This Is Us

On Coffee and Men

You can learn a lot about someone by the way they bring you a drink

Erica Rhodes
Human Parts
Published in
4 min readApr 22, 2020

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A black and white photo of a woman drinking a cup of coffee by a window in her home.
Photo: Nick Holmes

“You deserve a lover who takes away the lies and brings you hope, coffee, and poetry.” — Frida Kahlo

I love coffee as much as (or maybe more than) I love men. I was a late bloomer. Didn’t start drinking it until my mid-twenties.

In high school, I was a tea fanatic. I drank English breakfast with my Russian boyfriend when I was 16. He bought real tea, the loose leaves, and drained it into a cup. I loved the sound of the kettle whistling and watching him glide around my kitchen with his long legs and broad shoulders. Strong and agile, yet romantic and just so… Russian. He knew how I liked my tea.

Then, in my twenties, I found coffee. And I never went back to tea (or my Russian boyfriend, who broke my heart, but that’s another story).

Coffee, the elixir of life, the most popular natural antidepressant there is. The beverage of choice for hopeless romantics.

I can’t function, nor wish to function, without it. Some people read tea leaves. I read coffee grounds. Or rather, coffee behavior.

How does a man bring you coffee? Does he bring it to you in bed? Does he ask you how you like it? Does he make it how he

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