Omnivore - Forgiveness: sweeter than revenge

We dined at the new Spoon on Moreland Avenue in East Atlanta tonight — great, as always — and then headed across the parking lot to the highly addictive Morelli’s for ice cream and a life lesson.

Wayne ordered a crepe whose preparation created a bottleneck since only two employees were on duty. I enjoyed telling people who were drumming their fingers at the counter that Wayne was responsible for the holdup.

Eventually, one of the employees opened the pick-up window and slid an order toward a woman. “That’s not what I ordered, did I? I don’t think so,” the woman said, embarrassed. The employee apologized, asked for the order again, filled it and insisted that the woman’s companion take the incorrect order for no charge. They left smiling and literally promising to return many times.

Wayne’s endless crepe was finally delivered, but I still had not received my cone. The employee looked at me and said, “Did you want something?”

“Um, yeah. I ordered and paid you for a scoop of ginger-lavender in a waffle cone,” I said, feeling annoyed.

“Oh yeah! I knew that. Sorry, I forgot.” Ohhhh-kay.

She shut the window and, moments later, returned with my cone. “I’m sorry I messed up,” she said, “so I gave you two scoops.”

I felt happy-happy, joy-joy. Finally, a solution to all conflict. When you screw up and annoy people, just give them free ice cream.