Cafe Owner Reserves the Same Table for Years, Lady Comes and Says, “I Reserved It 33 Years Ago” – Story of the Day
Joe kept a specific table reserved at his seaside cafe for 33 years. Regardless of what customers demanded, he refused to allow anyone to sit at the table until one fateful day.
Joe’s new customers walked into his cafe and never dared to sit at the table with the candlelight on and the ‘reserved’ sign on it. But his regular customers would constantly bug him about the table. “Why won’t you let us sit there? No one ever comes regardless of the reservation,” they would complain.
“I don’t care; it’s reserved,” Joe said.
One day, one of the regular customers was feeling particularly impatient and asked one of the waiters why Joe was so insistent on keeping the table reserved. “What is your boss’s problem?” she demanded.
“Look, it’s a sad story, don’t pester him,” the waitress said. “Joe’s parents owned this cafe before him. 33 years ago, when he was 18, he was madly in love with a girl named Linda, but her parents didn’t think Joe was good enough for her and forbade her from seeing him.”
“Okay, now I’m interested, you have to tell me the whole story,” the customer begged.
“Well, the parents moved to Europe with Linda as soon as the school year ended. But the day before the family left, Joe ran over to her house and asked Linda to join him at the cafe. He told her that he reserved a table for her and a candle would be lit, waiting for her to join him,” the waitress said.
Linda’s family decided to move to Europe at the end of her school year. | Source: Shutterstock
As the waitress explained the rest of the story, she told the customer that Joe had waited for Linda at the cafe, but she never came. Her parents forbade her from going to see Joe one last time. On that night, Joe promised himself he would keep the table reserved, with the candle lit, in the hopes Linda would return one day.
“Wow, that is such a sad story; I feel bad for pestering him about the table,” the customer said and left the cafe.
One day, a lady walked into the cafe and was headed toward’s Joe’s reserved table when the waitress stopped her. “No, ma’am, I’m sorry, but that table is reserved,” she said.
“Well, good, because I reserved it 33 years ago, and I’d like to finally use it,” she replied.
Stunned by what the woman said, the waitress didn’t know what to say. Then she managed to blurt out, “Please wait here. I’ll be back in two...