So, I’m sitting in my corner of a local coffee shop. Supposedly I’m writing a very technical paper about financially incentivizing kidney donations. Actually I’m employing peak people-watching skills.
Anyway, I find my eyes wandering around the café in between paragraphs. As per usual, I have a meet-cute coffee date unfolding at the high-top near my perch. We see it in the movies all the time: the meet-cute coffee date. It’s magical, cozy, and adorably awkward. This is one thing the rom-coms seem to get right. I’m not sure why, but I feel compelled to write their story. It made me smile, and I hope you will, too.
Let me set the scene…
One soft-skinned, glassy-eyed duo of college students, likely making eye-contact for the first time. Let’s call him Lucas and her Lauren. They’re sat across from each other, chatting, giggling, then filling the quiet moments with glances out the window pressed against their shoulders.
Lucas’s body language suggests he’s negotiating a life-changing deal at an annual boardroom meeting. I have in earphones, but in my mind he says,
“I once saved 12 puppies and increased the life expectancy of sea turtles by approximately 33% in the third quarter. How about a movie next Saturday?”
Lauren is more relaxed. She seems to have that radiant glow that just draws people in. She uses every inch of her upper body to tell stories about her childhood, or maybe about a party she attended last night. . .who knows? I can tell Lucas likes stealing glances at Lauren and that it makes her feel bashful but warm inside.
Their hands shake a little as they fiddle with the handles of their cooling mugs. I love when that happens. It’s like a sign of investment – of deciding to be vulnerable again or maybe for the very first time.
Lauren and Lucas will probably fizzle come spring, but in my mind their shaking hands and stolen glances will live on forever.
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We live in a world full of hate and anger and tragedy, but there will always be coffee shops, and there will always be love. And I think that’s enough for me.
Oh, to fall in love in a coffee shop. . .
