THE CORNER CAFE
Esteban spent long hours during the early morning fighting against sleep, to be able to update all that amount of paperwork from the company where he worked. Approximately 15 years ago he had started working at that municipal institution and many times he had to take part of his work home to be able to keep it up to date. In this way, coffee, with all its possible presentations, had become his most faithful companion.
His addiction to the magical drink was so great that he bought wholesale packages of different aromas; cinnamon, chocolate, caramel, almonds, citrus and many more. Since early morning Marianela had her strong coffee ready before going to work, and a thermos to take to the office. Even so, by noon Esteban had already consumed all that content and ended up buying from the vendors who were on the street, right in front of the building.
Sometimes he felt that his life only moved between papers and coffee, he no longer had time to dedicate himself to his wife and his son, even the project of buying a house had been forgotten since his income was not even enough to do it. He stopped in front of the door of the warehouse where they kept the food, and when he saw the coffee bales he thought that this was a waste of money, that if he only used what he invested in coffee to save and buy a house, he would already have a lot accumulated . He said to himself: "I am going to sell all this coffee, and I will not continue to consume it ... this addiction is ruining me."
In this way, Esteban, taking advantage of the fact that he was about to start a new year, made a promise not to drink any more coffee and to use the proceeds from the sale of the saved bales to start a savings fund to buy a house. His wife thought that decision a bit drastic, knowing that coffee was his greatest pleasure since he was very young, so she proposed something more productive for everyone. On the corner, diagonal to the building where Esteban worked, they had put up an ad that they were renting a two-story condominium with an option to sell; commercial premises on the ground floor and apartment on the top. Marianela's idea was to set up a cafeteria on the premises, and they would move into the apartment.
The first week of the new year, the couple was already living in their new apartment, and they signed a contract in which they would continue to pay a lower rent than the previous one, and the profits from the café would be used to save and buy the entire property. The owners told them to work calmly on their finances since they were leaving the country, and they were practically auctioning off that property. Esteban continued buying coffee by bales, but it was no longer just to satisfy his taste for coffee, but to prepare the best coffees in his business, which his wife ran with great patience and harmony, and brought customers from all over the world. , especially the building where her husband worked.
Author: Ana C. Rivero Foucault
This is my participation in this contest "#STB Creative Writing Prompt - No. 26", to which I was invited by my friend @brujita18, and I am pleased to invite my friends @ismaelgranados and @popurri.
