A Twist of Lemon
Asking for a slice of lemon in your water may seem like a classy choice, but it has the potential to be gross. When you ask for lemon in your drink, your server often doesn’t have a chance to wash their hands before handling the fruit. That means their fingers are touching pens, phones, order screens, and who knows what else.
After touching all these contaminated surfaces, your server then touches some lemon slices and plops them directly into your drink! The OP is a waiter and has witnessed this cross-contamination many times. It’s not just an urban legend! A fellow waitress replied to the post by saying she always uses a skewer to serve restaurant fruits. She gets weird looks, but the sanitation is worth it.