As I hear the chime of the store bells while walking in the coffee shop, my eyes searched for the seating area I’d always go to. I took my seat at the table for two and ordered the usual drinks of choice for my friend and I. This was the spot we chose to go to daily in the morning before tackling the day at our jobs. I guess this small meetup acted as some way to keep us sane every day before we’d go on to live through nine hours of utter mediocrity. We found it to have a pretty nice atmosphere early in the morning, being freshly reopened to the public for just about an hour or so. I eyed at the door and waited a bit, taking in the slight chatter around the room by the other regulars in the shop. She would often be the one to lag behind and come in later, but sometimes just later enough for her flat white to be ready to serve along with my espresso.

            Today brought something different though. Our drinks were brought to the table as I still took glances at the door, and soon enough, she entered the shop a few minutes later. Her arriving even later to this establishment was definitely very off to me, but I would’ve given it a pass as if it was nothing since it was only just a couple of minutes. I would have done that, but I was very thrown off by her body language once I saw her enter. She seemed a bit finicky, with her eyes shifting around a bit as if something was on her mind. Maybe it’s her job. I suppose she did complain about her workplace occasionally before, but even with that stressor, she never looked distraught to some degree when seeing me here. She’d always act casual about the things that bothered her at her job, an outlook that matched the feel of this coffee shop. Something was up, and I wanted to figure it out soon after she took her seat across from me.

            “Sorry I’m late. I thought I could take a few more minutes at home before leaving.”

            “It’s fine. Your drink’s still hot, so you’ve got that going for you.” I picked up my cup for a sip as she started to get acquainted with hers. A bit of silence went around the table before I jumped to start the conversation back up.

            “You seem a bit out of it today. Did you sleep fine?”

            “Yeah, I did, at least for how typical weekday sleeps go.”

            “That’s good. I dropped as soon as I got home yesterday. One fell swoop to the couch, and I was knocked out.” She reacted in a seemingly warm smile, which was good to see from her considering my concern, but I needed to get back on track with addressing my concern.

            “Are you doing ok in general though? You were giving some vibes of uneasiness the second the store bells rang and I saw you.”

            “Ehh, I guess I have had some wandering thoughts in my head for the past day or two.”

            “Your job’s treating you poorly?”

            “Well, yeah, of course it is, but that’s not fully it for this other thing you’re noticing.” Our drinks were left untouched for a bit of time as I looked at her trying to find the words to her problem. “I guess I’m feeling out of it with things in general. The repetitious routine, the break from my job for one measly day before getting weighed with six days of mundane labor all over again. It’s been feeling pretty unfulfilling as of late, more so than usual. At least there’s this for me to kind of look forward to.”

            “I see… That’s rough. I feel as if many get that feeling once their job becomes too much of a drag and they don’t get the proper time to actually enjoy themselves a bit and take in the world.” We swirled our cups a bit as we separately stared off in thought about it.