George Baker noticed the ding only after the door had closed behind him. That was an anomoly, he thought. Most of these store door bells dinged upon opening. He turned back to look up at the bell that was stuck onto the side of the door rather than hanging from...

The emptiness was nice. That's not how it was when he first came to campus. As a freshmen the hum and buzz of the  cafe got him high. The more people the better. Conversations. Laptos. Readers. People just staring out into the window.

Now he was sick of the cafe always...

When the cup was empty he thought of returning to the counter and ordering another drink. Definitely not another coffee. He was amped to the gils. Max thought one of those caffeine free teas would be nice. Calm on his nerves and refershing for his palette as well.

He had nursed...

One of the other girls, the one who had suggested the vacation to McKayla, now felt guilty. She could tell how her boss  Imogen Howe felt about McKayla's departure. It was no surprise to anyone that McKayla was leaving in this way. No word about where she was going, and...

His name was Steve. She didn't know that actually. When he said his name she just nodded like she remembered. Because she did remember him. Knew him only because of Alan's mom.

Sometimes when they had lunch plans, Imogen Howe would pick her up at the exercise studio. Imogen would see...

Alan wondered if anyone else in town was thinking of calling in. He wondered if they might spill the beans that Jack was in  town . Hiding.

The windshield wipers pushed the snow that had accumulated while he sat inside off. The wiper did this twice more before Alan hit the...

She had two favorite times when Alan would be at the cafe. Right after lunch and right after closing.

There was something cozy about being at the cafe after the sign was turned around. From "yes we're open" to "closed".

The lights would dim down. Each car or truck that would drive...

The work wasn't chaos. In fact Keith liked it. There was some bitter that came with the new fruit. Nearly half his previous coworkers were laid off. And he was doing double the work as before. But he was barely doing anything before. So the doubling didn't affect him much....

He thought about the tip jar. Guesstimated how much was in there. Tried distracting himself until his mind brought back what he was really thinking about. Back at the mansion. With Mr. Green.

He looked for him. He never stayed at the cafe long. But Stan had never seen Mr. Green...

Shawn got up early. Earlier than most people. He knew this because no one was outside when he went on his morning cycle. In the winter after his shower it was just sunrise when he drank his coffee. In the summer the sun started with him during his cycle.

He...

Cal waited for another assignment. At first he thought about asking them immediately. Like Yo my guy disappeared can I have another. Then for some reason he didn't. He imagined Spacecity wouldn't care if he didn't have a guy. As long as he seemed to have a guy. He waited,...

The man walked into the  cafe thinking about his kids. They would be the age now where they would hang out at these places. If only he could talk to them. But he couldn't. He didn't have the time anymore.

It was a crazy deal. Years ago. He had asked another...

Yo I'm just messing with you.

Joey Blau looked up.

I'm messing with you. This is my neighbor's dog. Taking it for a walk. I did send you a pic of my dog.

Joey still looked confused.

Got ya! the man with the dog yelled.

They both began laughing.

Look, just text me and maybe you...

He didn't really get why, but since Monday morning everything was going good in his life. Like clockwork, he'd wake up to texts from his friends, memes he'd never think they would have sent.  When he went to the Westcity cafe  it seemed like they knew he was coming. People...

Roger got his coffee in ceramic mugs. He understood why someone taking their coffee togo would defer to paper. What he couldn't understand were those who sat at the cafe drinking from a paper cup.

No way he was going to pay big bucks to drink coffee without his lips...

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...

Jack went to the Vietnamese cafe, it was a restaurant but to get more seats filled it became a cafe during certain times. You couldn't get soup, but espresso. The sign outside said espresso yourself written in chalk. And Jack chuckled to himself, not because he liked the joke, but...

Affleck giggled. Then he was about to take a sip of his  cold brew when somebody came over and decked him in the face. That was the last thing he remembered. He woke up in an  emergency room . He thought about saying "where am I?" but that felt like...

Carl waited at the cafe alone for about 20 minutes. Nervous.

He had a lot to tell his supervisor. He had researched at the  Westcity public  library all weekend. Old newspapers. And now he had a thesis. But then ten minutes past. His coffee cup was empty. He wanted another, but...

The young man in the hoodie pounded his laptop . He still had an older model Macbook Pro , the ones with the graceful yet sturdy keyboards. One could get a lot usage out of those keys, and the guy in the hoodie had.

In college he had imagined himself becoming...

I walk with my girlfriend to the class she teaches every Tuesday and Thursday. It's a lovely walk across  campus that has protected forests and beautiful architecture. We walk together up to where her class is, and then I walk back home alone. In the past I would always be...

It was  Sunday afternoon. He was 30. And felt loneliness for the first time. This was the first time when nobody needed him. Nobody was looking for him. He could die and there would be no meaningful impact.

He had been at the  cafe . None of the usual crowd were...

Entering the hackathon was exciting in itself. Andrew Cook sat toggling between two browser tabs. One his email where he re-read the welcome email . The other the event website . An hour passed with him toggling these two tabs. He was seated at a table in his favorite cafe...

The words rung into the air suddenly. It frightened her. She was scared to ask the man singing beside her. In a past life the  fear would've drove her against it. She would instead live her entire  life not knowing the answer to the question.

But today things were different. She...

I didn't drink  coffee until that  summer KJ and I became best friends. My entrance was not the usual morning pick-me-up.

Instead KJ and I, being underage and not knowing anyone who would buy booze for us, looked for some kind of social stimulation that resembled a bar. We really wished...

When I was 16 my best friend was an 18 year old who lived two school districts away from me. Until that summer I had never thought it possible to have a best friend that was two years older. There had been childhood fantasies where I'd look up to someone...

That night, she stayed at the  cafe later than she should've. Had she left with the final employee two hours ago then she would probably already be showered and ready for bed. Comfy at home.

Instead she was now leaving into an empty parking lot to the sounds of the summer...

No action is ever out of the question.

There is always a proper place and time for anything.


Take a man's daughter from him

and threaten to kill her

but give him a chance to slit your throat

and he will.


When looked at like this

life is less about the individual

and more about the setting.


But who...

The  rain had come suddenly. Sammy had not checked the weather this morning. It had seemed like one of those days where the weather was going to stay put the entire time.

She didn't mind the rain. Her car was built to handle wet roads and she felt safe inside of...

He wondered who would be at the cafe as he drove there. He likely would not have come, if it weren't for Hazel. Not that he was meeting up with her there. That would be creepy. He was no longer in high school or college. He was no longer even...

"PT!" Zach shouted in glee as PT arrived in the lobby sipping the  apple juice . He still didn't think of it as his apple juice, but rather that lady's who was staying upstairs.

"Hey aren't you forgetting something?" Zach asked.

PT made a face to signal that he didn't know what...

His stomach sank. He thought once more, this trip is going terribly. He was sweating under his winter  coat . He took it off and the wind made him shiver. He looked around trying to spot his bike. Filled with determination, he started to walk the perimeter of the entire ...

Almost everyday, my favorite cafe in college drew a crowd. The only days it'd lay bare were holidays when almost all the students went home. Besides that it was a squeeze, and I'd often have to share a table with a 'stranger' during peak hours.

I did my work at the...

"I don't get it. Why do you drive all the way down there. Come on tell me the truth, you're seeing someone. No? Well then you really just like that  cafe ."

"Yeah. Simple as that."

"But there's so many cafes around here. What can be so special about that one? Maybe...

When he entered the  cafe , it was shadowed. Not dark, the  sun 's light made its way, filtered, to the main area where people were seated.

People were conversing, in hushed tones, now that the music was off. The person at the counter couldn't buy their coffee . The  barista...

In the back of the cafe there is a space that has been my favorite place to write.

Only thing is that it is hardly ever open. Still the cafe is my favorite haunt. I'll go there for a cup of coffee and sit around sipping it in the thick, white...

When she saw his eyes lock onto her instead of anybody else's in that  cafe she knew that she would die.

Each sliver of a moment following felt longer than physically possible.

She had previously feared dying. Certainly she neither expected nor wanted to die this young. But now that the moment...

In college, happiness never felt more than a coffee away.

No matter how anxious or glum the day, he knew that if he were to sit down at a cafe , order a  coffee and people watch for a couple hours he would be back to his regular old self again....

The first time I saw Patagonia was when I got to college. Back during high school my small town the cool kids wore The North Face .

There was a store specializing in outdoors' apparel on the main shopping strip bordering the northern edge of campus . I'd pass by...

When I enter the  cafe she won't recognize me right away. We've both changed a lot.

In fact I wouldn't recognize her either except for the fact that the  barista in a cafe is always on display like a flower.

She will recognize me eventually though. I'll go when she's doing something...

Do you know, that I used to think about this place all the time? This spot right by the  fogged glass here. In my imaginations it's always  winter or late  autumn . It's definitely not warm. I'm waiting for someone. That person I'm waiting for is not always the same....

V. The first time around Imogen Howe didn't treat  college seriously. She blamed her  depression . This time it'd be different she said.

But she was still depressed. So she looked back again hoping for other reasons for her failure. With each recall she could't find anything unrelated to herself and...

After the two guests leave the cafe she feels light. Rather than smiling faces and hungry attentions she is greeted by empty cups with beet stains and coffee stains at the bottom.

Imogen Howe doesn't enjoy having random people from her old life crawling into her current one. Which...

In front of the cafe they were greeted by Imogen Howe who was standing outside as if waiting for them old school style like people used to for someone at the train station before smartphones and gps .

Jake Raynor didn't know how to approach the greeting. He didn't actually...

They drove west in an Orange Saturn VUE . The driver was smoking a  cigarette although they usually didn't smoke. But today was a special occasion so he had specifically went to the store to pick up a pack of  American Spirits Blue the day before picking up his passenger.

She...

So nice to see you, Jean greeted me with a hug.

After our pleasantries and a moment of silence where the both of us looked outside at the gentle snow fall she asked me something. Something real. Definitely the first real statement of our conversation.

I'm surprised to learn you're in  Westcity...

She showed up to town a day early.
This surprised me. I was used to her being fashionably late wherever she went.

Final Friday, some no name party at a no name  cafe out in the middle of nowhere. Why did she come out such a way for this?

She drove her  Subaru...

Until that moment I could've never imagined spending a Saturday night reading inside the cafe . In fact reading a book without it being required for a class already felt foreign enough to me. But watching Sarah talk about her cozy plans for the night rubbed off on me. For...

It was Sarah P from Chemistry. I felt silly having her ask why I was here rather than preparing for the formal because we didn't know each other that well. We had worked in the same group in labs chemistry labs twice and we chatted in the hallway between classes,...

When I arrived at the cafe , my mystery date wasn't there. I mean maybe she was, but she never approached me. I stood around flipping between checking my phone and examining the guests, until eventually I grew anxious about loitering in the cafe without buying anything. It didn't look...

"Jean. aren't you supposed to be in class?"

She hadn't expected to run into anyone, but she wasn't displeased by the encounter. She had decided to take the entire day off and instead spend it at the cafe doing nothing at all, besides for drinking large volumes of coffee and  rooibos...

When you're 23, the most exciting thing on your mind should be the new features you are unveiling to users this Friday. The most exciting thing should be that trip to Boulder next month. The most exciting thing should be how one day the startup you've just joined will make...

After high school she sought to run her own cafe because of insecurities. She wasn't smart enough to go to a real university like  Jeannie Hammond . And out of all the jobs she could think of, running a  cafe seemed the most respectful.

That was a naive belief constructed by...

He crossed Lexington Ave to enter the design district with just a slight layer of sweat. Although he ran the second largest design + strategy agency in the city, he had chosen to work out of an office on the other side of Lexington, which technically put them within the...

After walking past the glass door she felt out of place. She never came to cafes without her journal, laptop, and a good book. And unlike most people she never met people at cafes. 

Today there was no time for her to cozy in the corner booth and get lost...

I think the end of the 2010s and the early 2020s might be considered the era of fake passions, at least for the likes of people like  keni and myself and I suspect many others of the  200WAD ilk. 

I have been deliberately...