Waitress Kicks Out Little Boy from Cafe, Then She Sees His Tip and Cries — Story of the Day

A waitress who was always mean to a poor little boy discovered how much he cared about her one day, after which she burst into tears.

Jessica was a beautiful young lady with aspirations to become an actress, but she was very poor. Her dream of becoming an actress sprouted roots deep within as a child.

Her family could never afford cable television, but her neighbors had been privileged to have it, so she spent a lot of time watching the TV screen through the window each day.

The dramas she got to watch were engraved into her memories, and after she had a conversation about it with her mother, Jessica found out how the movies were made. It had become her dream to become an actress who would make people feel something with her performances from then on.

She was quite passionate about it, but unfortunately, her parents could not afford to send her to any schools for acting, so as soon as she got older, she moved to a bigger city to further her career.

The city she chose had first been Chicago; however, there had not been a way she could earn money there, so she moved to New York instead. There she secured a job as a waitress at a cafe.

Jessica lived with her head held high but deep within herself, she felt ashamed because of her poor background. She slept at a shelter, and her work clothes were always rough because she sometimes slept in them — her boss, Mr. Sharp, had even complained once.

"I understand your current predicament Jessica, it is why I hired you. What I don't understand is why you insist on showing up to work wearing a crumpled uniform," he told her one morning when she ran into him dressed in her rough clothes.

"I'm sorry sir, I'll find a solution soon."

"It's not good for customer reviews when one of my workers always turns up looking like what the cat dragged in," her boss said before leaving her to sulk.

Apart from her bad uniform, the life Jessica lived was much better than the one she had with her family. Her job also helped her meet more people, which was very important since everyone knew talent scouts often hung out at cafes hoping to spot promising individuals.

That's why she found little Johnny very annoying. He was a little boy who went to the cafe every day just to look at the ice cream display cases or sit at a table while watching the other customers eat.

She thought it was a begging strategy because the patrons of the cafe always seemed happy to leave him some change on their way out.

Jessica tolerated him because she understood what it was to be poor; however, on days when there was a lot of work to be done or if she was in a bad mood, she would kick him out of the cafe.

Both scenarios often came up, but despite how mean she often was to him, the boy always had a compliment for her whenever he came around. "You are very beautiful, Miss Jessica," he would tell her with a goofy grin plastered across his face. Of course, she would ignore it, and instead remind him not to loiter in front of the ice cream display.

Because of how much time he spent at the cafe, Johnny often heard Jessica complain about her poor life. At those times, he did his best to encourage her with his silly antics.

Little Johnny was also poor, perhaps even more than Jessica; he wore crumpled, dirty clothes every day, and if he looked fat, it was because of all the handouts he got from the cafe workers and patrons. He was content with this, though, he never complained.

Because he liked Jessica, Johnny wished there was some way to help her live better. One day, the boy went to the cafe and asked her for a menu. She reluctantly approached him, afraid that she was wasting time again.

"If you so much as attempt to waste my time, I will strangle you and I mean it," she said as she moved towards him.

"I'm not, I swear it ma'am," he said sincerely.

"Okay what do you want today?" she asked when she reached him.

"How much is a banana split?" he asked shyly, unused to asking for the price of the listed items on the menu.

"Five dollars," Jessica answered.

"And how much is the cheapest ice cream?" the boy inquired further, not knowing his questions had started grating on her nerves.

"Two dollars," she answered impatiently, having noticed that a company of decently dressed people had entered the cafe.

"I'll have that," he said, grinning with satisfaction as though he had solved a puzzle.

Jessica hurried away and later returned with a bowl of the cheapest ice cream. Johnny thanked her, ate it, paid, and left. "Thank goodness that boy left quietly today," she muttered to herself as she walked towards the table he used.

She had been about to clear the dishes when she noticed that the boy had left a huge tip for her. It was three dollars, and immediately, she recalled how he had been curious about the ice cream he wanted.

She quickly did the math; Johnny left her three dollars, and he purchased ice cream worth two dollars which meant he had five in total. That could have afforded him the banana split, but because he had wanted to leave her a generous tip, he had instead ordered the cheapest.

Jessica could not hold back her tears at that reality.

"Who was he? And why did he do that for me?" she asked herself over and over as she rushed to find him. However, it was too late; the boy was long gone. She waited for him to return later that day, but he didn't.

Jessica felt terrible. She remembered how nasty she often acted towards the boy and vowed to be nicer to him from that day forward.

The following day, when the boy sauntered into the cafe with his usual grin, Jessica had one for him as well. It scared him at first but after a few minutes, he started enjoying the attention.

"Why did you do that?" she asked as she set a bowl of banana split in front of him.

His eyes widened. "For me?" he asked.

"Yes, for you, and you know what I mean so stop acting like you don't," she replied, eliciting a blush from him.

He took several spoons of the delicious treat into his mouth before he answered.

"I just always hear you complain about how hard things are for you so I decided I would help you out a bit. My mom says it's the proper thing to do for friends," he said.

It gave Jessica a lot to think about but from that day forward, she was always nice to little Johnny.

What did we learn from this story?

• Don't reciprocate evil with evil. Jessica had a lot on her plate, which made her very watchful of her time, and when it seemed like Johnny was bent on wasting it, she started to kick him out of the restaurant. The boy did not hate her for that and instead wanted to find a way to make life easier for her. It ultimately changed the way she felt about him.
• Never give up. Jessica was determined to achieve her dreams, and if she had to work at a cafe to begin that journey, she had no issues with it. She was ready to give it all it took, and that is what success is made of.

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If you enjoyed this story, you might like this one about a waitress who got rewarded for feeding a homeless man who paid with a note he left under his plate.

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