Coffee and Cigarettes



I don't smoke. Nope not one bit. I've tried it, wasn't for me. But as weird as I am, I love the smell of tobacco. Odd huh? Well today I needed a spot of coffee actually for lunch. There is a little cafe down the street where you can sit outside and of all things they allow smoking there.

The morning wore on like most mornings do at work. The coffee at work was ok, but I just needed something else. Something was missing. What is it? I wondered t myself. Then it hit me, I just needed to smell the slightest bit of cigarette smoke with the coffee. To me for some stupid reason the two smells just go perfectly together. And there is even a movie about it, which I think is smashing by the way. Anyways....

For some reason this smell always reminds of being in Mexico or at a cafe in Italy or France. (note to self must go back to those three places much more often) But today it would remind me of my last and recent trip to Monterrey. The morning I spent drinking coffee at my Tio and Tia's house outside on a perfect day. My Tio sitting across from me smoking a cigarette while we had coffee. The sky was so blue and the warmth was just perfect, as we talked. Sipping coffee, and him smoking his cigarettes, talking about the mix CD, Mix Tape Girl gave me.

So I decided to go to the cafe at lunch. No one sits outside at this place, and I find it rather sad. I ordered a coffee and a sandwich and sat outside. I sat in the sun under a cloudless blue sky. But I needed that smell. So I quickly ran to the store next door and bought a pack and a lighter. I came back to my table. There was a lady a few tables away now on her laptop, it surprised me cause like I said no one sits outside at this place for whatever reason. I took out the pack I bought and light it up.

The lady quickly looks up at me. I hold the cigarette in my hand kinda close to my mouth. I guess from her vantage point it looks like I'm gonna take a puff. But I stare at the cigarette for a while, the smoke slowing coming out. It smells good to me, but I don't want to smoke it. I just needed the smell. The lady's still looking at me. I put it down in the ash tray to burn away. I get out a book I'm reading from my bag and finish my coffee and my lunch.

As I get up to walk back to work, I throw the pack and lighter I bought into the trash bin next to the lady. "Good for you." She says. "Quiting is the hardest thing to do."

I give a puzzled look and then smile and say, "Yes it believe it is."