What I Overheard At A Café Shocked Me

It was one of those days when I was bored at home.

Staying home is otherwise a bliss.. but then shit hits roof when after a few days you come to a realisation that you are surrounded by stuff you don’t even remember you had- those chocolate wrappers beside your bed you forgot to throw, those books- half read and waiting to be finished, those blankets on your bed that make it look like it had just been used as a ring for WWE, the bean bag that now holds all the partially worn clothes. I know I have to clean it but I don’t. I instead wonder if my life is as chaotic and messy as my room.

So what do I do? I do not bother with the mess, and instead do what I am best at. Escape.

I pack my laptop, wear those classic blue jeans and a casual peach color tee that I’m most comfortable in and head out into the sun. I need to get things done. Being in-between jobs is like a board exam pressure situation. Study, prepare and hunt! Who says life gets easy when you adult *rolling my eyes*.

So I go to this serene little cafe near my place. It usually is devoid of any human forms sparing a single waiter and a cashier who are usually too self absorbed to bother me much. This is perhaps the main reason I visit this cafe often. But today, there was a couple sitting at a table in the corner. I walk in and notice their watchful eyes turn towards me as they stop midway through their conversation. I act indifferent and walk to my table with an air that is reserved only to the regular customers and get comfortable. I order iced tea and open my laptop. There are a lot of things pending on my to-do-list, and soon the couple go AWOL from my brain.

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Until I hear…

I sense something swish by from her hand. Like she flung something on the ground. I want to turn around and see, but better sense prevails. I do not want to seem intrusive although I was obviously eavesdropping.

She walks past me to the door of the cafe, leaving the guy stranded. I wasn’t sure of the expression on his face and the curious writer in me decides to risk the embarrassment of getting caught intruding and quickly sneaks a peek at him. The look on his face is one of sheer agony, which is a surprise. I had expected a slight smugness or indifference. For a long time there was silence and then he rises and leaves too.

With the cafe empty, I look around uninhibitedly, and there, at a corner I see a joint that seems like it had been through a concrete mixer. That joint was the object that she had flung across in anger? Their conversation made less sense now than it had been with him cheating.

She had a problem with him being a stoner? With its obvious harmful effects as well as health benefits! I however do not think weed deserved a footage of this sort & to cause break up of a relationship.

It was absurd. It was an obvious lack of knowledge and a one sided perception of the world that could have led her take such an erratic decision.

I dwell over it for a while and then google the benefits of the plant to reassure myself that I was still on the same page with sanity. Thank God! I still am.

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