The Coffee Stare: A short story
"Hey there how are you?, you look familiar have we met before?"
"Possibly..?"
"Oh no really I'm kinda certain that we have met. Aren't you at the coffee shack sometimes? I remember getting a baguette one day and the cashier refused to allow you to complimentarily read the paper while you had your drink. They specifically said 'pay one dollar or put the paper back on the shelf', right?"
"Oh yes, that's right. I didn't have a dollar and they had a five dollar minimum limit for buying something with a credit card."
"Yea that sucks when that happens."
"Right, so then after being told, I proceded to neatly reassemble the paper in front of me, folding it's edges in mint precision and walking up to the stand to place it back. After retaking my seat for the next fifteen minutes I proceded to sip my coffee casually while only seldomly lifting my eyes from the recalcitrant cashier. Shea was her name, as I can recall from the name tag and a recollection that I obtained from a starefest of annoyance that was prompted in a minor antic of protest to the insistence that I pay to read one of the dozens of untouched newspapers during a simple 15 minute sojourn from my midafternoon activities."
"That's kind of disturbingly humorous, I guess. So long as you weren't a deranged misfit who really had it out for coffee shack cashier who apparently prided herself on such a frivolous agigitating policy of a customer paying to just casually read the paper for a few minutes. Did she get creeped out from your persistant stare?"
"Yes, rightfully..! In repeating pattern with no ugenct movement, I'd gaze in her direction, bend the arm, bow my head and slowly take a sip. Then I'd refocus my stare on the cashier, awaiting the next, sequential consumption of the beverage in my hand. All the while she rested her left hand on her hip, palm faced out and with the right hand melodramtically entering the price keys and then somberly call to the barista, a thin, tatoo clad youngster in a Frank Zappa tshirt.. 'triple vanilla blend mocha, or medium regualr with soy, or truffle cream capucino'. Between her assistance with several of the customers, she insultingtly looked and uttered at me, 'What?' 'Why do you keep looking at me?'
"Well I'd prefer to focus on the front page stories of the day. I found them to be quite gratifying until you unecessarily denied a complacent customer experiece due to the facsist implementation of a no pay, no browse policy of the unintelligent reading material which probably hasn't had more than a handful of purchasers from customers standing here, reciting drink orders and exchanging debit swipes and cash for their drinks. But you decided in an impractical expression of power, to revoke my simple act of perusing the local news while sitting comfortably, digesting at the time what was a delectable beverage but became less so at your strict dollar policy enforcement. So as it be, their was nothing else to occupy my simple experience here except to observe you, the blameful party of this diminished interlude from running errands on Wednesday afternoon."
"Have you been back since?"
"Once or twice." Then as I finished the last remaining sip of the then luke warm drink, I walked to the counter, placed the empty paper cup near the drink perparer and chuckled, 'papers should be complimentary to paying customers'."
Turning her back, the cashier looked at her coworker midway through steaming a kettle of frothed topping and shrugged an expression of dismay and grief. "Please leave" she uttered.
"Fine, next time I'll remember to carry my own news and not have to be so cumbersomely idle while drinking the overly priced, yet tasteful assortment of coffee that you serve here. Thanks anyway."
Then as I reached into my front pant's pocket to retrieve the keys before I exited to my vehicle parked right outside, I discovered a ruffled dollar likely tucked away since the last laundary session. "Oh, look at that" I said, "I'll be damned." then left it hastely in the glass tip container before rushing out the door. "Enjoy your day!" I said.