Curiouser and curiouser

I'm fairly stressed out, meeting a professor I very much admire, given that I had already put in my application to the university where she teaches.  Traffic is a nightmare on my way to the Mad Hatter Cafe in Durham, North Carolina.  I'd planned on being early but I'm just barely on time.  I first look around for her and when I don't see her I decide to get some coffee.  The coffee is self-serve - and when I go to get mine all the offered variations of flavor and options of caffeination are cold.  I explain to the young woman behind the counter that I prefer hot coffee.  She is really sweet about it, says she'll make a fresh pot.  I then notice the professor I was supposed to meet is already there, seated behind a partition, so I sit down with her and began our visit.  A few moments later, the young woman gently comes over to our table to let me know that my coffee is fresh made, hot, ready.  I'm comforted by her kindness and my meeting goes well. 

The next morning I'm at my friend Tama's house to talk with her about her newest series of photographs - a series based on Alice in Wonderland.  We're chatting and I mention that I'd been at the Mad Hatter Cafe in Durham the day before for my meeting.  She tells me her son's girlfriend Emily works there.  "Hmm," I say, "Was she by chance working there yesterday afternoon?"  And Tama says yes.  "You know I think I met her,  yesterday.  I think she was this super nice young woman who helped me out."  And I tell Tama about my stress and how much this kind young woman managed to comfort me, the way sometimes strangers can in the least likely moments.

Turns out Emily had slept over at Tama's house that night.  Shortly thereafter, sure enough, we hear some stirring and the padding of stocking feet up the stairs, and there's Emily in the doorway in her pajamas.  She looks at me with some surprise:  "I made you coffee yesterday." 

And I tell her what a comfort she'd been to me. 

Aside from the surprising confluence of Alice in Wonderland photographs and the Mad Hatter Cafe, the other piece of this coincidence is that I've only been to the Mad Hatter two times in the eight years I've lived in this area.  And I rarely meet Tama at her home...