Coffee?

By Vani Bansal

Excuse me, would you mind if I buy you a cup of coffee?

Expresso, latte, decaf or one of the fancy words

Printed on that tall confusing menu shining with its laminated skin

I don’t really know a lot and I am for sure going to mess up the order

Maybe look at you with confused eyes

Asking for you to extract sense out of my blabbered words

Rescuing me from plausible humiliation

But before letting that happen too soon

I would re-read the words again and again

Practice the order in my head

I might smile looking at you while I am getting over my poor skills

Gorge in your big brown eyes and your charming dusky face

giving me a nod that it is just a coffee not a character asking to be saved

Oh! But I am not a creep I swear

I would like to buy you a cup of coffee

I repeated, ‘‘if my intentions weren’t clear”

So, the thing is I have been passing the alley every now and then

And your serious face with glasses resting on your head

Have attracted my eyes

and now I just can’t wait to see you sitting

by the side of these transparent frames

Every day I don up a new dress, try out some hairstyle

from an article titled, “10 styles that will suit your face”

and end up stepping out of my apartment

with nothing what the article meant but with hairs hanging loose reaching my waist

I walk up to the café with a new-found joy in my steps

But I slow down while passing the glass walls

Searching for you, seeing you pressing some keys in your laptop

with the coffee being served to you by the lady walking through the hall

I know I know this is a lot to take in

And I do not want to interrupt your mornings

But after a month of knowing your existence

I just wanted to try out my luck taking a few steps in this direction

I haven’t don up a stylish dress, clearly those articles were not much of a help

I don’t wear heels but prefer sneakers

Books and coffee are my kind of people

I don’t live in fairy tales but have been lost far too many times in romantic novels

I am too bad among people and believe me I am the worst person handing out orders

Just to clarify I am an adult who has not figured out adulting

who still likes Ghibli more than anything than Bollywood and its movies

I know I spoke a lot and poured way too much on the table

But I just wanted to ward off the silence and I agree it seems like a lot to handle

But maybe, if you don’t mind

We can get a few laughs out of this whole weird conversation

And maybe I might too get a little bit of your embarrassing information

So, let me frame my question again and ask you how the normal would mean to

Would you mind if I buy you a cup of coffee?

and listen to your ramble while I figure out how to not screw up my first order..

By Vani Bansal