Today, after a quick run at the gym during my lunch hour, I stopped in Dunkin’ Donuts for a large iced tea (it was blazing hot on the streets of NYC and it was a chilled beverage or heat stroke).
The line was long but it usually moves quickly and when one of the 14 Donuteers shouted “Next!” I moved up to the counter and asked, verbatim, “Large ice tea, no lemon.”
“Large ice tea, no lemon?” asked the clerk.
“Yes, large ice tea, no lemon.” I replied.
“You want lemon?”
“No, no lemon.”
“Ok,” and she reached for a cup, shoveled the ice and began pouring the tea.
Meanwhile, Donuteer #2 was at the cash register and was ringing up my order. “That’s $1.08.” I passed two dollars to the cashier and received my change, then stepped aside while she prepared my tea.
Suddenly, “Sir, sir, sir!” I turned to #1 to see her frantically waving me over.
“Yes?”
“No lemon,” she repeated this again.
“Right, no lemon.”
“No, we have no lemon. Sorry!” And she handed my tea over the counter.
At what point my request for “no lemon” turned into her frustration that she had suddenly run out of lemons and desperately wanted me to have one… I have no idea. But instead of comforting her that this was exactly how I wanted my tea I just said “No problem” and assumed that to pursue the matter would only confuse her further. And I just wanted my cool drink to keep me from melting faster than a witch near a farm girl. But really, two simple words shouldn’t cause this much confusion and now I’m genuinely worried for Donuteer #1’s mental well-being because I think she just might be over-worked and in need of some serious R&R.
Tommy Karr 