The server had already folded that night into the stack of small hurts that came with the job. In Los Angeles, they were used to watching faces dim the second the check arrived, to seeing generosity shrink under the weight of calculation. That’s why the envelope sat for a moment on the counter, foreign and out of place, as if it belonged to someone else’s story. When they finally opened it, the note inside was clumsy, ink-smudged, and earnest. The teenagers apologized, admitting they hadn’t understood tipping, hadn’t seen the person standing behind the smile and the tray.

The money they’d scraped together mattered, but it wasn’t what loosened the knot in the server’s chest. It was the fact that these kids had chosen to look back instead of just moving on. In a city that often forgets faces overnight, that quiet act of correction felt radical. Respect, arriving late and awkward, still found its mark.