She started when she was in college, like most students, trying to stay awake, studying for exams, and like most, the initial taste wasn’t immediate love, but it wasn’t long, and the coffee smell wafting through the air as it was prepared, swiftly took control of her Pavlovian call for an immediate cup, and no human better get in her way when that happens.  It wasn’t long and her olfactory bulb learned how to fast-tract the coffee smell directly to the thalamus for immediate processing, then on the lucky amygdala, where the pleasure processing began when the mandatory hot liquid caressed her beckoning taste buds on her tongue.

If she hasn’t slurped her coffee yet in the morning, it is best to avoid her and not say anything because you need to be prepared — she will be unable to show you that smile that brightens not just a room, but a stadium, and her bouncy walk no longer exists. It takes only three or four sips of the dark elixir of perfect rejuvenation swimming desperately down her needy esophagus to her stomach —then absorbed into her blood stream, carrying the powerful caffeine to replenish her groggy neurons and then transforming her into the sexy goddess that is who she is.

She drinks many kinds of drinks, and when she goes out with the girls to a coffee shop, she will let them introduce to her to the “girlie” drinks like caramel Frappuccino or hazelnut flavored drinks.  She insists her coffee should not be fruity, but basic coffee.  Drinking coffee is a serious business for her.  Not a fruit market.  Please.  Suffice it to say, those girly drinks don’t do it for her that much. She sticks to basic coffee, or perhaps some espresso, especially at a French café, you know, tasse de café. Sometimes, she will enjoy a redeye, which is a cup of coffee with a shot of espresso added for extra punch. And there will be occasions when she will have cappuccino, and she likes whipped cream on top, and of course, the white whip dollop likes to stick on her upper lip, and sometimes she doesn’t notice, but the men in the coffee shop like to watch. Either way though, when she is finished, she will always search her purse, find her red lipstick, and put it on to finish her lips after the coffee, and of course, that is a nice show too, because she puts it on so delicately and sensually ­—especially when she purses her lips in front of the small mirror after the application, to make sure the spread is perfection.

She drinks at home of course, before work, but also on the weekends or sometimes the early evening, she will go to coffee.  Most men don’t understand that phrase.  It means, although she can drink it and enjoy it at home, she likes to go to a café, whether sitting outside in the summer or inside in the winter, and enjoy the ambiance of the coffee shop, the people who enjoy the drinks as well, and of course, the man who is lucky enough to accompany her.  He can complain all he wants —” why do we have to go to coffee?  Can’t we just drink it at home or maybe on the go?”  Of course, his weak arguments always fail, and they will always go to coffee.  In fact, at dinner parties, she will ask for coffee at her meals in the evening, because well, that is just the way she wants it, and it must be.  She doesn’t care if it bothers her sleep, and thankfully it doesn’t.

Her transformation after just three or four sips of coffee is breathtaking.  She smiles, and the room immediately brightens, and people around her start laughing more, smiling with her, and when she gets up to go to the powder room, her legs spring to action with the liveliness of a ballerina, and her hair seems to be giggling as it begs to bounce forever while she effortlessly makes the world a better place simply by being herself.

 Thank God for coffee.

But always, the red lipstick application is mandatory before she says goodbye to the coffee shop and enters the world without fear, but filled with confidence and refulgent energy.

© SRCarson Publications, 2025