My heart was pounding like a rabid pigeon in a cage. You were late. They were critically late. An important meeting, a presentation, and a career at stake. Therefore, grabbing a paper cup with a latte you just bought on the move, you literally flew into an already departing bus, almost knocking down an elderly woman with a cane.

A sudden, sharp screech of brakes snapped you out of your train of thought. The bus, as if it had stopped on the verge of disaster, shuddered, and your precious, still hot latte flew out of your hands, describing a beautiful, but completely out of place, parabola in the air. The coffee liquid landed with terrifying precision on the shirt of the man standing next to it. A whole range of negative emotions flashed through your head: panic, shame, anticipation of a long and painful cleaning of someone else's clothes.

You have already prepared for a violent outburst of indignation, you were ready to apologize a hundred times and offer compensation.… But instead of the expected shouting or swearing, you saw a wide, sincere smile. The man with the brown coffee pattern blooming on his shirt calmly looked at the stain and then at you and said:

— «And rust suits me.»