“A grande Americano,” said the barista, smirking, “for…”

“Don’t say it,” I snapped, plunging my hand threateningly into the tip jar on the corner of the counter in the coffee shop.

“…A grande Americano.” He grinned broadly.

I withdrew the dollar I had deposited there earlier.

“Worth it,” he proclaimed.

A graduate of the Master of Professional Writing Program at the University of Southern California, Chad Greene experiments with twitter fiction at @TheShortCourse.