Kenyata White and Aeimee Diaz were quietly celebrating their anniversary on Sunday at the District American Kitchen & Wine Bar inside the Sheraton Phoenix Downtown Hotel. The couple, both 38, met at the restaurant, but they weren't exactly given a warm welcome this time around. White describes what happened,
My partner and I were reminiscing ... in one of the tall booths. I had my arm around her neck, and she had her hand around my waist. I gave her a hug for about a minute, pulled myself away to give her a quick kiss, and then we continued talking.
A manager came up to them and said their behavior was inappropriate, and they needed to leave because they were making a group of men at a nearby table uncomfortable. White says he kept repeating to them, "There's thousands of rooms here. You need to go get one." Ugh. Aeimee started crying, and then he felt bad so he offered them free drinks if they came back the next day. Yeah, not exactly the best way to handle that situation.
White was understandably irritated by the experience, so she posted about it on Facebook, and got a much bigger response than she'd bargained for. Soon the restaurant's page was being flooded with angry comments. Hotel management eventually picked up on it and appears to be taking it very seriously. They met with the couple yesterday in an effort to smooth things over, but there's no word on what, if any, resolution was achieved. Diaz and White are handling it very gracefully, and Diaz said yesterday that she'd rather the employees be taught how to handle these situations than be fired.
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