I Get Brave and Change My Mind
by TMax
Copyright© 2026 by TMax
Twenty-three. Not everyone has had an intimate moment by twenty-three, sure, most, but not everyone. I haven’t found the right person, the right situation. A critical moment that can’t get rushed, can’t get screwed up. What if I got pregnant, the clap, or something horrific like AIDS. No, better to wait, as long as needed, until tall, dark, and handsome, well, handsome, short’s ok, and light or dark doesn’t actually matter.
New concrete, no cracks, no weeds, trimmed grass, a nice neighborhood, a mix of trendy coffee shops, and fresh-painted townhouses. A new age coffee shop on the corner, Buddha Palace, or Namaste Joint, I forget which, made an amazing turmeric latte with vanilla oat milk, to die for.
The barista, glasses, needs a haircut, short with quick hands, and a smile, not cocky, but sweet.
“Watch that someone doesn’t steal your coffee. You don’t want to get mugged,” he said with his smile, corny and funny, each day he had a different one, as if he looked them up in the morning, which I totally did. The mug read, ‘I like my coffee like I like my men, sweet.’
“What do beans say to each other on Valentine’s Day?” I asked, the joke from the internet this morning, because Valentine’s tomorrow.
“You keep me grounded,” we said together, although I finished first, so does that mean I won?
I sat in my favorite spot, under the tree with the red blossoms, to people watch, but also see him from the corner of my eye.
People look different out of context, like the barista, without his apron, in the grocery store, red jacket, blue baseball cap. I ignored him when he said hi in the pasta aisle, after all, why would a guy say hi to me, plain, too thin? I wore ladybug earrings and didn’t paint my fingernails.
“That’s my least favorite top,” the guy said as I browsed the organic yogurt fridge. The protein Greek yogurt had a two-for-one sale, and with three new flavors: pecan lime pie, black forest cake, and strawberry-rhubarb.
I ignored him until he added, “I’ve never liked Tea-shirts.” My barista, well, not mine, but the cute one who knows how to make the perfect turmeric latte. Most put too much cinnamon and didn’t add pepper.
“How do two coffee people greet each other? With mugs and kisses,” I said. I memorized it this morning, but I hadn’t planned to say it, too intimate, and not appropriate.
“You’re brew-it-ful,” he said, which caused me to drop a container of yogurt, blackberry yogurt covered our legs. I dropped my basket and ran from the store.
When I returned, I paid for the yogurt and avoided his shop until I couldn’t get the correct turmeric latte and caved.
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