We agreed to meet up at a restaurant. I had some shoes to deliver to a client and he picked the venue. Great! I’d rather an eatery than some other queer public space. So I arrived there a little early. I picked a good spot, set up my laptop and got to work while I waited for my client to show up.  I decided to order for some snacks before any member of staff harassed me for using the space for something other than eating.

As I approached the food court, the attendants were very busy chatting. I had no idea what they were talking about but since none of them acknowledged me standing there, I went into angry mode. Then in a split second, before I could let out any fumes, thankfully, I quickly came to and decided to approach the situation differently. I let out a very wide grin as I called out to one of them. There! Someone was going to finally attend to me. Ok so after my order, I could not pay because I had no cash on me and my attempt to pay with their POS, failed several times. As my eyes locked on the attendant’s, I heaved a sigh. “I’ll just go back to where I was sitting and wait for my client to show up”, I thought to myself. “Hello madam”, the attendant called to me, interrupting my thoughts. With a smile almost as beautiful as mine, he asked me to go enjoy my meal and said it was okay for me to pay after I was done with my meeting. “I like your smile”, he added.

I had my snack. My client did show up. Our meeting held. It was a worthy meet. We all had lunch and this time, my debit card worked. I paid for my meal and the snacks I had earlier. Now that’s what a great day looks like – the perks, the profits; the magic of a smile!