not really a cooking horror story, but:
a long time ago, a good friend/co-worker and i would go to a houlihan's (franchised) restaurant on columbus circle every thursday night for happy hour drinks and free grub from a trough.
i was in love with the barmaid. big green eyes, beautiful blond hair, great personality, really funny, i was smitten.
so for months i put on the full court press. she never said no, kinda yes to a date, and strung me along like a pro, but i was a walking hormone back then so i guess i didn't mind. i drove her home after work a few times, kissed goodnight but was never invited up. when i finally got a few dates out of her, we would always meet after work, never a proper pick-me-up at home kinda thing. everything seemed to be a go.
well, i was given a few tickets to bermuda as a present, so i was thinking of asking her to go. i called her house one day, and a very annoyed guy answered. the tickets were for the next weekend, so i needed to know right away if she wanted to go. he told me she wasn't home, and would take a message. i told him about the tickets, and he asked why i was asking his girlfriend to go to bermuda with me.
it all clicked. i apologized profusely, and couldn't wait to confront her. thursday came, and my buddy and i went in for dinner. i was blown away when she got angry at me for speaking to her boyfriend. she had supposedly warned me not to ever leave any personal info on her answering machine because her "roomate" was very nosey. i told her off, and was about to leave when the manager came over and informed me that she had broken a glass behind the bar right over the hurricane glasses, and used those glasses to pour our drinks instead of sending everything to the kitchen to be washed.
the manager apologized, and asked me to leave my name and number in case i got sick later and was gonna sue. i still don't know if it was intentional or not. she said she was very upset and wasn't thinking.
i never found out what happened to her, but i think she got fired for it.
i ran into her boyfriend in another bar one night, and he was a gentleman about it, albeit thru the gritted teeth and dirty stares...