Chapter 18: Steak Dinner

Posted: July 01, 2011 - 08:41:18 pm

Dexter had a very productive day. He decided that ending it with a steak dinner would be perfect. He arrived at his favorite steakhouse to find that it had changed. The parking lot now had a tent and a rather large modular building in front of the restaurant proper. There was a sign on the modular building to see the seating hostess inside.

Dexter walked into the modular building. There were three women standing at the hostess station. One of the women smiled at him and said, “Hello. My name is Susan. Welcome to The Great Texas Steakhouse.”

“Thank you ... uh ... Susan,” Dexter said rather surprised by the greeting.

“What is your name?” Susan asked.

“Dexter.”

She typed his name into a handheld device.

While she worked, she said, “Please pardon the appearance of our facilities, Dexter. We’re in the process of expanding the waiting area. This is just a temporary measure, until the expansion is complete.”

Dexter looked around. There were a lot of seats for people who were waiting. He noticed a small low table with small seats for children. There were a couple of cups with crayons and stacks of paper, for drawing. Remembering what it was like taking young kids out to eat, he knew that parents would appreciate that little feature.

“This wonderful,” Dexter said.

“So how many people are in your party?”

“Just me,” Dexter said.

Susan said, “Would you like seating at a communal table?”

“What?” Dexter asked.

“We had customer who suggested that people eating alone might enjoy sitting at a communal table rather than be seated alone. The idea is that one ... it gets you seated quicker, and two ... it gives you a little company while eating. It’s very popular,” Susan said.

“That would be fine,” Dexter said.

He always felt like a loser when seated alone in a restaurant. He also knew that it would allow the restaurant to get more customers through the place, in less time.

The hostess fiddled with her little handheld computer for a second and then said, “If you’ll come with me, I’ll take you to your table.”

“Okay,” Dexter said.

While leading him into the restaurant, Susan said, “Your waiter today is George.”

“George,” Dexter repeated.

It appeared that his waiter was actually going to have a name. It sure beat calling out ‘Hey you!’ when he wanted the guys attention.

“Our special today is the Tenderfoot Sirloin. It’s a twelve ounce sirloin steak that is between our Cowgirl Sirloin and the Cowboy Sirloin in size. We also have a Chuck-wagon Stew. It has beef, potatoes, carrots, and peas in a thick rich broth.”

“That sounds good, but I’m here for the large Porterhouse steak,” Dexter said.

“Now that is a real steak,” Susan said.

“I like it,” Dexter said.

Susan stopped by a table with six chairs. There were three men already seated at the table.

She gestured to a spot and said, “Here’s your seat, Dexter.”

“Thank you,” Dexter said.

While he was sitting down, one of the men at the table said, “Dexter? That’s a rather unusual name. You don’t meet many Dexters around.”

“That’s true,” Dexter said.

“You wouldn’t happen to be that Dexter guy with the website?” the man asked.

“I am,” Dexter said.

The man stood up and reached out a hand.

He said, “It’s a real pleasure to meet you, Dexter. Your website added eight thousand dollars a year to my income. I’m getting reimbursed for my data/phone plan, my home office, and the company gave me a corporate credit card for when I travel. By the way, my name is Tom.”

“Nice to meet you, Tom,” Dexter said.

One of the other men asked, “What is this about a website?”

Tom said, “This guy created a website that explained how to get companies to reimburse employees for expenses. Let me tell you, the stuff he’s got on that website works. When I sued my company to get the interest payments on my credit card reimbursed, the judge told the company lawyer that they had better get me a company credit card for travel expenses, as he was tired of listening to the same lawsuit over and over.”

“Really?”

Tom nodded his head and said, “The judge really let the lawyer have it. He said that covering the cost of doing business was the company’s responsibility and not the employee’s. The company lawyer spouted something about fraudulent use of company money and the judge nearly threw him out of the room. The judge started yelling that all it took to correct that problem, was to fire the person, and to hand the evidence over to the DA. I swear that lawyer slunk out of the courtroom looking like the judge had killed his dog, and set fire to his cat!”

“That’s happening everywhere,” Dexter said. “Emails to the website have told many similar stories. Small claims courts around the country are tired of hearing one case after another, dealing with the same issue. A couple of judges even hired temporary people to go through the bills before the cases were heard, to come up with a summary amount for the award. Cases are now taking mere minutes to be handled in the courtroom.”

“I’m traveling on my own credit card,” said one of men.

Tom asked, “Are you getting reimbursed on the interest charges?”

“No,” the man answered.

“Figure out what they are, and demand to get reimbursed. Dexter’s website even has a handy spreadsheet for figuring it out,” Tom said.

“No, I don’t,” Dexter said.

“Sorry. I got the spreadsheet off of one of the links on your page,” Tom said.

“What’s the URL for this website?”

Dexter handed the man one of his cards as he said, “This is my website.”

“I’ll visit it tonight, when I get to my hotel room,” the man said tucking the card into his shirt pocket.

The waiter arrived and said, “Hello, Dexter. I’m George. I’ll be your waiter this evening. Susan noted that you were interested in the Porterhouse steak.”

Dexter stared at George wondering how he knew his name and that he mentioned being there for the Porterhouse steak. He saw that the waiter had a handheld computer on a thin lanyard that went around his neck. He realized that George must have gotten his information off of the system. That was a nice touch.

“Yes, I am,” Dexter said. “I’d like the big porterhouse steak, cooked medium rare.”

“Excellent. Do you know what sides you’d like?”

“The baked sweet potato with extra butter, and the cinnamon sugar topping,” Dexter said.

“That goes perfectly with a good steak,” George said making note of that on the computer. “What kind of salad would you like?”