Courage in a Coffee Cup

Recently, while on a business trip Linus Nettle noticed something peculiar in his personal history. It is of note, that Linus had suffered with this peculiarity his entire life. You see, Linus Nettle had never had the courage to kiss a girl or ask her out on a date.

“May I take your order Sir?” the girl behind the counter asked. Linus searched the menu list over the girl’s head. Never trusting the absurd names coffee shops came up with for drinks, he kept searching for something he recognized.

“Sir, may I please take your order, there are other people in line, if you can’t decide then feel free to step aside and rejoin the line when you know.”

“I will have one black, medium coffee, thank you.” Linus smiled, satisfied with having made what he felt was a good decision. The counter girl rolled her eyes, and punched in the order not wasting a moment before asking the person behind him what they wanted.

Linus’ life revelation didn’t come at this point but rather at the point when he walked over to the counter where all the customers went to pick up their order. A different counter girl with long black hair, thick eye make-up and a silver nose ring gently put his coffee down on the counter and looked Linus straight in the eyes. With a sultry voice that Linus had only heard on infomercials for late evening callers she said, “May I compliment you on making the wisest of choices in your coffee selection.” Little did Linus know the girl was lacing her words with sarcasm. Linus was not used to receiving compliments, nor was he used to women of any sort talking to him. This unexpected interaction caused him to gulp his coffee hard, thus scalding his throat. He choked and coffee spilt out of his mouth and onto his blue striped tie.

The girl took her tea towel off her belt and handed it to Linus. He took it gratefully and began patting off the coffee while still smiling meekly at her as she began filling her next order. Several customers later, Linus was still patting, and the girl was still pouring only now Linus was feeling a bit awkward. Trying to decide whether or not to walk away with the towel or set it back on the counter, he kept patting. “I think you got it.” The girl was now looking at Linus again with her hand extended. With his extended hand wrapped around the damp towel, he smiled and said, “I really can’t thank you for all that you’ve done.” The girl grabbed the towel and slapped him rapidly in the chest with it two times, causing her thickly cut black bangs to swing back and forth. “You are a trip! If you are that thankful for me handing you a towel to clean up your mess, I can’t imagine how thankful you’d be if I did something really important. What's your name?”

“My name is Linus Nettle, pleased to meet you.”

They shook hands firmly causing the girl to laugh again at his formalities. Linus looked to be in his late 20’s as was she, but his dress and manner of speaking was that of a 50 year old man from a film set sometime in 1940. He was tall, wore a tightly fitting gray suit, and wore a hat with a navy blue ribbon that matched his tie.

“I am a window salesman. There is an expo being held here this weekend and I have come to set up a booth.”

“Wow! Sounds like a pretty wild time Linus Nettle. So is that how you always spend your weekends.”

“Well, yes.” Linus cleared his throat and struck up the nerve to ask, “And may I ask what your name is?”

“My name is Starling. And I get off in an hour.” Starling winked and shut the cash register drawer causing Linus to jump. Linus picked up his drink, took two steps back, and bumped into someone behind him who mumbled the word idiot as he walked over to the seats that were empty against the wall. He had not expected such a stirring change of events. Here before him stood one of the most delightful creatures he had ever set eyes on.

Sitting nearby two tables away from Linus was an old woman sipping on a cup of Earl Gray tea. The old woman kept staring at him and sipping on her tea. Linus had intended to go to his hotel but all he could think of to do was watch Miss Starling finish making her coffee orders for the rest of the hour. Linus marveled at the way this counter girl interacted with people. Some people were very business-like, not taking time to make much chit chat. Starling was the type that liked the talkers. Linus had never had the gift of gab, but now he was increasingly aware of the fact that he did not know how to talk with a girl, or rather a woman. Even in high school, he never had been inclined to ask a girl out. His parents, who were older and lived on a farm, never were concerned over his lack of a social life. They were proud of their son who always took his responsibilities seriously and got good grades. But romance wasn't a part of dinner conversation. The pride he took in his boring job was unprecedented. His work compensated him for his loyalty by giving him good pay, and good insurance. These were the things a good life was made of; so he had been told since the time he had been small. However, as of late, his loneliness began setting in stronger than it had in the past. Moreover, what did he have to offer a girl like Starling? She obviously had the world at her fingertips. She worked that counter like it was amusing to her and not like it was the job she desperately needed.

“So are you going to get the nerve up to ask her out?” Startled by this abrupt interruption of his daydreaming, Linus turned to see the old woman was no longer sitting two tables away but right up next to him even though there was no room at his single person table for her. She scooted as close as possible and tried to get up close to his ear even though he was much taller than she was. The elf-like woman caused Linus to shudder and reply, “I hadn’t really thought about it.”

The old woman was tiny with huge round blue eyes. She had obviously had her hair curled that very day and they were practically standing on end with a barrette clipped to the top of her head. It was very easy for Linus to picture what she must have looked like as a little girl. Now with age-lines around her mouth and eyes, she stared up at Linus with all the courage of a woman in her 80’s that clearly had nothing to lose. “Well, that’s obviously not true,” she remarked still looking up at him with several blinks of her eye lids making her look somewhat like a butterfly. “You’ve spent the last 20 minutes staring at her, practically drooling over the sight of the girl. I think she likes you too.” The old woman nudged him with her elbow. Linus rubbed his arm while she kept talking.

“No need to be afraid my boy, you like her after all, that should be an encouragement. I have ordered one cup of hot water to soak my tea bag in every Monday for the last 3 months and I have never heard her tell anyone the time she gets off work. Linus, having calmed down a bit from this attack on his personal space, looked at the old woman and then looked at Starling. He looked down at his cup of coffee, which had one cold sip left in it and then looked back up at the counter again. This latest piece of information gave him a dose of courage, which he sorely needed. He didn’t know exactly what he had the courage to do, but he suddenly felt a surge of adrenaline running through his veins. “You’re out of coffee. Why don’t you go back to the counter and order another one? I see people do that sort of thing all the time. There’s nothing out of the ordinary about that.”

The old woman then gave him another nudge with her elbow, decidedly harder than before. Wanting to get away from her, Linus stood up and exited the dining area, heading straight for the cashier’s counter. The small coffee shop suddenly felt very big. It took forever for him to walk up to the counter. Starling was watching him out of the corner of her eye. Linus ordered his second cup and walked over to the waiting area near where Starling was. Linus could feel the beads of sweat forming on his head. He approached the area but said nothing. Music was playing over the speaker system to a rather funky beat causing Linus to tap his foot and attempt to gain some impetus to conversation.

“Great tunes!” Linus said in a loud voice hoping his voice could travel over the sound of the frothing machine. Starling stopped the frothing machine and said just as loudly as Linus had projected, “What was that?” Linus now felt self-conscious that others might be listening. He leaned closely and said, “I said, there are some great tunes playing. Do you have a hand in picking out some of the songs?” Linus gave a gentle smile feeling very pleased at how smoothly his first few words came out. Starling turned her frothing machine back on and yelled, “No, they are all on pre-recorded. We have certain ones for certain days and they always play. I am sick of listening to them to tell you the truth, but we only get new ones quarterly so we’re stuck listening to it over and over again.” As she said this, she was swirling caramel on top of someone’s frothy latte.

“Yes, I could see how this would be tiresome.” Linus wiped his sweaty forehead with his handkerchief.

Starling finished pouring Linus’ coffee. “Here ya go. Another exciting order of black coffee. You need to get out more, did you know we have 24 different ways to make coffee here. And they are all twice as expensive as the local diner down the street. But you come here just to drink an everyday cup of Joe? Doesn’t that strike you as strange?” Feeling a bit defensive Linus barked, “It all is a waste of time if you ask me. And I travel for work and this can be found wherever I go.”

Starling looked at him and retorted, “Coffee contentment is important, but there are other things in life which make one happy you know. Variety is the spice of life. Don’t you ever long to try something spontaneously that you’ve never done before?”

Linus had not often felt the need to be spontaneous. Cynical of the benefits of doing something unplanned, he always chose the safer course. He looked down at his coffee cup and noticed it was only filled ¾ of the way full. This happened to be one of his pet peeves. Distracted by the annoyance of what he considered a disregard for competence, he pushed the cup back towards Starling with his fingers and said, “Sorry Miss Starling, I’m a to the rim kind of guy, could you please fill it up to the top.” Starling looked at him for a moment thinking he was joking and then squeezing her eyes and forming a frown with her mouth, grabbed the carafe and dumped it into his cup.

“Hey! Don’t pour it like that, you’ll scald my hand!” Linus pulled his hand away which made some of it spill. Starling took her towel and began wiping it, not making eye contact she said, “Well what do you expect to happen when you want it filled to the rim, there’s barely room for those big lips of yours to sip it.”

Linus had always been self-conscious about his big lips. Now he felt even more self-conscious than before. He had wanted to ask Starling on a date, but when you ask one on a date there is the thought behind it that it might lead to a good night kiss and who would want to give a good night kiss from him? His self-confidence now shattered he simply walked away. Sitting down at the same table from where he came, he noticed the old woman had returned and moved over to her table again. Looking up at him she sighed shaking her head slightly.

Trying to decide what to do next and looking down at his watch, Linus began to think this was a silly moment in time that needed to be erased forever. Just as he was about to get up and walk out the door he noticed two multi-colored striped tights standing before him. They stood in a pair of loosely tied army boots. An outfit like this could only belong to one worker in the coffee shop. He looked up to see Miss Starling holding a coffee cup in her hand. “Sorry about spilling your coffee. Here, this is on the house.” She set down before him a stainless steel travelers mug. “This way you can always have it filled to the brim and it won’t burn your hand. And the first Monday of every month, you get one free refill if you bring it in. I don’t know if you’ll be back here anytime soon, but I got this free for being a good employee, and I don’t really drink coffee.”

Overcome with such a generous gift Linus was left speechless. He watched her walk away and return behind the counter much like one might watch the sunset. Linus had never met a woman like Starling before. He had received bonuses in the past but had never had anyone to share them with. He looked over at the old woman who gave him an affirmative nod as if she knew what he was thinking. Linus stood up, straightened his suit jacket, picked up his new travel mug in one hand and coffee cup in the other, he walked over to the counter where Starling was now restacking napkins into the tray. He stood directly in front of her.

Starling stared at him waiting for him to speak. But Linus didn’t speak. He put his coffee cups to the left of the counter and then took his hands and swept it across the countertop that was standing between them, knocking over several empty coffee cups and lids along the way. The noise of the cups hitting the ground caused several customers to look up and see the man who was clearly out of his league use both his forearms to lift his body up onto the counter top and jump over the counter into the area for making coffee. The jump in itself was a little awkward; when he landed his hat fell off his head. The store manager upon seeing this yelled out, “Hey! Get out of there!”

This made Starling laugh out loud and yet she couldn’t take her eyes off of Linus’ determined stare. That laugh, those lips, smiling at him was all Linus needed to take the last step. That and the sound of the 5 foot, 3 inch old woman who had now wandered right up to the counter for a front row view and whispered, “You can do it! Just kiss her!” It gave him the last dose of courage needed. Linus looked over and nodded to the old woman who was holding one fist up like she just won a victory. Starling was leaning over to pick up Linus’ hat but he intercepted her before she reached it. He grabbed Starling squarely with both hands on her shoulders causing her to stand up right again. Then placing his hands softly around her neck with his thumbs landing on her blushing cheeks, he kissed her hard on the lips. Starling reacted as one only does when being kissed with spontaneity - she felt her left foot go up on her tip toes and her right one bend slightly at the knee. The old woman began to cheer, the other clients were laughing, and the manager was yelling some sort of obscenities at the two of them. Seeing as Starling’s shift had been over for the last 10 minutes, she ripped her apron off from around her waist and threw it in the bin behind her where all the used aprons were kept. Right before Linus’ eyes he saw her leap over the counter, knocking over several napkins sending them flying like doves being released on someone’s wedding day. Linus in his own clumsy fashion, attempted to leap over the counter again only this time he landed on the ground next to Starling.

She leapt to her feet like an acrobatic performer and put out her hand to help him up. Both of them laughing as if they were the only two people left in that coffee shop. “Well, Linus, are we ready to go have some fun?”

He grabbed Starling’s hand and led her out the coffee house doors. Starling never did return to that coffee shop. She ended up being a sales rep for windows and the two of them spent the next 25 years selling windows and traveling the Midwest, never passing a coffee shop without giving one another a kiss in remembrance of the day Linus ordered courage in a coffee cup.