Life dilemma: If you bought your Chipotle or Subway to go, can you return for a soda refill?

So you bought a Subway or Chipotle with a soda on the side, walked your meal to your nearby home or office, devoured it…and craved a pop refill.

Is it OK to go back for the refill? Or does the fact that you’ve left the restaurant grounds disqualify you from any further soda-dispenser action?

A coworker once smiled knowingly — actually, it was more of a sneer — as he saw me getting on the elevator with an empty Subway cup. He correctly surmised I was headed for my nearby sammich shop for more soda, and thought I was wrong to do so.

Was I?

I can get a refill if I am dining on the premises, after all, so why wouldn’t I be entitled to the same courtesy as a carryout customer who has returned within a reasonable span of time?

In the case of the Subway shops near my home and my office, for instance, I am eating my just-purchased meal within a city block or so. This seems scarcely different from using one of the restaurants’ outdoor tables and popping back inside for pop replenishment.

I confess to getting those refills with some regularity, but I have rules:

1) I have to do this within a half hour of getting a sandwich or burrito with a pop — and not a minute more.

2) I only go back once, for one refill — never two or three.

3) If I sense the slightest suspicion or disapproval from eatery staffers about what I am doing, I freeze and ask for permission to proceed. Actually, this has never happened — they always seem happy to let me fill ‘er up — but this always will be one of my rules.

So what say you? Am I right or am I wrong?

Update: I am so wrong, according to the majority of people who chimed in on this in the comments below, or on Twitter.

@blankbaby said: Refills are good for one visit only. Once you’ve left the shop you can’t go back and refill.

My pal @steinlicht said: You walk out the door — you pay for more. Refills are only okay if you stay in the restaurant. Says me.

@MichaelErb said: Disqualified. You may not return.

Others took a middle ground, suggesting I do this only on occasion, or come to some kind of agreement with the restaurant proprietors ahead of time so everyone is happy.

I did have one defender in @dnalves, who said: About the pop refill, I don’t think you’re wrong and they will have one more empty table for another client.