A couple of weeks ago, I attended a couple of weddings. This is the reason that there were some missed blog posts around that time. Going in, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I actually quite liked both of them.
At the first of the two, other than the groom, I didn’t know anybody else. Thankfully, it wasn’t too difficult to ‘click’ with the people I had been seated near. I spent most of my time chatting friendlily with them.
“I’m looking forward to the dessert,” I said to the woman next to me. “I love sticky toffee pudding.”
“How do you know that you’re getting the sticky toffee pudding and not the pear crumble?” she asked. “I was never given the chance to choose.”
This was when the tension of the evening presented itself – I hadn’t realised that there were two dessert options and had been thinking about the sticky toffee pudding for a while, but now I realised that it was not guaranteed. Thankfully, the idea of the pear crumble was also pretty appealing to me, so I would be happy either way, even with the sticky toffee pudding.
“I’m going to be unhappy if I can’t have the sticky toffee pudding,” she said. “I hope that you’ll swap with me if you get one and I don’t.”
“Let’s cross that bridge when we come to it,” I said.
Eventually, the desserts started coming out. I started to try and identify some kind of pattern which might give me some clue as to how they were distributed. It was noticeable to me that sticky toffee puddings were the vast majority – in fact, for a long time I didn’t see any pear crumbles.
But then I noticed the pattern. Pear crumbles were coming to the guests I knew were vegetarian (we vegetarians have a telepathic link, that’s how I knew who was) and sticky toffee puddings were coming to everyone else. It made sense, because it was a dessert that was also vegan friendly (and they were getting it too), while the sticky toffee pudding would not accommodate vegans. This was a little bit sad, because I would have preferred the sticky toffee, but it wasn’t too much of an issue. The woman next to me was not vegetarian, so she would be happy.
Eventually both a sticky toffee pudding and a pear crumble were headed our way. I accepted my fate. Pear crumble would be my dessert… but then things took a very interesting twist. I got the sticky toffee pudding and the woman next to me got the pear crumble. Almost certainly a mistake on the part of the waitress.
I smiled quietly to myself.
“I am so disappointed,” said the woman next to me, moderately loudly.
“I’m so sorry,” said the waitress, turning back around. “Did I bring you the wrong one? I can bring you a sticky toffee pudding.”
“No, don’t worry,” said the woman next to me. “It honestly doesn’t matter much. I was exaggerating. I’ll have this. It’s fine.”
“It’s okay,” affirmed the waitress. “I’ll bring you a sticky toffee pudding.”
“I feel bad,” said the woman to the table, “I don’t mean to be difficult.”
“It’s okay,” said someone else. “Honestly, I’d prefer a pair crumble, so let’s swap.”
And now this story draws to its very satisfying close. Of course, since the waitress had still gone to collect another sticky toffee, one was still brought out. But now, everyone had their fill of desserts. So what was to be done? Why, the surplus sticky toffee pudding was given to me and I got to enjoy two delicious desserts – what a nice turn of events for me.
