Episode 1: The Man Who Forgot To Panic

Nov '25 (edited) • 🍿Episodes

He's sitting in the coffee shop and his mind is completely blank.

Not blank like spacing out. Blank like clear. Like someone cleaned the windows and he's seeing through them for the first time.

The barista is making drinks. The espresso machine hissing. Someone laughing at a table behind him. All of it happening. None of it meaning anything. Just... happening.

---

Twenty minutes earlier, he'd been in his car in the parking lot, absolutely spiraling.

The presentation. Tomorrow. The one he'd been preparing for three weeks. And his boss just texted saying the CEO would be there. THE CEO. And now his whole career hinged on this one presentation and what if he forgot his words and what if the slides glitched and what if—

The spiral was in full effect.

So he did what he always does when he spirals. Got out of the car. Walked to the nearest coffee shop. Ordered something. Sat down.

Usually this helped. Change of scenery. Caffeine. Give the brain something else to do.

But this time, sitting there waiting for his latte, something weird happened.

He looked up at the menu board. Just looked at it. And his mind... stopped.

Not like he stopped it. More like it ran out of gas mid-sentence.

One second: full panic spiral.

Next second: nothing.

Just eyes. Board. Colors. Words that didn't mean anything anymore.

The barista called his name. He got up. Grabbed his coffee. Sat back down.

And the nothing was still there.

He tried to restart the worry. Tried to get back into the presentation panic. But it felt like trying to remember a dream. He could remember he was worried but he couldn't actually feel the worry anymore.

Instead there was just this. Chair. Coffee. Sounds. Light coming through the window.

No story about tomorrow. No narrative about his career. No character freaking out about the CEO.

Just sitting.

He picked up his phone to check something—old habit. But then put it down. Because there was nothing to check. No thought trying to complete itself.

Someone walked by his table. "Excuse me, is this seat taken?"

"No," he said. And smiled. Not because he was being polite. Because the smile just happened.

She sat down. Opened her laptop. Started typing.

And he just sat there. Sipping coffee. Watching people. No anxiety. No planning. No him, really.

Eventually the thoughts came back. Slowly. Like someone turning up the volume. "Oh shit, the presentation. Should probably review the slides again. What time is it? Did I—"

But even as the thoughts returned, something was different.

There was space around them now. Like he could see them coming from further away. And the panic? It tried to start up again but couldn't quite get traction.

Because he'd seen it. For twenty minutes, he'd seen what was there when the panic wasn't.

Tomorrow he'd do the presentation. It would go however it went. The CEO would think whatever he thought.

But right now? Right now he was just a guy in a coffee shop drinking a latte.

And that was enough.

See you in presence.

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