Photos ~ Sidewalk brew

I encourage your short stories/essays concerning the following photo. I'll post my own when I have a minute.

Comments (6) | To Top

8/17/2005 @ 8:12am

There had been worse days for Calvin, but today was nearly in the top ten. After nicking himself shaving, stalling the car twice on uphill stops, and nearly being run over by some crazy driver in an SUV, he was seriously considering just not going to work that day.

He wasn't superstitious or anything, but he did work on the 13th floor of his building (not given that number, of course, as the elevator skipped number 13 and went to 14). And he did own a black cat who was decidely cranky that morning at breakfast. So when he walked into the lobby to get into the get the elevator to work, he made the decision to do an about-face and go across the street for a latte instead. He thought it might be better to shake up the normal decision-making process, especially since the elevator had been acting up that week and had trapped numerous people in it on several occasions.

Back out in the weak winter morning light, Calvin started to dig into his shoulder bag for some change to buy his latte. He moved forward without looking up and promptly collided with a woman carrying an enormous bag of coffee beans. The beans sounded like muffled marbles as they tumbled out of the split in the bag.

"Oh, god, I'm so sorry!"
He looked up and realised it was the sexy girl from the 21st floor that he could never bring himself to talk to. He cursed himself for not calling in sick. She stood there and looked at the spilt coffee as if assessing the damage.
"What was on your mind?" she asked, calmer than he expected as there were several pounds worth of most likely expensive Starbucks coffee beans surrounding her feet.
"I was looking in my bag for money for a latte." He couldn't help but smile.
"Well no need to try and make your own on the sidewalk." She apparently appreciated the irony as well. Looking both ways, she stooped and began to put handfuls of the beans into a shopping bag she had. "They're going to be ground up and doused with boiling water, right? The execs will never know the difference."

They laughed together and Calvin tried his best to help her with the beans. When all but a handful remained, they stood up.

Before she could move toward the entrance, Calvin blurted out, "Would you like to join me for the latte?" He blinked and tried to calm down. "Most likely you won't want your own coffee for a while..."

She smiled and looked at her watch. "Sure I've got a few minutes. It's Calvin, right?"

He couldn't believe she knew his name! Unlucky day, what was he thinking? It was the best day in a long time.

"I'm Miranda."

He knew that, of course. Every man in that building knew her name. But she offered her name to him with delight, and he was happy to take her up on her offer.

"It's nice to meet you, Miranda."

by Toni

8/17/2005 @ 8:16am

P.S. Apologies for the grammatical errors. Should have done some editing...

by Toni

8/17/2005 @ 1:14pm

Well THAT'll certainly be hard to top. Thanks for the great story, sis!

by KevinFreitas

8/17/2005 @ 1:43pm

And in other unrelated news, George W. Bush's independently conceived plan, "A Little Joe for Every Hobo" took off this morning to an unsurprisingly slow start. Here in Boston, confused lookers on requested repeated explanations for the attempted free sun-brewed "americanos." Upon learning that New England weather officials had predicted hot summer storms for the day, many wondered why plans had not been tentatively made for three days later. And now, back to you Joan.

by Wendy Gilles

8/17/2005 @ 8:24pm

And here's a newsbreak---Seattle---Moments ago Starbucks announced a co-venture with Boeing in bio-chemical research that is promising. Bie-chemical engineers claim potential new fuel using Starbucks coffee as catalyst for cold fusion. Word is that in ten years, all air craft will be fueled by Colombian coffee beans. Insiders say, drug Lords are already making plans to switch to coffee plantations. Back to you Anderson.

by Sherry

8/17/2005 @ 9:17pm

"Psst! Hey! You okay?"

"Yeah. How 'bout you?"

"Not bad. So... now what?"

"Uh, well, I hadn't thought that far ahead yet."

"Doesn't seem like anyone's noticed us yet."

"True. This is good. Okay. Let's get a bean count... I got about 90, give or take."

"That's not bad. We can't just stay here though. We've got to make a run for it."

"We'll have a better chance if we stay together. Let's gather everyone up closer and begin to make our way -- wait! Someone's spotted us!"

"Oh beans!"

"No body move! I don't think he saw us. Wait..."

"Can you see what he's doing?"

"He doesn't have a mug or apron so I don't think he works for our former employer. He's just digging through his purse. What's that?"

"What?! What?!"

"He's coming closer! Everybody stay calm and just don't move! Maybe he'll just go aw-- AH!"

"Ahh!" "Ahhhh!" "Eeee!" "Ahhhhhh!"

"I can't see anything! You okay?!"

"Neither can I."

Very soon, one by one, each bean heard crunching noises as the city came to life at the end of a busy work day.

by KevinFreitas