A glass of water, please

This happened to me just yesterday. I was at the mall with my two sons, one 2.5 yrs old and the other just 5 months old. I had gone to pick up my elder son from school which happens to be on one side of the Metrotown mall. We walk all the way to the other side of the mall to take a bus back home. On this particular day, we were pretty close to the bus stand when my elder son suddenly felt really thirsty and you know how two year olds are, once they want something they throw all kinds of tantrums till they have it. So me trying to tell him to wait till we got home didn't work at all. There is this shop called "Little Tea House" just close to where we were. I have bought my bubble tea there many many times on our way back home, so I asked my son if he wanted some juice there and his reply was he was very thirsty and wanted just water. So I went there and stood in a queue and asked the girl at the counter for a glass of water. Her reply to me was "We don't have water here, just tea". It was a very rude and dismissive reply. Even though in my brain I knew how illogical it sounded for a bubble tea shop to say they didn't have water, I stood there speechless. I guess it is partly because you want to conduct yourself in a very calm and cool manner in front of your kids. So I decided I wasn't going to argue with her and I was just going to try the next shop, Purdy's (http://www.purdys.com/).
Again, this is one of those stores where we have bought ice cerams for my son almost every time we are at the mall for shopping. This time I clearly saw a water tap there and I went into the shop which was pretty empty and asked the person at the counter for a glass of water pointing to the tap as I said it making sure she understood I just wanted a glass of tap water. She nodded and looked at me and my kids and my hopes of getting some water for my son rose. She then told me "I am sorry, I cannot give you any water because the cups here are not for free". In such situations as these I get tongue-tied mostly because I know I am never going to be able to make the other person understand my logic. My brain was quickly processing the number of my son has wanted extra cups or spoons just to play around with his ice cream, which they have given to us without any questions. And then I realized in all those instances we had bought ice creams there. At this point I thought to myself, I could get myself some ice cream in a cup, ask her to dump the ice cream and give me some water. Sounded very dramatic so I dropped the idea and decided to the try the next store.
I had to walk a little further to get to this next store and by this time my son was pretty thirsty and was starting to get really annoyed. So I went upto this store called Mini D's Doughnuts. Now, I had never bought anything here so I wasn't familiar with what else they sold other than the obvious ... mini doughnuts. From the previous 2 turn downs as well as from my unfamiliarity with the shop itself, I was very sceptical and irritated. So I just asked her "Can I have a glass of tap water". Not even a please ... please don't ask me about manners at this point. To my utter surprise and delight I watched the girl at the counter go and fetch a glass of water in a styrofoam cup. She handed it over to me with an enthusiastic "Here you go!". I thanked her as I gave the cup to my son who gulped it down his throat with vigour. I turned around and said a big thank you and for the first time I smiled at her. As I my son was drinking his water I found myself eyeing their menu for the first time. I bought myself some doughnuts as I walked out of the store happily. I also told myself I would avoid going to Little Tea House or Purdy's. There is an adage that says "A friend in need is a friend indeed". I found myself thinking about this at that point. A store in need is a store indeed :).