Waitress slammed for serving ‘pregnant’ woman non-alcoholic cocktails

A waitress has been slammed for secretly serving non-alcoholic cocktails to a woman she thought was pregnant.

Posting to Reddit's Am I The Asshole? forum, the woman explained that she had been waiting tables for the last few years. And in a shift earlier in the week, a group of four women in their late 20s came in - who were, she said, a "pleasure to have as customers." The woman said:

"They ordered four of our house cocktails to start with and then went over the menu for their entrees.

"When I was on my way back to their booth with the drinks on a tray, I walked by the back side and overheard one of them talking about how she was 14 weeks along.

"When I rounded back, they were talking about the same topic and it was clear to me that she was pregnant. I figured her having one drink wasn't a big deal. They ordered their entrees and I went off to handle other tables.

"About five minutes later, they called me over again and asked for another round.

"At this point I started getting concerned, but I took the order and cheerfully said I'd be right back.

"This time, I went to the bartender, and asked him to make one of them a virgin cocktail. He was confused but since he's a good friend of mine, I told him to just trust me."

She said the table "started getting rowdy" a few cocktails later - and noted "Mrs. Pregnant Woman was also getting into it". The waitress figured that if the woman she believed to be pregnant didn't notice her cocktails were non-alcoholic, things were OK. Her post continued:

"The problem came when I took them their check, and they asked to split the bill at the register. When Mrs. Pregnant Woman got to the counter, I saw her cocktails were marked with (virgin). My bartender had edited each in the system for inventory.

"It was too late for me to edit them back, so I just had her pay, hoping that she wouldn't look at the receipt. They all thanked me and left, leaving a generous tip in the process."

However, a few minutes later, "Mrs. Pregnant Woman" returned to the restaurant and asked what the (virgin) on the bill meant. The waitress continued:

"I fessed up that it meant non-alcoholic. She blank stared me for a few seconds and then asked if she had ordered a non-alcoholic cocktail.

"I said no, but told her that I assumed she wanted one seeing as she was pregnant. It was a lame lie and I'll admit it, but she looked me in the eye and asked me to return her part of the tip. I did so.

"Then she talked to my manager. My manager took me into her office and literally shrieked at me until hoarse.

"I stood my ground and told her that I'm not going to be responsible for FAS. She told me that she was taking me off the calendar until she decided what to do with me.

"She also informed me that I could get the restaurant in serious trouble for discrimination, and upon examination of my state's laws, she is correct."

Reddit users agreed that while the woman shouldn't have been drinking alcohol if she was pregnant, the waitress was in the wrong for not serving what her customer had ordered - or for confirming if she really was expecting or not.

"She could have been telling a story about something else completely that happened when she WAS 14 weeks along (‘so, there I was in the middle of a board meeting, I'm 14 weeks pregnant and sick as a dog’)," one person pointed out. The response is to tell her that you are not comfortable serving alcohol to someone that is pregnant and go ask your manager to take over the situation," someone else added.