Refills

I haven't shared a Starbucks angst story lately so I suppose it's time. Today an older gentleman walked in. Maybe 65. He had his own cup. He pushed it toward me and said, "Refill" to which I replied, "Did you already have one today?" See, we give cheapie refills IF you had a cup already TODAY. Not yesterday. Not last week and you kept your dirty old Starbucks cup, which is fraying at the edges. No. Today only. He said, "Er, uhh, yes." and I picked his nice stainless steel mug up and it was cold as a wet tennis shoe in a pond in January in Wisconsin (I will NOT accept the term cold-as-ice from any of my students). I looked at him. "Today?" I repeated. And he said, "I had one last night." I put on my best Girl Scout smile and said, "I am so sorry but we can't do a refill, although I can give you the personal cup discount." Silence. Hatred. Inner snarling busting through his pores.

He said, "We'll, I've been traveling all over the country and you are the FIRST one to not give me a refill." And with that, he licked his thumb and made an imaginary mark in the air. "Yes, you are the FIRST, so that must mean something." And he gave me the big evil eye (I couldn't MAKE this shit up.) So, I got him his coffee and he had to pay all of 1.93 and he walked off toward the condiment bar. I rang up a few more things and noticed him standing by the drink pick-up area. I walked over and said, "May I help you, sir." and he said, "Well, little lady, you didn't give me my cup discount, now did you?" and I said, "Yes, I did." and I gave him the exact drink/discount/tax amounts and he started to walk away. Kind of turned and looked over his shoulder at me. "I work for Starbucks, you know." Hahahaha. Yeah, right. People.