The dilemma.

Marcus woke up that morning but was still tired. He found everything around him strange, for a moment he had forgotten that he had stayed at his friend Claudia's house. The last few weeks had been very difficult at his ex-girlfriend's house, but after much arguing they were finally over, now Marcus had been left with nowhere to go. Luckily Claudia was one of those friends who never left him and in that situation even less so.

He got up and dragged his feet to the kitchen, the pain weighed heavily on him, to the point that it hurt him to walk. When he reached the kitchen he met Claudia, who greeted him with a dazzling smile.

"Would you like a cup of coffee?"

Marcus smiled at the question, coffee was his miracle balm, it relieved any sorrow or anger. He nodded his head and sat thinking about how lucky he was to have a friend like Claudia. As she poured the steaming cup of coffee he couldn't help but feel grateful to have a helping hand to accompany him through such a hard time, he knew that few had that privilege.

Claudia approached him and handed him the cup, when Marcus tasted it he felt like the world was falling apart. It was a cup of instant coffee, he hated it deeply, he didn't even consider it real coffee. He wanted to spit and throw the cup away, but he restrained himself, Claudia was still there smiling tenderly, he couldn't do that to his friend who had kindly taken him in.

He drank that cloudy water trying to hide the disgust it provoked in him. He spent the whole day thinking about how he could approach the subject of coffee with Claudia, when the evening came and he was already at home having dinner he tried to make it simple, so he looked tenderly at Claudia while he told her how grateful he was. She took his hands and interrupted him.

"I'm here for you my friend, I want you to be as calm and comfortable as possible, so I bought you a present. I know you're a coffee lover, so I'm sure you're going to love it."

Claudia walked over to the cupboard and pulled out a large container of instant coffee from one of the drawers, it was brand new, she had bought it that very afternoon exclusively for Marcus. Marcus squirmed in his chair, he tried to smile with a stiff grimace, at that moment he knew that now he would have to drink majagua asas every morning, otherwise he would break Claudia's heart.

The next day he ruminated that tasteless tincture while he talked with Claudia before each of them left for work, he thought a lot during the whole morning. At lunchtime he was still deep in thought and a co-worker with whom he spoke little approached him.

"I've been feeling you very strange Marcus, you're always the most cheerful and active in the workshop, but today you're off, is everything alright?"

At that moment Marcus felt like he was bursting at the seams, he told everything to his companion who, although he had shared very little with him at that moment, was like a beacon of light and relief. The boy listened attentively to the whole melodrama, from the breakup with the girlfriend, to the painful task of drinking instant coffee.

"You probably don't know this Marcus, but I love mind games would you like to play one?"

Marcus nodded his head with some disinterest.

"I'll ask you a question and you try to answer me, what's your worst fear right now?"

"Getting back together with my ex-girlfriend, without a doubt."

"And your second biggest fear?"

"Having to drink instant coffee for as long as I stay with Claudia. I can't, I'll die prematurely."

"Then that's it, you know the worst thing you could do would be to go back to her and you have nowhere else to go for the time being. You have to take the instant coffee thing as a necessary evil."

Lunchtime ended and Marcus remained pensive.It was eating at him, he had to decide between breaking his friend's heart, getting back together with his ex-girlfriend or continuing to drink that awful mock coffee. At 5 o'clock in the morning he was tossing and turning in bed unable to sleep, drenched in sweat and shaking a little, partly due to the effects of the instant coffee running through his blood. He couldn't take it anymore, he picked up the phone and dialed his ex-girlfriend.

The next day he came to the kitchen for his usual meeting with Claudia, she thought he looked refreshed.

"Good morning Marcus, I'm glad to see you looking so well, it's been days since I've seen that glow on your face."

"I'm glad you notice Claudia, I certainly feel like new. I wanted to tell you something, I appreciate everything you've done for me, but I can't keep fooling myself, I'm still in love with my ex-girlfriend and I've decided to go back to her."

Claudia was so surprised that she couldn't dissimulate.

"But Marcus, you told me that your life with her had been hell and that you would never go back, that you would rather die."

"Well look Claudia, I understood that there are much worse things than going back to her or even worse things than dying."

Claudia couldn't understand, but she smiled tenderly at him because she was naturally kind.

"Shall we share one last coffee?"

Marcus thought about it for the fraction of a second, but for the first time he accepted it eagerly, for he knew that would be the last one, even if he was paying the highest price.