LAST COFFEEHOUSE ON TRAVIS

For a few months, I stayed with my aunt's friend in Midtown, back when she could still afford to live there.

Now it's filled with condos, and they're all a trillion dollars a month. But, in those days, she owned the house, and also a coffeehouse a few blocks away.

I was too broke to pay rent, so every morning saw me behind the counter.

This was the arrangement. I'd just broken up with my ex-a doctor with legible handwriting, an ungenerous top because he was moving to Austin and I wasn't down to do that.

Margo lived with her young son, Walter. Sometimes he went by Walt, the name his father called him, but his father was gone. My aunt had introduced the two of them to me as her Good Friends, which meant they'd cither met at church or been involved in some kind of beauty-shop gossip entanglement but, when I was standing in their doorway, effectively unhoused, none of that had mattered to me.

Walter looked up at me with absolute disdain. Margo only shrugged.

I really appreciate your hospitality, I said, nearly bowing.

Don't call it that, Margo said. It's a favor. Your aunt will pay it back.

This made my aunt's eye twitch. But it wasn't a lie. I'd been living with her for a while, and, ever since she'd walked in on me sucking off a hookup in her living room, every word she lobbed my way felt loaded. So she smiled, pushing me forward a bit.

You'll hardly even notice him, she said, rubbing my back. He's no trouble.

Better not be, Margo said.

Walter kept staring at my face. I scrunched it a bit to see if he'd laugh or something, but he did not.

I'd been a barista before, but Margo still wanted me to make her a coffee.

She sat with her legs crossed at the bar, tapping at her phone. It wasn't a big space: there were three sofas, a few tables, and some drapes lining the windows. The walls were painted the lightest shade of gray. Walter sketched Bluey at a table by the entrance.

Is this a test? I asked.

Only if achievement-based endeavors give you validation, Margo said.

And if I fail?