– Don’t you see anything else?
– Patience, my dear, be patient.
– Yes, nana, I am patient, but I have to go, I start working at four o’clock.
– There’s still time.
– It’s already three o’clock.
– It’s just three o’clock, dear. It all depends on the points of view.
The young woman snorted and began tapping her nails on the table, but the old woman didn’t mind. The warm afternoon light filtered through the kitchen.
There was silence outside. At three o’clock the old city was still motionless, muffled in the after lunch siesta. In one hour the streets would begin to awaken.
– Maybe we have to drink another coffee.
– But we have already drunk three, nana, you know that it doesn’t work like that.
– It’s you, honey, you are never satisfied. The cup speaks, but you want more. You want what you want. Then let’s continue until you get it.
– You are making a fool of me?
– A little bit, dear girl, just a little bit.
– All right, I understand. You told me about the university, you told me about my mother, about the next trip and even about the job I’m doing and about which I don’t care.
– It’s an important job right now. Never denigrate what allows you to support yourself.
– Yes, I understood, but I wanted to know about Amir, Nana. You havn’t told me anything about him yet.
– It’s not my fault, it’s coffee.
– You’re the one who read it! There must be some signs about love, must it not?
– Everything is about love, dear girl.
– Oh yes, Creation is a love gesture and we all live in a huge bubble of love and blah blah blah, but this particular love, granny. This earthly love, I want to know if it will last, if Amir really loves me. I want to know if he’s the man of my life.
– How many “I want”, my dear daughter. Life is made of possibilities, not demands.
– If you put it this way, then I should not “want to study” or “want to build a future”.
– You have the opportunity to study, many people do not have it. You are only seizing the opportunities that life offers you in the most convenient way.
– There is free will exist, nana.
– Of course there is and it allows you to choose whether to take certain opportunities or not.
– All right, all right, but then if it’s life that offers everything, then it’s all written and then you should see it written in the coffee grounds. Is not this what you do? So tell me about Amir.
– How much impatience, dear.
– I have to go! Ugh. You always helped me. Why don’t you want to help me now? Did you maybe see something negative and don’t want to tell me? Oh, I knew it, Amir will leave me.
– Do not stress out unnecessarily. The coffee didn’t speak. That’s all.
– That’s all? But this is the only thing I asked for! And you can not see it!
– It may be my fault.
– No, sorry, I didn’t want to say this.
– Do you like this boy, my dear?
– Yes a lot.
– When he looks at you, do you see love in his eyes?
– Yup.
– Then there is nothing that coffee can tell you more than his eyes, my dear.
– What if I delude myself? If he is not sincere?
– If you delude yourself, it is not his eyes that are lying, but yours.
– And if it will not last? If in a little while, love will pass? Can’t you see at least this?
– Do you want to see if love will last or you two being together will?
The old clock struck half past three and a funny orange wooden cuckoo with big eyes looking upward, came out of the small door above the dial to warn.
– Damn, I have to go or I’ll be late.
The girl jumped up, took the scarf that had rested on the back of the chair and passed it around her neck. She grabbed her purse on the table, kissed the old woman’s cheek and started to go. She thought about it, turned back to the old woman and held her in a hug. Without looking at her in the eye, she ran towards the exit.
– Good work, honey.
– Thank you! – the young woman replied as she closed the door behind her.
The old woman kept sitting without getting agitated. She looked at the three cups on the table, took the first coffee and looked inside again. She smiled placidly.