"The Coffee Shop"
A short story.
A coffee shop is a great place to observe people.
Take Joe, here, who has turned around three times to stare at a woman sitting nearby. She is sniffling and now blowing her nose—right at the table! How can someone be so crass, disgusting, and rude? Joe thinks. No respect for others.
The sniffling woman, let’s call her Jane, cuts her eyes at a woman in front of her who just shouted to greet a friend.
"It’s so great to finally meet you!" the loud woman—let’s call her Sue—exclaims.
“Yeah, maybe for you, lady; you didn’t just have your eardrums blown out,” Jane says under her breath.
As Sue takes her seat, she can’t help but notice the constant ping coming from a bespectacled man's laptop. The onslaught of what she assumed to be workplace notifications was already giving her a headache. She shakes her head and thinks, Why can't he turn those off?
Jane does a full-blown sneeze, sniff and blow combination and Joe closes his laptop, packs the rest of his things, and places a to-go order from his phone. Moments later, from behind the counter, the barista wipes down the espresso machine and turns to Joe, handing him his cup for the road. Joe sighs and says apologetically, "I can’t get any work done here; sorry to leave, man."
As he walks toward the door, Sue rolls her eyes at his back and mocks him with aggressive air typing. On his way out, Joe stares at the crumpled tissues Jane left on the table and shakes his head. The barista watches the door swing shut, his eyes darting from Joe to Jane to Sue.