Coffee Ch. 01

My daily routine is simple, efficient, and- well, routine. I am an early riser and follow the same path every morning for a short, brisk walk to the university gym. An hour of exercise follows, then a scathingly hot shower and the purchase of a bagel and some fruit from the small commissary in the student union. Six hours of interminable classes, hour after hour of psychoses and diagnoses, another short walk home, six more hours bending over one book or another, or straining to decipher a garbled lecture off of my mini-recorder. Then I throw some random items together for dinner and begin preparing for bed. My weekend schedule doesn't alter much. Simply replace the words "class" and "homework" with twelve hours of mind bogglingly simple-minded work at the University Drive Taco Bell and there you have it.

There are two things that keep this wearing schedule bearable for me- one is an evening bath, music a la obsession of the week on the CD player, a single glass of merlot in one hand and a pulpy fiction novel in the other.

The other I have to slide into my routine as time and circumstance allow. The College Market, a mom-n-pop-cum-coffee-shop, stands en route from home to the university. Once a day, going to or coming from classes or work, I manage to stop and step inside the doors long enough to pull a breath of decadent steam into my lungs to savor for the rest of the day. I allow herself a single cup of the dark brew once a week, but the blends I prefer tend toward the extravagant, and a student living on part time Taco Bell wages has a hard time supporting any extravagant habit. I don't have a coffee maker at home, either, because I prefer to come down to the Market and bury my whole body in the experience- the smells, the worn couches populated by students and professors, reading or debating, some poet off in a corner working on the rhythm of a line with the concentration of a Philharmonic conductor, walls floor to ceiling with books, others stacked on tables, still others lying abandoned in the sunshine on the windowsill.

So, most days, in concession to the expense, I merely satisfy myself with the smell. Some days, the sweet scents of vanilla or hazelnut or toffee cling to my skin for hours. Other days, I can turn my head in class and the dense fragrance of dark Arabica clouds from my hair. Most days, it is enough.

And so, late in the afternoon on a Friday in mid-April, wholly unsatisfied with the progress I was making studying at home on my diminutive couch with the cat head-butting my elbow for attention and a pile of dishes screaming at me from the kitchen sink, I decided it was time to treat myself to a cup of expensive brew. I slid my books, notebook and recorder into a worn shoulder bag, flung the works over one large shoulder and commenced the short walk to the College Market.

Outside, warm air brushed my brown hair back from my face. Whispers of breeze tangled in the hem of my tank top, making me crave summer, and a long hike in the dark green hills. I peered wistfully over the rooftops as I walked past. Scout Mountain still wore a crown of white, the upper reaches not yet free of the strangling snow. There was still time, then, before my favorite trails would even be passable, let alone before I could walk them without ending up knee deep in mud. Right now, however, I felt that ending up knee deep or deeper in mud would be preferable to slogging through the pile of make work my professors were demanding as the semester neared its end. I sighed and kept walking, dragging my eyes and mind down from the mountain to more mundane things.

A block ahead I could see the brick patio and brightly painted window of the College Market. Small groups congregated on the patio, huddling to light their cigarettes and staying clustered, as if afraid their smokes would go out without the buffer of other bodies. I walked past the acrid clouds of smoke- almost, but not quite craving a cigarette- and through the glass doors into the coffee-warmed brightness of the shop. I hadn't realized how dim it was getting outside.

A table was open near the large front window of the shop and I dropped my bag in one of the chairs. My wallet was buried somewhere in the mess of my bag. After some searching, I found it in the deepest, darkest reaches, tangled with a copy of my half-finished paper on antisocial behavior. I sighed and shoved the paper back in the bag. I had almost forgotten it existed.

The counter swarmed with coffee addicts. A couple of the boys in the group were letting their coffee sit, though, apparently finding the girl behind the counter of more interest. I elbowed a space between two freshmen and stole a glance at her before gazing up at the hand-lettered board resting on a narrow shelf above the row of espresso machines. I could see why they were interested. She was tall, about my height, and broad-shouldered, like me, but there the resemblance ended. Her black hair was cross-cut with slices of bottled blood red, and her eyes were large enough that the black edging on them make them appear surreal; japanime in an apron. I thought I may have seen her somewhere before, either passing by here, or in some class or another.

The smell of coffee was overwhelming me now. I ran a finger across my wallet and silently calculated how much I had to spend. The special was a large mocha au lait. Three-fifty. Probably about fifty cents more than I ought to really spend, but I felt the chocolate was worth the extra change. I could give my cat half a can of cat food for a couple of days; she never finished what I put in her bowl anyway.

Satisfied with my self-justification, I signaled to the waitress when she turned my direction. She smiled as she came over. I asked for the special and handed her my cash, and watched her bustle back to the espresso machine. She did have a strong frame, like me, but it seemed softer than my body, just in the right places. Maybe I spent too much time working out. Nah. Machines hissed and steamed, and she eventually produced a hot mocha au lait. I thanked her, folded a dollar into the tip jar. It was another extravagance, but god, she had to pay for that eye makeup somehow, and I wasn't about to be the one to make her give it up.

Rather than return to the table and face the homework in my bag, I wandered through the bookstore portion of the Market, hoping something interesting would catch my eye while I drank my coffee. Most of the fiction section was titles I'd read before. They did have Alice Hoffman's newest, but it was brand new, a condition in which I knew I'd spill coffee the minute I opened it up. So I picked it up and read the dust jacket, then returned it to the shelf with regret. It had been much too long since I'd been able to retreat into a little fantasy, and Alice Hoffman was one of my favorite writers.

I moved over to the psychology section, knowing the books there would hit my guilt buttons, but sometimes the owner of the Market would have some rare books in here, old texts from the fifties and sixties, booklets about the work of Kinsey. There was nothing of that sort here today, but standing there did give me a clear view of the waitress. She was a pleasure to watch work. I flipped through a couple of abnormal psych books while I watched her, trying to pretend I was interested in the material. She looked up and caught me once. I stared back for a split second and shoved the book back into its niche, then moved back toward my table.

At the table, I sat with my back to her, hoping to avoid the temptation of watching her glide through her duties and instead focus on homework, including that forgotten antisocial behavior paper. I pulled in out of the bag and, smoothing it out on the tabletop, began to read it over. Every few minutes I picked up my coffee and ignored my paper for long enough to close my eyes and savor the taste. I closed my eyes to be totally alone with that flavor.

It was, therefore a surprise when I opened them once to see the waitress standing at my table, a coffee in one hand.

"Ummn, hi," I said, blinking up at her, and trying to keep looking her in the eyes, as her chest was exactly at head level for me.

"Hi. Sorry to scare you. Just-" she put the coffee down in front of me. "You seemed to be enjoying that coffee so much and I had a customer who couldn't pay for this one and I hate to see it go to waste." She was blushing. I hadn't taken her for the type who blushed easily. Interesting.

"I can't pay you for it either."

"That's ok. I would just have to throw it away anyway. I just thought you might enjoy it." Her blush grew a little deeper. "I have a question to ask you though. I saw you, a couple of times, speaking with my abnormal psych professor, Dr. Delaware?"

"Yes, she's asked me to student teach a couple of her classes when I start the graduate program next spring." I nodded and picked up my half-empty coffee. Now I was confused. She stood in front of me blushing like a virgin, but it seemed she merely wanted help with psych. How disappointing. At least she brought me free coffee.

"Well, I was wondering if maybe you could help me study? Maybe read my term paper? I want the opinion of someone who has already taken the class and knows what Dr Delaware expects?" She was practically twitching now, her blush growing up into the roots of her red and black hair, voice rising in pitch at the end of each sentence.

"Well, I don't really have much time-"

"I could make it worth it!" She blushed even harder. I smiled. "I mean- I could bring you coffee when you help me. It's only a sophomore term paper anyway. It's only about fifteen pages. Please?"

At the please and the look of utter desperation in her eyes, I simply could not refuse. What can I say, I liked the way she begged.