Barhopping (2 of 2): Unfortunate incident?.

Later that night I stopped through a late night Mexican cafe to get something to eat (which ended up being a torta with roast pork, and some of their hot pickled carrots and cauliflower from the plastic help-yourself container with metal tongs on the side of the table, though I didn’t touch the jalapenos), and the waitress got me a lot of refills of water.

When I was leaving, she manned the register, and as I pulled out my wallet, I swear I saw that I had 2 twenties, since when I flipped through my couple bills I was surprised I hadn’t broke the 2^nd 20 yet (the bars I had been at were cheap, I guess).

I then paid her with 1 of the 2 twenties, and with some of the change even gave her a 2-dollar tip, since she was so nice getting me all that water.

Then, as I was leaving, I started putting the bills into my billfold, and noticed it was only singles, there was no ten there, so I had to go back and ask for the ten.

She was confused, and opened up the register, and there was a ten sticking a bit prominently out of the register clip, and she noticed that and said that I had paid ten, but I said no, that I was sure that I had paid twenty, and was ten short.

The manager came and they talked in Spanish, and she gestured to the ten sticking out of the register clip, but he held up his hand in a kind of a ‘no’-sign, and she gave me a ten, as I was saying that if they wanted, they could count the register and tally receipts, I was sure that I had paid twenty, and would wait no problem.

I slunk out of that cafe, I was so embarrassed.

I’m very very sure that I paid a twenty and there was some mistake (or even that the waitress trying to pull a fast one and even set up that ten dollar bill sticking out of the register clip?), but I’d feel awful if there wasn’t.

I do wonder if that waitress was trying to pull one on me, though.  Some of the people there were a bit tough, and it’s the first late night Mexican cafe that I’ve ever been in where they don’t bring you a bill to your table, so somehow I wonder if she was underpaid and thought I was drunk and decided to try to pull one over on me.

For some reason, I get that sense, in retrospect, though she may also have been confused and saw that ten dollar bill sticking out and seized on that as evidence that she had indeed given me the correct change.