Mocha? Put It On My Tab

I had almost broken my mocha habit, when at Borders one day I noticed they had a "Kahlua Mudslide" mocha flavored with Kahlua syrup. I tried it, and got myself hooked. So I'm back on the mocha kick. (Obviously, if I really did want to totally stop having mochas, I could do so. It's mostly that I make fun of myself for getting them as often as I do.)

Yesterday I was supposed to commit my code changes last night, so they'd be in for this morning's build. I was at work until 3 in the morning, when Eclipse up and stopped working on me. So after all that, I finally went to bed without checking in my code. :(

I got to work "early" (read: 9:30 AM) to see if a solution had been found. Indeed, someone had emailed me back this morning with a solution. Happy happy, joy joy. But what I really needed was caffeine. The Apple building across the way has an espresso bar, so I went there to buy a mocha to wake myself up. (My normal morning routine of decaf Lipton's just wasn't going to cut it, especially not psychologically.)

I ordered the mocha, the woman behind the counter made the mocha. I chatted with her about how late I'd beeen at work. She told me how she'd seen someone in her building hard at work before she'd even gotten in (which, she implied, was already early).

I handed her my credit card to pay for the mocha. She shook her head, smiled, and said cash only. Doh! I even knew this, but sleep-deprived and already-forgetful me had forgotten to bring cash. I scrambled to think of how to remedy my cashless state (borrowing from the guy behind me in line, or running back across the street to my building were my solutions). But the woman waved a hand and said, "Don't worry about it. Next time."

I sighed and smiled thankfully at her. "I'll certainly be back again," I assured her. I thanked her again, took my caffeinated goodness, and scampered back to my own building.

I wonder whether my chatting with her beforehand made it more likely that she let me "buy" the mocha on credit? Had I just said, "Small mocha," and silently waited for her to make it, would should have been as nice? She is human, after all.

One of those curious "what if" scenarios.

Categories: shopping, psychology, work