perksofbeingmel

I am a self proclaimed Starbucks dweller, and if you ask anyone who knows me, they’ll confirm. I see and hear a lot of things the few hours I’m there – sometimes on purpose, mostly on accident. Though I’ve been an expert eavesdropper most of my life, I tend to just pick up on conversations a lot while I’m here. the store echos of business meetings, the girly pops from school on their break, staff meetings, door dashers conversing, and everything else in between. I thought it would be fun to put my own twist of words to the page on what I hear and see some days.

I hope you don’t think I’m budding into people’s business on purpose – as far as I’m concerned, if people didn’t want to be noticed, heard or listened to, they’d have these conversations at home instead of a very public space. everything I’ll write in this series is from a place of observation and curiosity, and turned into a mini picture of…stories at Starbucks 🙂

so here is day 1 of stories at Starbucks

4.2.2026

I’m not sure if this is a first date, or two old friends meeting, but they are definitely giving off first date vibes to me. they’re talking about art and photography – and its like a conversation you see people having in movies. he talks about his love of art museums and listens intently whenever she speaks. they talk about wedding photography and traveling. the conversation moves onto Jesus and how long each other have been “following Jesus.” she’s soft and effortlessly pretty, slightly nervous to drink her shaken espresso even though she’s at ease with him. he talks a lot but not in a dominating the conversation way, more in the wanting to make her comfortable and truly share his thoughts with her kind of way. they both seem a little hipster, young to mid 20’s and they dress like they want to stand out subtly. they both have on a real watch. she has what I consider a classic photographer style. he’s a red head with mostly black on. black on clouds, skinny black workout pants, and black jacket, with a green shirt underneath that offsets his hair. his glasses are round like his freckles.

she makes heavy eye contact, her eyes are truly glowing at him. though it feels like adoration, it might also be admiration. as the conversation goes on, it feels like they’ve got a working relationship, but he definitely wants more than that. he asks her “get to know her” type of questions, and she asks them back to be polite. he trots off to the bathroom, when he comes back, he’s smiling as soon as he see’s her at their table, even though she’s facing away from him. she’s on her laptop now, and he sneaks up behind her and whispers something on her right side, his glasses fall slightly down his face.

I wish I saw the end of their interaction before he left. I see her staring out into the parking lot, her fingers mid type – he’s backing out in a black car. she doesn’t look back to her computer until he’s entirely out of sight.