It was inevitable, or at least made to feel like inevitable. The scent of bitter coffee beans always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love. He would give himself frequent small dose of cappuccino through every day to keep himself numb to attend to work that for him had lost all meaning many years before.
There will be no more coffee from familiar baristas, not for next two weeks and then every alternate two weeks. No more five minutes chit-chat over smoke to resolve the impasse after hour long meetings, no more after work drinks, no more travel. Most events that he had continued keeping himself convinced to look excited about are getting cancelled or will be thinly attended. Doomsday prophecies were still another couple of years away before they would imagine a haunted Wharf but it looks like those images are already here like an exhibit in Tate Modern. He had finally cancelled his Tate membership last year after he hardly visited it for last couple of years. The member area would have been a good place to work remotely from. He won’t miss them though as the expectation is to avoid public place. May be he can cancel his office gym membership finally, he has hardly used that either, last two years.
I am sure it won’t be long before he gets used to working from home. 15 years after he first bought a coffee machine, he can now consider getting an AeroPress or Sage. He need not wait until retirement to make good coffee at home.
