Betrayal

Every morning, I have a similar routine. I rush out of bed, trying to cling to my sheets till the last ticking second possible, hitting one alarm off after another (yes, I set three different alarms). I get up, hop around, rush to the train station, get sticky, sweaty, and smelly (BO spreads. legits).

And once I get off the station, I always always go to the little hole-in-the-wall Dunking Donuts store to get a coffee.

What do I get everyday? A Hot Coffee, Medium, with Cream and Sugar. Oh, and on a paper cup please. [[Note: I am not much of a go green person, though I wish I were, but Mariko told me that Styrophome cups were bad for health, and environment, were not easily degradable, and animals could mistake it for food...I think the health part really got me asking for paper cups...hmm...ok, sorry about the digression!]]

Anyway, when one gets the same thing to drink, around the same time, every morning, from the same guy - his name is Ali, yep, just Ali - it becomes a habit. Both for the customer i.e. ME and the vendor i.e. Ali. Every morning when Ali sees me he gets that paper cup ready and pours me that medium hot coffee (original blend, mind you, and god forbid NOT decaf!) with cream and sugar. The cup exchanges hands, I pay and I leave. Routine. We humans have such a habit of falling into a routine.

But today something changed. Something different happened. The world as Ali and I knew was about to come to an end.

This morning, I got off the train in more of a rush than usual. I was slightly late as I had to wait for 4 trains before I could squeeze myself into one. So, not surprisingly, ONCE AGAIN, I was hot, sweaty, smelly and annoyed. I briskly walked to DD, cuz America runs on it, obvi, and stood in line. I wanted something cool today, I though, and without giving any more thought to it, I asked for a medium ICED coffee, with cream and sugar, paid for it and waited on the side.

But when Ali saw me, unaware of my change of plans he quickly got my medium coffee with cream and sugar ready in a PAPER CUP!

There stood Ali with my cup in his hand, a smile on his face, greeting his "loyal" customer, unaware of the betrayal that had taken place. The lady who had taken my order barked an order at him immediately.

"Iced coffee!!"

I stuttered, mumbled that I would take the medium coffee, reached out for it but our bond of medium coffee with cream and sugar on a paper cup had already broken when I decided to switch drinks. He had a long line to cater too and he simply dumped my coffee and gave me an iced cofee, with an icy look in his eyes.

Feeling awful, I left, with my iced coffee tinkling, swirling, and swooshing around in the cup.