Charlene now had an extremely important decision to make. There was a large glass of Coke still on the tray. Would that be taking this too far? Or would that be taking this the exact right amount? Maybe the woman would appreciate having the warm pasta offset by an ice-cold soft drink. It might give her perky nipples. Everybody enjoyed perky nipples.

She picked up the tray, not yet having committed to a plan of action. The Coke might remain upright. It might not. It all depended on whether or not the woman stopped scowling in the next couple of seconds.

The woman did not stop scowling.

Charlene, wacky klutz that she was, not-accidentally tilted the tray, causing the Coke to topple over and splash all over the woman. Because the woman was standing, the soda hit lower than the lasagna had; otherwise it might've helped rinse off some of the tomato sauce. The woman let out a magnificent yelp.

"I can't believe I did that. It's like I forgot all of my balance training. I am so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so very sorry, ma'am."

"You stupid idiot!"

"Stupid idiot? I understand that you're upset, but there's no reason to be redundant."

"I want to speak to a manager."

"He'll be here soon. I'm sure he heard you yelp."

* * *

Charlene sat in the back room. Travis, the manager of Davey's Italian Grill who had nary a trace of Italian blood, sat across from her, looking stern. He rubbed his eyes, ran a hand through his graying hair, scratched the top of his head, rubbed his eyes again, sighed, and then spoke. "You know what I'm gonna say, right?"

"I'm fired?"

"Of course you're not fired. We're shorthanded enough as it is. I'm not gonna cut off my nose to spite my face."

"I never understood what that meant."

Travis looked surprised. "It means that if you're pissed off at your face, you don't cut off your nose, because it hurts."

"Wait, I did know what that one meant. I'm thinking of having your cake and eating it too."

"If you eat your cake, you no longer have it. You either have a piece of cake or you eat a piece of cake, but you can't do both."

"Got it," said Charlene. "If you weren't going to say that I'm fired, what were you going to say?"

"I'm docking your pay for the cost of her dry-cleaning bill."

"Oh."

"Do you agree that it's a fair consequence?"

"I never get my clothes dry-cleaned," said Charlene. "I don't know how much it costs."

"It's not that much."

"Okay, good."

"She says you did it on purpose."

"That doesn't sound like me."

"You're being sarcastic but it really doesn't sound like you," said Travis. "That's why I'm pretending to give you the benefit of the doubt."

"I appreciate that."