“Well…” He kept his eyes trained on the road, and I wished I could see his face more clearly, because I was pretty sure there was a dimple happening. “I think they might have borrowed the idea a bit too closely. I heard Starbucks requested they make changes to it, and they did.” He lifted his right hand, index and finger close together. “Now it’s a bit similar, but not too much. I’ve never been to the U.S., but all the visitors say the coffee here is a lot better.” He lifted a hand to point at the parking lot of a very busy-looking café. “We’re almost there, so you can judge for yourself.”

I looked at him askance and tried hard to not grin at the level of seriousness this coffee talk had gotten. “It’ll be better. Like I said, every cup of coffee I’ve had in Addis so far has been next-level delicious. I had like, five macchiatos yesterday. It’s probably why I couldn’t sleep.”

He did turn around then, just a flash of teeth and happy man, which after only twenty minutes was already enough to weaken my defenses.

The crush was inevitable at this point.

“Yes, farenji always go a little overboard with the coffee at first. Don’t worry, I’ll remind you to switch to tea if you have too many.”

I flashed him my own smile this time. “Thanks. I need help when it comes to resisting the siren song of caffeine.”

He gave me a look that was equal parts side-eye and genuine empathy. “Our coffee can be hard to resist.”

I gulped and looked out the window again, because now I was feeling things just from the guy using the words hard to resist.

I pulled myself together as we walked into the café, and started taking in the place. I expected a small storefront like the others I’d been to, but this place was huge. It could seat at least fifty people, and it was buzzing. It looked more like a café you’d find in Italy than the States. There were murals all over the walls with maps of the different coffee-producing regions in the country. The colors of the store were the yellow, green, and red of the Ethiopian flag. The floors were gleaming white marble and there was a lot of dark wood, chrome, and glass. Most of the tables were filled with young men and women. And there were servers walking around delivering coffee, pastries, and what looked like multilayered fruit smoothies in tall, skinny glasses. The smell of fresh roasted coffee beans was mouthwatering.