Sam ran the 

cafe

like a home. It was made easier by the fact that he and the wife ran the cafe together. That along with the fact that their 

Apartment

sat on top of the cafe. Growing up in the 

suburbs

, Sam had never imagined he'd be living in an apartment on the second story of a residential commercial mixed building. All he had known growing up were distinct single family residential houses. Nuclear families inside them. Most of them with dogs or cats. Some of them having both.

In the 

winter

kids went sledding on the big hill that was walking distance from his parents' home. It snowed more back then.

Now when he saw the 

snow

it made him happy. He couldn't point to a specific reason for this joy. All he knew was that he felt light and his wife would catch him giggling more than usual when the first snow of the year came.

"What are you smiling about, Sammy?" his wife would ask.

Nothing he'd reply and continue with the smirk while drying the mugs.

The two of them rose just past 7 am. That gave them enough time to get ready and open up the cafe by 9. Their's wasn't the usual cafe of the modern age. Cafes nowadays acted as 

caffeine

factories for the busy people who needed a buzz before heading into work. Sam and his wife didn't run such a place. They didn't open early enough for that kind of customer anyhow. They ran a cafe at reasonable hours for people who took time to enjoy their 

coffee

.

Not that Sam and his wife could guarantee the latter. They could enforce the former by refusing to open up so early, but once the cafe was open, people would drink their coffees in whatever ways they saw fit. Many would come in and order a togo cup. In the past his wife had allowed them to refuse togo cups. That's how the cafe had started. Eventually she said they couldn't afford to do that though. There was too much money to be made by serving togo customers.

Sam appreciated the extra income that came from the togo folks. In fact if he were to only look at earnings, he ought to like the silent quick togo drink orderer the most. They gave you their money, didn't take a seat, and got out of your way. The most efficient of customers. The opposite of the 

flaneur

or the 

laptoppers

who would buy one drink (sometimes two) and sit for hours, hogging a table to themselves, using the bathroom multiple times.

Still Sam appreciated these 'inefficient' customers the most. Without them he probably wouldn't run the cafe at all. So even though he made money off the efficient customers, he stayed in the business for the inefficient ones. Like Roger who came in every weekday without fail. He would linger here by himself at first, reading some physical text. Either a book or a newspaper. And then another youngish man would join him and the two would have a deep conversation of a little over one hour. Sam assumed that this meant the meeting was scheduled to last an hour but they couldn't help themselves and went over the time limit each time.

Roger could be said to have a schedule in that he did the same thing every day Monday to Friday. But he did not have a schedule in the sense that he had immediate concerns to which he had to tend.

It was most likely his visitor who had a schedule. He appeared to be the one who was always anxious to get back to wherever he came from... or anxious not to return. Either way he was the anxious one.