I was the manager of a wings-and-pizza place with a full bar - definitely not the kind of place you'd take someone for a "romantic" Valentine's Day dinner, but it was still busy because some people aren't very tactful. We had a guy who had called ahead and asked if we could put a ring in a dessert for him and of course, we obliged. He dropped the ring off the day ahead and I put it in the safe in our office to keep it secure. Fast forward to Valentine's Day. The couple shows up, and they're so obviously in love that she didn't seem to notice or care about the fact that he had brought her to a middle-of-the road place with a sports-bar atmosphere on the most romantic day of the year. They ordered champagne (well, the local winery's best sparkling white), entrees, and it was almost time for dessert. I had used my Chef skills to whip up a special chocolate strawberry tart that wasn't on the menu, just for this occasion (because why not try to make their night at least a little fancy?) I went to the safe to get the ring, and... It wasn't there. I was freaking out big time. I asked everyone there if they knew what the f*** had happened to it. My assistant manager on-site had no idea, so I called my other assistant (who also had the safe code) and they didn't know, either. Finally, my bar manager mentioned that one of the owners had been in earlier, and spent a little time in the office. So, at my wit's end, I called the owner. It turns out that he had seen the ring in the safe, and thought it was something a customer had left behind. Figuring that he had come into an extremely lucky situation, he decided (like the scumbag he was) that he'd take it for himself and save money on a gift for his wife on Valentine's. So, I asked the server and bar manager to help stall the couple. The server told them that we were going to do something special for their big date, and to hold tight. I ran out, hopped in my car, and rushed to get the ring from the owner's house (because he was - as I had mentioned - a scumbag, and didn't want to be bothered with bringing the ring to the restaurant himself). The bar manager went over to the table, and did some complicated, table-side cocktail mix that had a bunch of flair bartending tricks and ended with a flaming shot that, once dropped into the rest, made it smoke (I was really disappointed when I heard about all of this because I would have loved to see it instead of breaking a ton of traffic laws on my quest to get the ring). Finally, I rushed back in after about 15 minutes of being on the brink of a heart attack, placed the ring on the dessert, and had their server take it out. At that point, just about the entire staff was watching the table, and when we saw the look on her face, my heart finally started beating again. She said "Yes." And, I started looking for someone else to work for the very next day.

16 years in hospitality gives you some good stories. The most awkward: My first job as a waitress a guy wanted to propose to his girlfriend. He came in 2 months before to book and had everything figured out. He planned to pop the question during dessert. We had champagne, balloons and sparklers prepped for the big moment. The time comes, he drops to one knee gives a speech about his love for her. He asks, she says no, puts the ring in her bag, finishes her dessert and leaves. Quite possibly the most awkward thing I have had to witness (alongside around 200 other people.) The manager gave him everything for free he felt that bad for him. Cringed inside every time I saw him after that. The most f***ed up: I was working as a duty manager and one of the tills kept dropping off the network. As I was trying to fix it I could clearly hear the conversation of the table by the waiters station. It started out sweet enough with her excitedly telling him she was pregnant. He went quiet and didn't say anything for a bit and then asked her what the plan was. She said she was keeping the baby. He said he didn't want kids and had told her this. She got upset and said she thought he'd be happy and change his mind when he found out. (By this point I've fixed the till, but am unable to step away from this car crash.) Turns out she stopped taking the pill without telling him thinking she could turn him around. He said he knew she could be a little nuts sometimes but this was next level. He told her it was over and she could send someone to collect her things as he wanted nothing more to do with her. He called me over to pay the bill and just left. The guy never even shouted, he just calmly went f*** this and noped out of there. I couldn't even look her in the eye, just left her to leave in her own time. The funniest: Managing hotel room service where there was a valentines package that included getting each course of the special menu delivered to your room. More than a few couples thought it was a good idea to call for the next course and then start having sex. Having to help with deliveries as reception f***ed up the bookings; I had the 'privilege' of people answering the door naked, seeing sex toys strewn around and one where the other members of the threesome were carrying on in the background. After complaints of similar instances from my team I had to take action. I ended up having to call the offending guests and tell them if they could not respect my team by answering the door in at least a closed dressing gown they could come down and collect the rest of their meal from the restaurant. Bonus from the same night: had to call an ambulance for a woman with a dislocated shoulder. The guy admitted that they were trying to recreate a bukkake type scene in the shower using conditioner as the 'cum.' He slipped in the conditioner and fell on her.

I worked at a pretty high end Mediterranean Bistro, my second Valentine's there it was probably the busiest night I've ever worked as a server. We had reservations that booked basically the entire restaurant including the bar and patio from 4 P.M to 11:00 P.M. No walk-ins were to be seated unless a reservation was cancelled, or someone with a reservation didn't show up. Most of the customers were pretty understanding and either waited or simply left. One dude however kept pushing and pushing asking every 10 minutes how much longer until he is seated, constantly saying how he is a regular customer; and how his date is going to be there at 7 (he got there at 6). We insisted that once a table was available, and all the customers before him we're seated, he would get a table, but because the amount of reservations we couldn't guarantee he would even get a table at all. At about 6:50 the guy loses it, fast-walks up to the hostess stand where the reservation book is, grabs the reservation book and practically runs out the front door. Now everything is going to complete s**t because the only copy of the reservations for the night that is barely half over is gone. Two of the owners ran outside to follow the guy and try and get the book back, but by the time they got out he had already left the parking lot. Even better is, two hours later, chaos is still running rampant and the dude shows back up saying he has a reservation for two. Three of the five of the owners (all brothers) escorted the dude and his date out to the parking lot and banned him from the restaurant permanently. They even took a picture of him and posted it in the window saying "Do Not Serve This Man"