit in with the rest. “I’ll have a white wine,” she said with certainty. All the other women howled at this.

“Alright girl,” said one approving the choice.

“Oh watch out now,” said another.

“It’s a party now,” said the leader. “I’ll have one too.” And so did all the others. Great.

“Great. Coming right up,” said Gina.

Gina slumped over the counter as she started pouring drinks. “They didn’t order anything to mess up their nails did they?” asked Rocio.

“They all ordered wine,” answered Gina.

“Oh, crap. I’ll say a little prayer,” replied Rocio.

“Say a big one,” said Gina who had her hands out wide.

One of the things that Gina would do for her ‘special’ customers is to doctor their order somehow. If they ordered salad, she would make sure it was the oldest lettuce, usually with brown spots. Fries would be cold with extra salt. A jalapeno slice somehow would make it onto their plate. For this group, Gina added water to their wine glasses so that by the third round, it was almost all water. Somehow the group still became tipsy and needed an Uber to drive them home.

When the group decided they had had enough, the leader demanded the ticket. With little argument, the others allowed her to pay. Gina handed her the ticket with the total, minus the Senior Citizen discount which was clearly highlighted. This was another thing that Gina did for her ‘special’ customers, especially the women. They took it the hardest, but they took because they wanted the discount.

The lead plastic scoffed when she saw the discount. She gave Gina a look through her spider leg eyelashes that could draw blood but didn’t say anything about it. Gina laughed to herself. She knew the woman would want the discount.

As they were leaving, Gina called out “Have a nice day.” Rocio smiled from across the diner.

The larger woman came up to Gina and said “Thank you. You have a nice day too.” Oh great. I must not have put enough water in this lady’s glass.

The woman then actually hugged Gina and leaned in to say something in her ear. “I saw what you were doing with the wine,” the woman said.

Gina’s eyes got big.

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to say anything. I think it was kind of funny actually,” continued the woman. “You made me realize something today. These women,” the woman paused and looked directly at Gina. “These women are not my friends, never have been. I think they keep me to make themselves feel better. Somehow, watching you dilute the wine and seeing how they reacted to, well, water made me realize how superficial they are. And how I can be.”

The woman started to leave, but caught herself. She turned back to Gina. “I think I need some new friends,” she said as she hugged Gina again. “Thank you. I do hope you have a nice day.”

Gina could see that the woman had tears in her eyes as she turned to leave. “Have a nice day,” Gina said, this time meaning it.