Don’t get me wrong, I only have a cup, maybe two, a day. Since Doug and I started dating it’s become almost a daily ritual. Afterall, Doug just has to have his morning coffee.

Before meeting him, I would have the occasional iced coffee, maybe a hot cup if I was out to breakfast at a restaurant. Other than that though, I barely drank the stuff. I was always more of a tea person.

I remember bonding with my father as a young man over tea. My dad always loved coffee, but for a while he switched over to tea. Honestly, I don’t know if it was to be healthier, if my mom encouraged it or, more likely, he just wanted a change of pace. He’s always been like that. He’s the type of man to get almost too into something for just long enough for it to get annoying and then just drop the habit out of nowhere.

During early mornings I’d pop down to the kitchen as my father got ready for work. He would have his pot of water boiling and a teabag of whatever flavor of the week he had picked out sitting in a mug waiting to be steeped. One day, he had a second mug of tea set up and steeping as I came out of the bathroom ready to head back to bed.

I looked at him as he handed me the tea as if he had two heads. As much as he and I have always gotten along, we have never been particularly close. At least, we hadn’t been since I was much younger. When my teen years hit I really pulled away from pretty much everyone that wasn’t also a moody teenager. Yet here he was extending an olive branch made of ceramic.

“Trust me. You’ll like it.”

It started me down a journey of discovery that took me to all different flavors of tea. Surprisingly, I even developed a taste for classic teas. Sugar, while still my favorite addition to any hot beverage, slowly became less and less of a necessity. I was hooked.

Yet, now dating Doug I find myself drinking coffee far more often. Don’t get me wrong, Doug likes tea too. However, for him it’s an end of the night cozy drink. Almost more of an activity than a beverage. Whereas, coffee is his lifeline to consciousness. I’ve always been the type to go with the flow, an it’s often easier to make two cups of coffee than one cup of coffee and another of tea.

So here I am sitting at my desk sipping on a cup of coffee. All I can think is that I miss tea.