Sorry Isn't Going To Cut It, Reader!

Shriek: To utter a loud, sharp, shrill sound or cry, as do some birds and beasts; to scream, as in sudden fright, in horror or anguish. 

I'm enjoying my favorite Overpriced Specialty Coffee Drink at Starbucks yesterday - minding my own business, thinking about myself, wondering why other people weren't being more diligent in their efforts to think about me - when I become aware of a ruckus nearby.  Perhaps this ruckus had been going on for a while.  I really couldn't say.  My ability to block out every external stimulus to think about myself is unparalleled.  

It was a man in a suit jacket screaming into his cell phone.  He was extremely upset at Karen.  I gleaned from the shrieking that she was a customer service rep at a cell provider, or maybe an internet provider.  I was too busy ducking the flecks of spittle showering the immediate area to be entirely sure.  It sounded like Karen's company had interrupted this guy's service.

"Sorry isn't going to cut it, Karen!" he'd yell.
"I'm not getting off the phone until I speak to a supervisor, Karen!!" he'd shout.
"I've referred a lot of people to you, Karen!!!" he'd bellow.
"I've been with you for two years, Karen!!!!" he'd scream.

(I know - I hate exclamation points, the most overused punctuation mark out there, but the guy was really shouting.)

If I was Karen I would have hung up.  I don't think this guy understood the mechanics of a phone conversation.  I would have said: "Buh-bye."  I might have said: "Stay on your phone all you want, dude."  It wouldn't have been out of character for me to whisper menacingly: "I could have you killed."  THAT might have shut the guy up.

I particularly enjoyed that this guy was sitting at a Starbuck's themed table and using some free Starbuck's wi-fi without actually . . . you know . . . purchasing an overpriced specialty drink.  I was confused as to why he stayed with a company that treated him so poorly and why - in god's name - he would refer other people to said company.  What was he, some kind of sadist?

I don't believe he was thinking about me.