Hot Coffee Is Worse Than Iced Tea

So I’ve decided to do a writing prompt for today. This is from one of the prompts I found on a website. The prompt I’m using is, “write about a coffee spill that caused trouble.” I got my inspiration by Natasha Bedingfield’s song “Touch” as both verses talk about a similar situation that involves coffee and a little bit of trouble. Enjoy!

My whole morning has been a total disaster. That’s what Emma’s mind kept saying throughout her Wednesday morning. It was mid-week and she was anxious about spending this week off with her friends and hopefully getting the rest of her ex-boyfriend’s things out of her apartment. Emma and Cody had been in a relationship for three years and even though they had only been in a relationship for such a short period of time, they decided to not only move away from their families so they could get better jobs but also decided to move in together. At the time, it sounded like a good idea because then paying the rent would be easier with two people working instead of one. Well, the day before they moved Emma caught her boyfriend flirting with one of her sister’s friends. That should have been her warning right there, but nope! She still stayed with him, but kept her guard up just in case. For good reasoning too, because once they got settled into their new home. Emma got a good steady job and Cody, well he stayed at home playing video games and never went out to find a job. When she found him screwing around with one of their neighbors, Emma had enough for his boyish lifestyle and kicked him to the curb.

Emma had a big speech to make at the meeting this morning. She felt ready for it, but everything that had been happening in the last few weeks was taking a toll on herself. She hadn’t got to enjoy the city’s riches and she had been living there for three months. She was so consumed with her job that traveling around her new home wasn’t an option. She kind of envied Cody for getting that chance since she kicked him out without at least giving him a chance to find another place. He would be sleeping by a curb like any dog, but Emma would have enough discreetly to rescue the dog and not him. Emma sat on the chair outside the room where the meeting was to be held. She was nervous, her palms were sweating, and her mind was swirling around back and forth. When the door opened and people who were in there before came out between the five or six people who came out all at once. She quickly sat up from her uncomfortable chair and ran right into one of the slow walkers who was still talking to her boss. John Watson, CEO of another enterprise a state away, was the poor bastard who just happened to run right into Emma and got his Starbucks coffee spilled all over his gray suit. Emma gasped at her actions but was quickly relieved that it wasn’t her boss she ran into, he would have fired her instantly.

“Oh my gosh! I’ am so sorry! Are you okay?” Emma regained her strength but lost of her nervous feelings in the process. “Yeah, I’m all right.” John said with a chuckle. “It was my fault. I was walking and talking at the same time.” John said back as he tried to wipe off the excess off of his ruined suit. “I am so terribly sorry, I thought everybody was out of there.” Emma said with her hands on her face. Now her face was warm and red, not by the embarrassment but by the hot coffee that not only spilled on him but got her as well. “Oh great, now I got coffee on me too. This morning just keeps getting worse for me.” Emma said as twirled around in the hallway as her colleagues walked right past her and into the room where her important was to be held. John thought he had gotten as much coffee off of his clothes before noticing Emma spinning around looking for her stains. He chuckled again. “What’s so funny?” Emma said as she gradually started picking up her things off the floor, they were soaking wet too! “Nothing, you have nothing to worry about, you look good.” John said back to her with a half-smile. Emma was shocked to get hit on by a guy that she ran into and spilled his damn coffee all over him, but she didn’t say she didn’t like the attention. She starting smiling, but their moment was ruined when her boss came up to shut the door and found the two of them, together.

“What is going on? Emma Roy, you’re supposed to be in here giving a speech, aren’t you?” Mr. Baxter said in a not so calm and steady voice. “Yes sir, I am.” She said to her boss. “Sorry.” She said to John before grabbing her things and walking past him this time not touching him at all. Once she was in the room and in the only opened seat left, her boss took a couple of steps out of the room to look at what happened to John. “What the hell happened?” Mr. Baxter said as he looked up and down at John. “Hot coffee is worse than iced tea.” John said as he finished fixing himself up. “I take it you’re talking from experience.” Mr. Baxter said before heading back to the meeting. “Yes, actually I am.” John said as he began to walk away from the stained carpet before him. Two hours, Emma’s meeting was finished. She did her speech and her ideas were executed perfectly until her boss and co-workers started to lose interested in her. “What am I doing wrong?” Emma asked herself. “Ms Roy, you have very good ideas for the company, but I think you’re losing your focus on the design and management.” Mr. Baxter said to her in front of EVERYONE! “Oh my god, he’s going to fire me right now!” She thought again. “So I’ve decided that you need a little help in those areas and I’ve hired you a partner to show you the ropes so you can get back to your old self again.” Whoa, this is new! “Okay, that’s awesome to hear. Who am I working with sir?” Emma asked with a smile, hoping it was somebody in the room. “It is the man you just spilled coffee on, his name is John Watson. You said you used to live in Arizona. That’s where he lives and his company is located, I’m sending you there.” Why couldn’t he just fire me instead?

Mr. Baxter let her clean out her desk at the office and she finally had the right excuse to tell her landlord to go screw himself and go back home to her family and go to the nearest Starbucks and repay her new boss with a new cup of hot Java. As much as the excitement of seeing her family was to her, the fact that she’ll be this dude’s assistant in a way, made her stomach curl up. From one moment she had a good job in a city where she wanted her new set of freedom and wanted to explore to making the biggest mistake of her life and even he told her it was his fault in the first place. Two weeks got her back in Arizona, unpacked, and time with her family before she would start her new job at Sunny Side Up Inc. She dressed up in what she wore for her interview, white long-sleeved blouse, navy blue skirt plus the navy blue blazer to match. It was the only nice outfit she had. Before she even made it to the building, she took a beeline to the nearby Starbucks and asked for a black coffee and if they had it, two vodka shots for her! The drive was short but her nervous were still getting to her, plus the flats she brought were basically coming apart and made her walk kind of funny. When she entered the doors, she was surprised of how clean and exotic it looked compared from the outside and of course the company name.

It was nice and cool, everything was made of glass, the doors and handles. The furniture around was back and white to add some simple chic and color to the whole place. She was impressed but knew the decor wasn’t his idea. When she reached the front desk, the girl at the desk told her to go right in because he was expecting her. As she walked down the narrow cream-colored hallway that has door after door on the right side of her and artwork on the left, she was curious and taken back by everything! She clutched her purse and his coffee tightly in her hands, but when a fairly tall man opened the main door in front of her and looked at her, they knew they were in trouble. “Hi.” John said in shock, how could she found him? He wondered. Emma went to shake his head and introduced herself as she’s never met him before, “Hi, I’m Emma Roy and my boss sent me here to be guided by a John Watson.” He was pleased, but sad to be greeted like that, but knew it her talking professionally. “Hi, welcome! I am John Watson. Nice to meet you officially.” He said as took her hand in with a nice grip. They continued to nod their heads, things were getting awkward fast. “You too. Oh, here’s your coffee. I thought I owed you one after two weeks ago.” He smiled with delight and took the coffee out of her hand. “I didn’t know what you liked, so I just got you black because that’s what my dad likes.” Emma rambled on, trying to make conversation. “Smart man. Here, come inside. Let’s discuss business.” John said as he stepped back and let her pass him inside. Once inside, he turned around and shut the door.