No Cheese

The time was early morning. I pulled the Jeep into what I thought was the House of Pancakes, though one person who was with me swears it was Wendy's. So now I think it was probably neither. I think it was Casa de los FlapJacks. It was closed due to Covid, but the drive-thru was open. I pulled up to the speaker box and a female voice asked what I wanted to order. I said, "Number seven with no cheese."

The voice asked, "Do you want no cheese on blah or no cheese on blah-blah?" Just to be clear, she didn't actually say "blah." She used a word I was unfamiliar with or perhaps she wasn't pronouncing it correctly. I'm substituting "blah" for that word. 

I replied as clearly as I could, "I want a number seven with no cheese." I don't want cheese in my food. No queso in my comida. NO CHEESE on my number seven. What could be more clear?

Now the voice was annoyed with me. With a sigh and an "Oh my God," the voice again asked, "Do you want no cheese on blah or no cheese on blah blah?

I was not only getting frustrated, I was annoyed that the woman behind the voice was annoyed. "I don't know what the flip you're talking about," I said truthfully and drove away. There are plenty of places to eat breakfast in a city of 99,000. I don't have to go in circles with a woman who cannot understand the meaning of the two words "NO CHEESE."

Is it me? I thought "no cheese" was self-explanatory.  Like "no spit." Do I have to explain exactly which items should not have spit on them? Maybe I'm doing something wrong. But I know this: when you have a disagreement with the order-taker, you don't want to take that order. It's time to drive off.