"The Last Cup of Coffee"

 

Ever morning for twenty-seven years. Daniel and Rosa met at the corner cafe at 7:30 sharp. It started when they worked together, just a quick coffee before work. But even after they retired they kept coming. It became their special routine.

      The cafe staff know them well, they always sat by the window. Daniel drank black coffee and Rosa liked her with cream and two sugar. They didn't always talk much, sometime they sat in silence, watching people rush past outside, and sometimes they laughed like a teenager, reminiscing about the old days 

     Then on Monday, Rosa didn't showed up. Daniel waited, he checked his watch again and again, he thinks to himself, maybe she was overslept or maybe the bus was late. But deep down he know.

The next day and the next, he still came to the cafe and he still sat at their table and still ordered two coffees. The waitress - a young, kind-eye, she eventually stopped asking if Rosa was coming.

       One  morning, a man at the next table leaned over and said, "You've sitting here alone for a weeks, why do you keep ordering two? " Daniel looked at him and smiled softly and said , "Because she never missed a morning in twenty-seven years and I want to make sure she knows I'm still here. Just in case she decides to come back". The man didn't know what to say. So they sat together in silence for a while, watching the morning light stretch across the street.