Who knew

Morning coffee and unexpected news

'Black coffee and no sugar, please' I told the woman behind the coffee shop counter and she glanced at me with astonished eyes as if I was some crazy person.

The woman's head nodded at the menu hanging on the wall filled with probably millions of tastes and varieties of coffee drinks giving me one more chance to change the decision.

'No, just black coffee, please' I repeated a bit irritatingly this time and the woman took it as a sign that the negotiations wouldn't continue and started making my coffee. That was all I wanted that moment.

She was one of those coffee shop workers who took a simple order as an insult admiring her job too much to deal with someone as boring as me. I could see her judging me from the corner of my eye but that day I wasn't in a mood to be concerned about that.

The night before wasn't that great. I mean, it's pretty hard to call any night great when in the morning you wake up with a horrible headache unless it was a party or a celebration. As you've probably already guessed, I wasn't so lucky to have any of that at night but couldn't avoid the morning consequences which wasn't fair.

I'd been working intensely on one of the articles for the next issue of the musical magazine I worked for and that required lots of time and eliminated any sleep. The work was almost over but the week had only started and that morning I needed a good cup of coffee to get going through it.

'Here it is' the woman said carelessly handing me a big cup of hot black coffee. I mumbled a quiet "thank you" and gave her the money trying to escape as fast as it was possible.

I guess, I really offended her. As I unpardonably disregarded the impressive range of assortment that coffee industry has developed through the years of its existence. Because her eyes were scanning me all the way to the exit and only when I came outside I could feel a desired relief. Making a big sip and closing my eyes in pleasure I smiled unwittingly and shook my head at such a strange start of the day.

The Detroit city was already living its life. The streets were crowded and the roads were full of cars which from the long proximity looked like small fast bugs to me. So I stood for a couple of minutes watching lots of them disappearing on the morning horizon and being replaced with others. The people walking by were just a random distraction that I had no urge to succumb to. All of that in an image of the city morning had nothing to do with my state of mind and that was why I liked it.

Walking down the street to the editorial office of "Wave", the musical magazine I was working in, I was sipping my coffee and thinking intensely. That day I had some meetings and interviews planned so that was going to be a pretty hard day. Or at least, that was what it seemed to be.

Working as a journalist was something I always dreamt of and even though I was rarely free and had lots of things to do, I liked my job. That's pretty much why I decided to work for "Wave" 4 years ago. It was a relatively new Detroit musical magazine which had been popular for a while and had some good authority in the industry. I hoped it would grow even bigger with time and I was turning down all the invitations for a job from other publications. Hopefully, not in vain.

'God, Ella, where have you been? Jeff has been looking for you all morning!' was the first thing I heard when I entered the office and almost spilled my coffee on the floor. That was the effect which Melanie's high and a bit squeaky voice had on me as I wasn't expecting to be greeted like that. Thank God the coffee was fine.

'I'm here, calm down, Melanie' I answered still a bit numb after the first minute. Melanie was a secretary in our office and I didn't like her that much. Probably, because sometimes she reminded me of a little annoying child thanks to her voice and the way she was talking. It was also worth noticing that as if on purpose her face features and usual behavior were nothing but baby-like. 'What is it all about?'