Chapter Text
Lizzie was good at many things, but excellent at two: writing and coffee. But in this moment, she was so angry she had to fix herself a cup of tea.
She was stewing. Lizzie hated that one little thing could set her whole day off course. She was glad that they were in their first week and weren’t busy, as she found no pleasure in the art of crafting caffeinated beverages. She really did love it. And she came to love it as a result of another rude encounter with a boy.
Charlotte wasn’t just kidding when she said that she’d acquired her barista skills to impress the editor-in-chief of her college newspaper. But when she took the piece on the campus coffee house, it wasn’t just because she wanted to make a name for herself on campus or get the geek chic editor to notice her—she had always like the idea of working in a coffee house.
She was enamored by the rich history of the European literary café. The books and films that she devoured in her early teen years always featured baristas that were some sort of artist pulling shots by day and pursuing their artistic passions by night. And the customers were always working on the “Great American Novel.” She wanted to be one of those people.
So when the editor-in-chief looked at her over his horn-rimmed glasses and told her that he was tabling the article and started dating the music columnist, she only stewed for a week. Learning to excel with espresso was better than therapy or ice cream. The campus coffee house became her home. It was where she launched the campus’s underground ‘zine, hosted open mics, and forgot all about the newspaper. It was why she was ok with helping her friend Ellen’s husband to open this new venture when she found herself freelancing and living at home after getting her MFA. It was her chance to build a new place for herself with things that she did best.
Right now, coffee wasn’t making her happy, but she knew just how to get through the anger. She would write about it.