November 7, 2018

I'm sitting at the Fyxx on Broadway and eating lunch: Tandoori's Box sandwich (pretty good) and some chicken gumbo soup (very good) and a glass of water because I have a thermos of coffee in my bag that John made for me this morning before I left the house.

He makes coffee in a Chemex during the weekdays and has a system of pouring the water, waiting, and pouring that it part Chemex-specific, and part his own process. 

On the weekends he makes coffee using the Aeropress but the coffee also includes tasty stuff like a shot of Jameson's or Baileys or Kahlua if we're craving something sweet.

John's coffee is one of the highlights of my day-to-day and I will be the first to admit that I am completely spoiled in this regard. 

I only make my own coffees when he's travelling for work or out of town and I can tell you that even though it's hard to fuck up coffee, whatever I make isn't nearly as good.

Back when I worked in an office he would make me a big thermos to take with me so I didn't have to drink the Maxwell House that every office seems to defer to.

(We do not drink Maxwell House. We drink fair trade coffee from our local coffee shops like Thom Bargen and sometimes Parlour Coffee or Little Sister).

(Though we often cut our fancy beans with flavoured beans from Bulk Barn which means my coffee is half French Vanilla or Hazelnut or whatever, which is isn't as fancy but is way more delicious).

When I started running Starling a few years back I switched from going into an office every day to working from home and I'd assumed for some reason that my thermos of coffee would go away

after all, if I'm at home with all the coffee stuff why would John bother making extra for me?

But every day for the past three-plus years John has not only made me a thermos of coffee every weekday

but he brews it, mixes it, and drops it off at my desk in the morning before he leaves for the office

so by the time I'm finished getting ready I have a cozy office with a big 'ol thermos of coffee waiting for me on my desk.

A while back we had a big fight in the morning before work.

I forget what it was about, but it was one of those stupid fights where you're probably too emotionally volatile (and fully not awake yet) so everything is a problem and the other person makes you so mad you could spit.

I said to John "just go away. I'll see you later" and I started getting ready like I usually do

and that wonderful man, you know what he did? 

He went upstairs and made me my usual thermos of coffee

and then he dropped it off in my office as usual

even though we were in the middle of a fight and I was, in hindsight, probably not being my best self 

(I'm not a morning person)

he still went out of his way to be kind to me.

Later in the day after we'd calmed down and had a chat and things were back to normal I said

"why did you still make me coffee this morning?"

and he said 

"just because we're fighting doesn't mean I get to be a dick about things. I love you."

Thank god I'm marrying that man.