When the dreaded 3.30pm time comes by, many people at the company start becoming lethargic. But today, Mia has sent a group message to people in her team, including Oliver.

Mia: COFFEE RUN to celebrate our recent project! Send me your coffee requests and I’ll have it delivered! Ordering from XXX coffee shop!

And in a private message to Oliver, she has added: If you want two drinks, or something else, you get special privileges 😉

Oliver has to roll his eyes when Mia comes knocking on his door barely a minute after her message.

“I mean it,” she says. “Your word, my command, etcetera.”

“Just a caramel macchiato is fine,” Oliver says. He could have chosen something more fancy, but Mia’s not ordering from Robin’s shop, which admittedly, doesn’t have the full range of coffee drinks and complexity some of the coffee snobs on their team would request.

“Won’t be longer than fifteen minutes,” Mia promises. “I’ll bring it to the tea room.”

Fifteen minutes later, Oliver receives Mia’s message to come to the tea room. He exits his office, striking up conversation with the other people in his team who are also heading over in anticipation.

“You could almost think Mia’s trying to butter us up for something,” one colleague says, grinning.

The tea room is noisy. All the drinks are labelled, and Mia is handing them out. Unlike many of the other drink orders which are hot and thus in opaque coffee cups, Oliver’s order is in a clear plastic cup, with the graduation between brown coffee and white milk very clear.

“...Hey Ollie, what do you have there?” a colleague says curiously. “It almost looks like a latte.”

“What, that’s sacrilegious!” someone else says. “Both of you, I just know you guys didn’t order expressos.”

Oliver holds his drink and tilts his head up. “It’s a caramel macchiato, and I’m going to enjoy my liquid afternoon snack, thank you very much.”

More than one person looks at him in surprise.

“That’s...a big jump from an Americano,” someone says.

Mia laughs. “You all...Just drink your damn coffee! A lot of hard work went into this coffee run!”

Oliver sips his drink and gives a hum of appreciation. Bitter, fragrant coffee is balanced out with the milk and the caramel, to the point that it almost tastes like how coffee smells.

“At this rate, you’ll go to Starbucks next. How could you betray Melbourne like that?” someone says dramatically.

Oliver tilts his head. “What are you talking about? I’m going to small local businesses.”

“Seriously,” Mia jumps in. “You all have to go to Matcha & Milk. You remember the cupcakes and macarons I bought for Annie’s birthday? From there.”

“Oh, yeah, I remember seeing that on my feed.”

Oliver smiles like a proud parent. “You should definitely go. And support my boyfriend,” he can’t help but add.

Mia’s eyes snap to him. “Boyfriend?”

“The owner of Matcha & Milk.”

A sly grin grows on Mia’s face. “So it’s like that. Congratulations.”

The other people follow suit, showering him with their congratulations.

“It seems like love can really change a person,” someone says, shaking their head.

Someone else pats him on the shoulder. “You’ve changed, man.”

Oliver sips his coffee, smiling.