Weak Coffee

by Tom Mahony

Man, I hated this place. The coffee was weak, the muffins stale, the waiters arrogant jerks. As I read a newspaper and struggled through a blueberry muffin, I tried to ignore the kook beside me barking into his cell phone and music blasting from the overtaxed speakers. Enough—I would never return to this dump. I rose to leave, to head for my unkempt and lonely apartment. I’d be back here tomorrow.



 Tom Mahony is a biological consultant in California with an MS from Humboldt State University. He is the author of the novels Imperfect Solitude and Flooding Granite. His third novel, Pacific Offering, is forthcoming on November 1, 2012. Visit his website at tommahony.net.