Author Information
Short Story
This is the story about two individuals who live in Portland, Oregon. A woman who works at a local coffee shop called ‘The Heart of Oregon’, which is well known for their wide variety of unique coffee types and flavors, as well as for their heart-warming quality, and a wealthy lawyer that works a across the street from that coffee shop. Every day at 8 am the lawyer goes to the coffee shop just to order a black coffee before he starts working. The lady often notices the lawyer enter the coffee shop wearing fancy suits and order the same black coffee every single day. She wonders why he never tries something new, but never suggests him to try something new, thinking that he is too busy to take suggestions from a cashier. The days go by and the man keeps ordering the same black coffee, every single day. The lawyer is often quiet and serious, kind of in an intimidating way. One day, the coffee shop released a new coffee type and when the lawyer came, the lady decided to ask him if he wanted to try that new flavor. She asked him if he wanted to order this new coffee type that they just released, but the man seems to be in a hurry and he tells the woman in a rude way that he is fine with his black coffee. Days passed and the man kept on going to the same coffee shop and ordering the same black coffee. One day he noticed that the woman no longer worked there, and asked the manager where she had gone. The manager told him she was applying for a job as a secretary at a local firm, which got him wondering if it was his firm by any chance. When he arrived to his office, for his surprise, the lady from the coffee shop was indeed there asking for a job to be his secretary. The woman did not know he worked there, it was pure coincidence. When the lawyer entered his office and saw the woman, he asked her why she wanted that job, and her answer was to try something new in her life because she thought that life was about new experiences. The woman told the lawyer that her life used to be sticking to a routine, until she was in a car crash and fell in a coma for a week. When she woke up from the coma, she decided to try everything she could while she was still living, as she saw this as a second chance to actually enjoy her life. The lawyer was touched by this story, but he already had a secretary and there were currently no open jobs at the firm, so he ended up not hiring the woman. The next morning he went for his coffee and saw that the woman was back working there. He asked the woman why she returned to the coffee shop, and replied by saying she still has to pay her bills and couldn’t get another job. The woman proceeded to ask the man if he wanted the regular black coffee, but the lawyer told her he wanted a new experience so he ordered a tea. When the lawyer left the store, he left the woman a hundred dollar bill in her gratuity box, and there was a message written with pen on the bill. It said “I can not hire you right now, but I can give you the pleasure of knowing you changed someone’s mindset. Have a blessed day.” Ever since that day the lawyer ordered a new thing every day. Months passed and one day, the woman entered the coffee shop with the surprise of the lawyer inside the shop, behind the counter saying something to another cashier. The lawyer told the woman he had just purchased the coffee shop from the original owner and he wanted her to be the manager and take care of everything while he was working in the firm across the street. She agreed on being promoted, under the condition of letting her encourage the new customers to try something new in their lives every day, not just their coffees. The lawyer agreed, and they got back to work.
