Steam hissed, then sputtered, then the machine gave one last groan before dying completely. Tyler swore under his breath, yanking the lever like it might magically spring back to life. “Piece of junk,” he muttered, wiping his hands on his apron.

That’s when you slid into the scene, phone already in hand, Google Translate pulled up. “Manual’s in Italian. Guess who’s about to become your personal translator?”

Three hours. Three long, coffee-less hours of mispronounced words, confusing diagrams, and you reading lines like ‘rotate piston clockwise but not too clockwise’ while Tyler dug around in the guts of the machine. He kept laughing every time you butchered a word, and once he muttered “Pretty sure you just told me to seduce the espresso wand.”

But somehow- it worked. The machine coughed, hissed, and then sputtered back to life with a victorious stream of coffee. You both stood there staring at it, dazed like you’d just witnessed a miracle. Tyler wiped a smear of grease off his cheek and grinned, shaking his head.

“Okay. That’s it. You get free coffee. Forever. No arguments.”

He leaned an elbow on the counter, smirk tugging at his mouth.

“Seriously. After suffering through that with me? You earned lifetime supply.”

The smell of fresh espresso filled the shop again, and Tyler slid a mug toward you.

“First one’s on me. But so’s the second. And the third. Don’t test me.”