The Olive Garden Mis-Adventure

I was supposed to meet a friend at the Olive Garden at 6:00pm. I arrived early at 5:50 pm. The joint was packed tonight! I mean you would think that my man Michael Jackson was making an appearance. The wait was 30 minutes and counting as more people arrived.

I didn't have a watch, and I left my cell phone at home this morning but I do have a pretty clear idea of how long I've been waiting on my friend to arrive as I sit on the cold bench with stomach growling near the entrance catching all the brisk wind blowing in my face as each person arrives.

I have the little light up buzzer thing in my lap that will let me know when my table is ready. I'm cool, content, just waiting, and waiting, and waiting thinking every brotha that walks up is him. An older gentleman sits next to me and I ask him for the time. It's 6:20 pm. OK, I'm ready to leave because I have waited long enough. I'm also thinking that something may have happened to my friend on the way to Olive Garden. I'm also trying to gauge the time I've waited to be seated, the time we'll wait for the food, and the time it will take us to eat because I have to be home before 8:00 pm to record my radio show.

I want to ask to use someone's cell phone, but I don't. I want to ask Olive Garden if I can use their phone, but I don't. At that moment someone that I haven't seen since high school walks in the door. He demands a hug and we exchange words, smiles, laughs, blah blah blah! I ask how many people are in his party because he can have my place in line. Damn, he has three, one too many! Just then my buzzer goes off.

I let the hostess know that the other half of my party is not here, so I'm gonna leave. She says "Well, your table is ready now." Bless her heart, she misunderstands, or shall I say she doesn't know that I'm not the type to continue to wait at the table for my friend who is already about 30 minutes late. "Someone else can have my spot because my friend is not here." It's now 6:25 pm. Have I been stood up?

I drive home kinda upset, but also concerned. I can't wait to see how many missed calls I have on my cell phone. When I get home I have four missed calls from my friend and one text message. The text message says "The Garden is packed!", time 6:10 pm. So, I'm thinking what the hell, I was at "The Garden" at 6:10 pm, if you knew it was packed where the hell were you?

I call my friend and HE says that he was waiting in his car. Yes, this (I want to call him a bad name here) was in his car. Then he says, that he was waiting for me to call him. I was speechless. Granted he didn't know that I didn't have my phone and he stated he was also concerned that something happened to me, but it's a good idea to inside the restaurant! Get out of the car! Come inside; give your last name, how many people are in your party, and select non smoking. This is hypothetical because I was there before him. Had he come inside he would of seen a freezing and very upset Black woman waiting for him.

Then he went on to say that he's used to me calling him when we meet up at places (because he's usually running late) and since I didn't call he was in the car waiting for my call, and get this, he feel asleep! What am I his babysitter? OK, Dangerous is calling, she's here so I can get out of the car now and go inside. Huh?

I guess it just wasn't meant for me to try that Lasagna Rollatini with Chicken tonight. I had my mouth set! Some men are so slow and that's why he's just a friend.