Last week, I worked one of my shifts with a coworker named David. That afternoon, he answered a phone call just as the drive-thru tone beeped in our headsets. I was looking at him when I answered the drive-thru call, and what came out of my mouth was, “Hi, David, err, uh, welcome to Caribou!”, all running together as I realized what I had said.

The customer sounded upbeat and cheerful and I thought he missed what I said. Some customers don’t really listen to the welcome, but just wait until the pause that tells them it’s time to order. No biggie. When he got up to the window, he was laughing. Uh, oh. Might as well come clean, especially since he was genuinely laughing and didn’t seem to harbor any ill feelings.

I laughed, too, and told him about the phone ringing and my momentary lapse in thought. The best part was when he handed me his credit card. “The thing is, my name actually is David. Here, see?”

He added, “I thought, ‘How the hell did she know it was me? How does she know me? Do I know her?’”! We were both laughing hysterically by that point. It was just classic.

Good times, there!