A Tea Tease

Like a lot of colleges, mine has a few stores dotted around campus. Almost all of them have a drinks counter that serves coffee, tea, and hot chocolate. The teas are bagged and displayed in their boxes on the counter. I’m a tea fiend and really love one of the blends, so I decide to pick up a few tea bags.

Me: “Just these, please. I’m just getting the bags so I can make them later.”

The cashier freezes — like full-on brain malfunction freezes. We stand there for a few seconds, staring at each other.

Senior Worker: “Just ring it up as hot tea and give her the bags.”

The cashier unfroze and charged me appropriately.

I don’t know if it was her first day, if the register had an option for just tea bags, or if she needed the caffeine even more than I did, but I started getting my tea from a different campus store at a third of the price.