The Familiar Face
It was a Tuesday afternoon when the bell above the door chimed and I looked up to see Janet, my former colleague from Midwest Mutual. For a moment, I just stared, coffee pot frozen mid-pour.
Janet had been one of the few who’d texted me after my firing, but we’d lost touch in the chaos of my lawsuit and new business venture.
She looked different now – shoulders hunched, dark circles under her eyes, that same haunted expression I used to see in my own mirror.
‘Cathy,’ she said, approaching the counter slowly. ‘This place is amazing. Everyone at the office is talking about it.’ She glanced around at the warm lighting and mismatched vintage furniture.
‘I heard you opened this place,’ she continued, fidgeting with her purse strap. ‘The company’s gotten worse since you left. I’m thinking about quitting.
‘
I nodded to Diane to take over the register and guided Janet to my favorite corner table. ‘First coffee’s on the house,’ I said, sliding a mug of our house blend toward her. ‘Tell me everything.
‘ And she did – how Becca had been quietly let go after the scandal broke, how the new management was even more toxic, how they’d doubled everyone’s workload without compensation.
As she talked, I saw something familiar in her eyes – that same trapped feeling I’d had for years.
What Janet said next would make me question everything I thought I knew about second chances and whether Common Grounds could become more than just a coffee shop.