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Asking the internet for advice usually goes one of a few ways.
Maybe you get an easy answer, or if you're unlucky, you get no response at all.
But sometimes your story becomes one of the internet's favorite things that day. Depending on your situation this could be good or bad.
This week, a Redditor's story took the internet by storm.
Fighting at Waffle House?
While the original post has been deleted, the Original Poster (OP) was asking for advice about her relationship. You see, her fiancé has a strange habit he has recently developed.
We'll get to that, but she starts with some background. It's important to explain why this is so worrying for her.
From the sounds of it, OP's relationship is pretty solid.
"I know this sounds really weird, but here it is:"
"My BF and I have been together for three years. We met and started dating when we were both in graduate school, but I dropped out to go back to college and pursue a different career. We are both finished now, and live together making a fairly nice combined income."
The income is relevant because as OP explains, it means they have the ability to go out to eat in nice places. But instead, the fiancé just wants to go to Waffle House.
OP speculates it has something to do with her fiancé's dad hating breakfast food and now he sees it as comfort food. But that alone isn't the problem.
As OP says, her fiancé is just the nicest guy.
Except at Waffle House.
"My BF is an incredibly nice and caring person. He's emotionally tuned in to everyone and recognizes arising issues a long time before they occur. He loves animals, and is kind and gentle with every bug, bird, and pet that he comes across."
"He's almost always willing to turn the other cheek in social situations where somebody tries to insult him or get aggressive towards him, and usually winds up defusing the situation and having a productive discussion about whatever the issue was."
"Except at Waffle House."
Okay, we're now in the meat of the story.
The reason we're all here. What could possibly be wrong with Waffle House?
Well, there's admittedly a lot that can go wrong at Waffle House. If you've ever been drunk at 2am and craved bacon, you know how weird it can get there.
And this is a little weird.
"Anytime we're out he wants to go to the same god***n Waffle House and get breakfast food. I'm not a big eater, so I used to not really care. I would just drink coffee and read my book while he enjoyed his food."
"But that became impossible once he and this one cook started chirping at each other every time we went there. BF complained about his eggs one time, because he likes them a little runny and they were served hard. The cook responded by giving him scrambled eggs."
"When he brought it up again the cook served him two hardboiled eggs. I think it was just part of the cook's schtick, and it was kinda funny tbh, but my BF wasn't able to laugh it off. When we left he was in kind of a bad mood, but we didn't really talk about it."
This seems like an issue with a simple enough solution, right?
You just stop going to that Waffle House. Maybe if you're particularly attached, you talk with the manager and see if another chef can make your food.
But that isn't what happens here.
"The next week we were out getting some shopping done, and he wanted to go to Waffle House again. I suggested that we try out a different place, or at least a different Waffle House location, but he only wanted the same Waffle House."
"We went in and sat down, and once again the same cook served his eggs wrong. My BF sort of snapped at him that he wasn't interested in messing around, and just wanted the correct eggs. The cook then served him a piece of toast with a hole cut out in the middle with a fried egg in it."
"My BF got really mad and threw the egg toast at the cook, which made the cook come around from behind the bar and throw it back at him. They ended up sort of wrestling/fighting until my BF was like "this is bulls***" and walked out."
"Nobody got hurt, but the few other people in there were watching and laughing a bit."
Okay, things escalated this time, but at this point, a normal person would stop, right?
Just go home and leave a bad review online and try the nice Denny's a few blocks away. No. No, you can't. You need to show that chef what's what.
And OP's boyfriend just can't stop himself.
"This is the crazy part: my BF keeps going back and ordering eggs and getting into fistfights with the same cook. It's almost a ritual at this point."
"My BF orders runny eggs, the cook serves him some other version of eggs, and then they beat the s**t out of each other. I quit going with him after the second fight, but he kept going by himself. They're like Peter and the giant chicken from Family Guy, it's the weirdest thing. They've physically fought like 6 or 7 times over this."
"I've tried to talk to him about it a few times, but he keeps saying it's a matter of principle. I've told him to talk to the manager or something like that, but he just waves me off. Apparently that cook hasn't yet made him the correct runny eggs, but it's like he spends the week learning new ways of preparing eggs to piss my boyfriend off."
I have about a thousand questions about this scenario.
I'm even putting aside the possible emotional issues OP's fiancé has that compels him to keep doing this.
Rather, what is the chef getting out of this? Sure, he gets a laugh, but then the guy tries to fight him? And how is he not afraid of getting fired if the fiancé were to complain to his manager.
Also, how many different ways can he prepare eggs? Honestly, I'm sure there's a good variety, but to just do it at the drop of a hat?
This is a lot to take in.
"The thing is, we're getting married this summer. He's accepted a job in a new city and it'll be easy for me to find work after the wedding, so we'll be moving away from his sworn enemy waffle house guy. He hasn't really been out since quarantine started, but it wouldn't surprise me if that's the first place he goes when restaurants open back up for sitting customers."
"But my main worry is this strange vindictive side of him I've never seen before that leads him to fight the same guy every week. The violence itself is an issue for me, but the obsession over it almost bothers me more."
"Should I be worried that this side of him will come up later in our marriage? How do I get him to open up about this? Is this type of obsession a choice, or is it indicative of something deeper?"
Admittedly, OP has a huge issue on her hands.
As amazing of a story as this is, she does have a lot to work out with her fiancé. Sure, we can all laugh at the idea of a guy getting into repeated fights with a chef at a dingy diner, like it's the most amazing gag in a real-life sitcom, but these are real people.
But this isn't something people would normally do. Is there an underlying issue? Does he need help coming to terms with whatever drives him to do this?
Luckily, OP is going to do the right thing here and get him some help.
"I know this sounds funny, but a serious response here. Perhaps the boyfriend has a compulsive disorder? And his mind literally can't rest until the situation is rectified. There could be an actual psychological issue here." - EssentialFilms
"We're going to sit down and talk about getting him some help today. There's definitely some trigger for him, probably connected to his father who he doesn't really talk about. There's no way that he's been "faking" his kind nature this entire time, and I'm hoping that we can get him the help he needs." - ThrowRA_wafflehouse
This is probably the right answer, but we can't help but wonder more about the situation.
Seriously, that chef is the most mysterious character in all of this.
Also, does anyone else want to go to Waffle House with me right now? I promise not to fight the chef.
*If you enjoyed this article, you can read more like it by clicking on the Relationship Advice link below.*
The book The Irritable Male Syndrome: Understanding and Managing the 4 Key Causes of Depression and Aggression is available here.