The Late Night Coffee Drinkers

The Internal Conflict

Over a Chinese take out in apartment 38D, roomies John and Millie with their friend Fran enjoyed the night away.

"He's kind, he even prayed for us" it had been a long time for Fran to even be up close and personal with a religious missionary. "Better than discriminating us, it's funny because Millie is a religious Christian who discriminated us and here comes a missionary didn't discriminate us" Millie took it a spoonful of chicken with cashews and rice.

"I think he's being nice because he wants to build a church eventually... no congregants, no church therefore all are saints" John offered a deeper perspective.

"I suppose John, of course when you have nothing... humility is all that is left" Millie agreed to to John viewpoint. "I beg to differ" Fran disagreed "some people who have nothing left whether it be having no more friends are even the ones who instead of choosing to be humble become even more proud, like I don't even need friends and people in my life".

"Not necessarily true" John smiled "they have friends left and they are: pizza, cookies, chocolate, candies, beer and 2000 kcal". Laughter filled the apartment, "under the cloak vegetables and fruits" Millie added. The night had just begun.

"I'm glad that we all found each other" John said. "I'm not that glad that our local cafe, is closing two hours earlier. Back in the day it was almost twenty four hours open, one of our barista had been transferred and the other left" Francesca, being a local, noticed this trend.

"Should we invite Olivia back in the group" Millie asked.

John and Francesca are no strangers to people who don't treat them well. For Francesca even without words but just the stare of people is already enough to hear the message.

"I feel sorry for her, but I'm not sorry" Francesca said. "I'm not sure whether she's unhappy with how she looks or her looks make her unhappy, and what gets me is she hates seeing people happy from us to her colleagues".

Millie felt for Francesca's words "I agree you... I only feel sorry for her but she doesn't want to be pitied but appreciated. How can you appreciate someone so demanding when it cost you a potential big client for copywriting just because she despised the Indonesian expat who has company perks with a driver and a car who's even way younger than her." Millie shared her experience with Olivia.

"She's not even worth talking about" John concluded the issue, by careful listening and deliberation.

"To be fair, she badly needs to fuck" Fran said having not defined what to talk about. "That's if someone is even willing to head for that direction" the writer and not the underwriter had concluded the matter.

"Such a shame I know Xavier is her type" Millie shared. "Having a good time with a religious man surely isn't a guarantee to go to heaven" John replied. "How do you know" Millie challenged him through sarcasm, and again laughter filled 38D.

"Last Sunday I was at our usual, and there were three men talking about the Bible. The guy talking about it is so handsome, I want to convert to whatever Protestant they are. My priest is getting older" Francesca shared.

"Why didn't you call us" Millie downed a half filled bottle of water. Francesca didn't know exactly what she meant "to hear the Good News" she asked. "No to share the three men" John laughed.
"To be fair, Millie is taken and you were working", she answered.

"They're not that handsome, you didn't miss a lot. It's just they seem so religious that it's tempting to flirt" Francesca's opinions never fail to amaze and entertain her foreign friends.

"Olivia is always so worked up on Catholic priests molesting children, to the point that every unmarried man, every Catholic and every gay is a child molester in her beliefs". Millie finds the end of a friendship based on cultural difference, political views, principles, uninformed and illogical reasoning so frustrating, but even without them she seemed to be a toxic anyhow.

"It's also an irony that here comes a person who is taking a fancy on a priest and was never molested, while there are many innocent victims not taking a fancy to priests but we're molested" the irony spilled by John "and for some reason I never thought of myself saying such a thing. I guess a cup of coffee can really make you a tiny bit intelligent".

Millie frowned and pouted, contemplating whether to say something or not. "Spill the beans" John gave her the boost. "I watched a mini reportage at YouTube the other day, that there's a village in Florida complete with a Methodist Church that it's a village for child sex offenders" Millie said. "That's it" John clarified and she nodded.

"You should have swallowed your pride a little longer in order to remain friends with Olivia and showed her that video from YouTube" Francesca said, and finished her bottled iced tea.