My significant other and I knew these other two couples for quite some time. One day, we decided, for a change, to dine outside instead of meeting at someone’s place.

We opt for a Mexican restaurant, place our orders, and enjoy the dinner and the conversation. Toward the end of my meal (something with beans), instead of their soft texture, I feel something hard under my teeth: I pull it out, and it’s a little pebble the size of a pea.

I call the waitress, who has been serving us, and inform her of what happened. She apologizes, asks me if I am okay, and goes to the kitchen to inform the cook.

She comes back a few minutes later, apologizing again and explaining that they recently changed supplier for their beans, and that was probably the cause of the mishap. As an apology, they will remake my dish.

Since it was the last spoonful, I told her not to worry and that I just wanted to be sure it didn’t happen again to someone less lucky than me. She then offered to at least comp our drinks.

I was about to answer with a polite “well, if you really insist” when one the women at the table with us started a long tirade on how I could have damaged my teeth with that little stone, that it was unacceptable for a restaurant to suffer those kind of incidents, and that we should get our entire dinner comped to make up for it.

We all, her significant other included, were embarrassed and looking at our plates while she went off at the poor waitress, who was explaining that they acknowledged the problem and they are already comping the drinks and asking if the other dishes had any other problem.

After what felt like an eternity, I stepped in, cut the whining short, and told the waitress I was happy with accepting the comped drinks. The woman tried to keep arguing while we were paying, and even when we left, saying it was dumb for me to let go so easily of the chance to get a free dinner.

I told her that if we are in such a bad need for a free dinner, then maybe we should not dine out next time.

She went quiet after that.