Another Friday, Another 55 (give or take a few)

As it starts to drizzle, the brick pavement glistens and green streetlights are reflected off puddles. Across the street, two Chinese people stop and look admiringly at a flowery trashcan shaped whimsically like a teddy bear. An African American man walks past the window and then bends down to do his namaaz.

I look at the rosy-pink cover of ‘The Crazed’ that I have laid aside for a few minutes. At the next table, a young Indian man smiles briefly at me before turning back to his laptop. Tired and a little cold, I sit inside the warm yellow interior of the café, sipping a vanilla latte and savouring possibilities.

In defence of the extra 55 words here, I present the following:
"... brevity has the cardinal virtue of preserving time for advertising. I don’t see it as the concern of literature to perpetuate or enshrine this" - W. Paul Anderson