DANDEMONIUM

A bedraggled Bruce was back. In his cheap blue suit and expensive tie, his tired head hung down. He stood there, staring at his scuffed old brown shoes against the shop’s worn parquet floor.

“Can I interest you in a cortado?” a chirpy Nadia enquired.

“Hello my dear Nadia. Green tea for me today,” he smiled a pained smile.

Now Nadia wasn't cool or hip, she didn't have tattoos of coffee beans, the dark-haired girl was way beyond all that usual barista stuff because Nadia was the best barista in the world and she dispensed paper cups of magic.

She placed the exact amount of green tea, three grams, into a porcelain brew cup and then added hot water. Then set off a timer in her mind for exactly three minutes.

“You ever get any complaints?” the businessman made small talk whilst they waited.

“For tea never, but coffee yes from time to time.”

“They like their coffee burnt.”

“Burnt.”

“Yes burnt,” the best barista in the world responded.

“Who does?”

“The losers.”

“Are they coffee people?” asked the businessman.

“No just idiots.”

The businessman flicked through a magazine of interiors in far-flung locations.

The pair waited in silence.
The shop was still.
No music played that afternoon.

The wind stirred the trees along the city street. Through the shop’s colossal glass window the barista watched people moving along the street beyond it. A moment later the timer in her mind chimed.

The three minutes now up, she took the porcelain brew cup and transferred a serving of tea into a paper cup. She then placed the paper cup onto a small metal tray and presented it to the businessman, who took the cup and held it with two fingers and his thumb.

The businessman looked into his cup, at the bottom a twig and two small tea leaves were present, he then took a sip.

“Ahhh perfect,” he said out loud in the most satisfying tone.

“Nadia, do you always leave two leaves and a twig in the cup?”

“Oh yes, it's my signature. You see I've been leaving them there for thousands of years.”

“Thousands of years?”

She smiled.

“I’ve been the best barista in the world for many millennia.”