Write a short story about a woman named Mary who is a barista making a latte.


Mary was a barista at the local coffee shop. She has worked at this specific cafe for over 5 years and has learned to love the job, and has grown close to her coworkers and regular customers. While Mary is a specialist in preparing many types of coffee and tea drinks, her favorite of all time was to make the latte. One morning around 8:00 am, a regular customer named Eric came into the cafe. Eric usually orders a latte every morning around the same time and Mary really enjoys preparing his drink. When Mary saw Eric walk in, she started preparing his drink without even asking what he would order. First Mary greeted Eric and engaged in some small talk, conversing about the seasonally warm weather we were having. While simultaneously having this conversation, Mary was in process of making the coffee drink. Mary first ground 18g of espresso roast coffee on a fine grind setting. Once the coffee was ground, she filled the portafilter with the ground coffee. Once the portafilter was full of coffee, Mary tamped the coffee with a tamper, using about 30 pounds of force. When the portafilter was ready, she fixed it upon the espresso machine. Next Mary filled a milk pitcher with 12 ounces of whole milk. She then took the pitcher, held it to the steam wand, and started steaming the milk. For the first 5 seconds, she held the milk just below the surface of the milk to aerate the milk, and then moved the pitcher up so the steam wand was fully emerged. While the milk was steaming, Mary pressed the espresso button on the machine to start the pouring of the espresso into the two shot glasses. Mary was an expert in doing multiple latte making tasks simultaneously. As the milk finished steaming, she removed the pitcher, wiped down the steam wand, and set the milk aside. At that time, the espresso shots were done, and Mary poured the espresso from the shot glasses into the 16 oz paper cup. She then took the steamed milk and poured it over the espresso shots in the cup. She poured the milk in a specific way that would create latte art, this time she made a little heart out of the milk and foam. Once all the milk was poured, she put a cup on the coffee and handed the coffee over to Eric, who she was still having a conversation with. Once he received the coffee, Eric scanned his gift card on the computer which Mary had prepared for payment for the latte. After Eric was done paying, he took a sip of the drink and complimented Mary for another excellently prepared latte. After taking his sip, Eric then left the store, and got into this car, and drove away. It was moments like this every morning that reminded Mary why she loves this job so much, and looked forward to helping more customers for the remainder of her shift that morning.