“When it was her turn to order, she asked for coffee with room for milk. Her generous interpretation of why Nick overfilled her cup so much that black liquid sloshed on the counter? The place was noisy and the boy couldn’t hear. The time it took for Ginger to figure out what Nick meant, in dollars, when he rang her up and said, “That will be three hundred and fourteen cents”? Just under a minute. Duration of Nick’s independent-coffee-shop job? Four days. Reason for termination, according to Julia? Owner had no sense of humor.”