Zanzibar is a tropical paradise that sells chai lattes and French onion soup
It is easy to start a relationship
With a coffee shop
It has been on your corner a long time, pretty much 7 years or more before you moved in,
So really all it takes is sitting down again at the same table, recognizing that the barista recognizes you after you stayed till close with the same shake of his head
Yesterday, ordering random drinks and food because of your empty fridge at home and illusion you will finish work, definitely
Before the two girls wearing light headscarves and comfortable striped pants show up again with textbooks
Staring at the same white haired man who wears a purple shirt that billows over the foothills of his stomach and sits by the window on the far end of the horseshoe tetris of the cafe
A window eggplant
You’ve even unlocked the key
To the cafe wifi network, applepie, all one word, lowercase
Which your phone will safeguard
Stretching invisible spindly arms towards it whenever you walk toward the train station
on your way to work
A policeman guards the front door listening to the police scanner which is really just an action movie he is playing on his phone
And you can order the same taco salad dish you did after you finished moving in and showed up all sweaty
When your roommate said, no thanks, anyway I’ve been trying to avoid Relationship Weight
like
when Nick and I go to a coffee shop and he always offers to buy me something
And you thought woah, yeah, that is such an intelligent dodge, sidestepping the patterns and accumulations of a relationship before they even develop
Yeah I’m trying to lose five pounds, said your roommate