As Mary was completing her last year of college, everything was going perfect in her life. She and Joe were deeply and completely in love. She would receive her business degree in May.
About a month before Mary’s graduation, Joe sat down with Betty to have a serious discussion. He told Betty that he wanted to marry her daughter and that he wanted Betty’s blessing.
Betty gave Joe a big hug and said “Joe, you have been like a son to me for the past eight years. I cannot wait until you are officially, my son. You have my permission and my blessing to marry my daughter.”
They began discussing Joe’s plan to propose to Mary. Joe planned a dinner at his restaurant for the entire family the week after Mary’s graduation. He told everyone that it was a dinner to celebrate Mary’s graduation from college.
Matt would be finished with his sophomore year at Columbia and the entire family would be home.
Mark had been offered baseball scholarships from several colleges, even though he still had one more year of high school year to go. Mark decided on UCLA, because he wanted to stay in California. He would major in History and minor in Physical Education.
The big night finally arrived. Everyone, including Mary thought the dinner was to celebrate Mary’s college graduation. Everyone was dressed up.
When they arrived at Francisco’s they found a long line of angry people standing outside the restaurant. Joe had everyone wait in the van while he checked on their reservations. As Joe approached the door, he heard several people arguing about their reservations.
The only person, who knew that Joe was the owner of the restaurant, was the manager David Jameson, who was not working that night.
Joe approached the hostess, who appeared to be eighteen or nineteen years old. Joe asked her why so many people were waiting to be seated if they had reservations.
The young lady looked around and whispered to Joe that the assistant manager Ethan, who was the manager’s nephew, had invited a bunch of his college buddies to the restaurant and they had been drinking and partying for quite a while and they refused to leave.
Joe asked to speak to Ethan. When Ethan arrived, Joe told him that he should honor the reservations of the people who were waiting. Ethan, who had been drinking, just laughed at Joe and told him that he was the one calling the shots. Joe insisted that Ethan call the manager, but Ethan refused.
Joe went outside, called Dave Jameson on his cell phone, and explained the situation to him. When Dave arrived, he asked to see Ethan and when Dave demanded an explanation from his nephew, Ethan was extremely rude to his uncle. Dave told Ethan that he was fired and told him to leave immediately to take his friends with him before he called the police.
Dave started to apologize to Joe, but Joe interrupted him and told him that he did not hold him responsible for his nephew’s actions.
Joe and Dave discussed the situation for a few moments. They approached Ariel who was the hostess and Dave offered her the job of assistant manager. He introduced Joe as the owner of the restaurant.
Ariel did not know if she could do the job. Joe told her “It took a lot of nerve to stand up to Ethan. I know that you can do the job. I have faith in you”.
Ariel accepted the job and once the tables had been cleared, Ariel, Dave and Joe started seating the guests as quickly as possible. Joe apologized to them and informed them that the dinners were free, and that they would each get gift certificates for another visit as well.
When all of the tables were full, there was still a party of thirty guests whom there to celebrate a couple’s fiftieth anniversary. Joe had reserved the private dining room for his family, but it was big enough for two parties. He invited the other party to join him and his family in the private dining room.
Mary and her family had been patiently waiting outside the restaurant, and had not seen that Joe had helped take care of the situation. Joe escorted them into the private dining room. Dave and Ariel quickly started bringing menus and taking orders from Joe and his family as well as the party of thirty on the other side of the room.
Joe sent a few bottles of very expensive champagne to the other tables to help them celebrate the fiftieth anniversary. Dave apologized to them and told them that their entire dinner was on the house.