I got into another argument with Ortiz at work today. This time, I told him I couldn’t stand his kind and stormed out.

I needed a break. Some coffee.

Yeah, I like a good cup of coffee.

So when I saw that odd little cafe with the slogan, Best Coffee In Town, I knew I had to try it. Funny, I could have sworn just the other day it was a vacant storefront.

I walked inside.

A slender woman with oversized red spectacles popped up her head from beneath a counter, where she had been stacking coffee mugs.

Funny, she had a familiar look, like someone I had known for years, almost as if this were a reaquaintance, someone who made me feel welcome.

“Hello, Phil,” she said.

“How do you know my name?” I asked.

“Maybe you look like a Phil kind of guy. Maybe it’s my business to know the coffee lovers in town. Or maybe a lucky guess. Or the initial on your tie pin.”

I didn’t want to belabor my brain too before my first cup of coffee, so I let it pass. Then I asked, “So what’s so special about your coffee?”

“You’ll find each cup is specially brewed to the taste of each of my customers. Let’s see, you look like a black, one sugar, and no cream kind of guy.”

“You hit it right the first time!”

“I always know!” she laughed.

She poured me a heaping cup. The aroma was unworldly. I couldn’t place my finger on it.

I tried a swig, There was a certain exotic pungency to it at first taste, transforming into a delicate, full, maltlike, rounded taste that lingered as I drank it.

I seemed to float off into another world. I saw myself, at work, fuming at Ortiz. I saw Ortiz bowing his head in shame, walking away.

I could not allow myself to finish the brew. I had to get back to the job and offer my apologies.

As I hasted to the door, the woman said, “See you again, tomorrow.”

I returned to work, told Ortiz how much I appreciated him, and spent the rest of my work day whistling and smiling.

The following day, I hurried to the coffee shop at the beginning of my day.

That strange woman already had a cup of coffee, piping hot, ready for me.

“I knew you’d be back,” she said, smiling.

The brew was even more pleasurable than that of yesterday.

As I sipped it, my thoughts reverted to my childhood. The hours I spent in play with the neighborhood kids, fooling around in the classroom, hours spent in the principal’s office as a result of my actions.

Somehow, as I finished the cup, I felt a sense of relief and a determination to do even better at my work.

The day flew by. After work, I strolled down to the shop, but it was dark. A sign in the window said, Closed.

When morning came, I slept soundly that night, hopped into my clothes, and ran down to the shop.

Thank God, it was open!

Again, the woman had my coffee waiting and I could hardly wait to take a slug.

This time I thought of my high school and college girlfriends, all the mistakes I had made, why they both left me, and my hollow heart.

When I had finished my coffee, I felt new again. I would profit from those mistakes, never repeat them.

I will propose to Elena.

As I departed, I said to the woman, “I can’t wait to taste your coffee tomorrow!”

“Sorry. Going out of business.”

“Out of business?”

“Yes. You’re a three-day customer.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Let me put it this way. Most people live their lives just waiting for the coffee break. While they’re dawdling, others are getting ahead, making a life for themselves.”

“I think I’m getting your point.”

“You see, there are those wasted moments in your life. You could have turned any one of them around, but you wasted precious time. You allowed others to advance. You stagnated.”

I thought once more of Ortiz, of  my foolish exploits at school, the women I hurt and abandoned.

“You were worth saving. So I offered you the opportunity to profit from those moments, not to throw away your life in coffee moments, to become aware of your endless possibilities.”

“Will I ever be able to taste your coffee again?”

“You won’t need it now.”

Following the day at work, I passed by the shop. It was boarded and vacant.

I gave Elena a call.