“Can’t a girl get a proper cup of tea around here?” asked Katherine.

“Sorry Miss, we only have black coffee.”

“It’s just flavored hot water, no need to act like it’s highfalutin. But I do have very refined tastes when it comes to my beverages.”

“Look, lady, this is jail.”

Carolyn Smuts taught history before fleeing academic life to write. Her work has appeared in SELF, Glamour, Creative Living, Ultimate Motorcycling, and Business Week. Her recent fiction works were published by Akashic Books, Jitter Press, Wordland, and Omnific. She lives in Southern California.