The Café

She had worked at that little cafe most of her life, but one day it all changed. Her boss came up to her with a sad look in his eyes and told her that he had to close the cafe. He'd gambled a lot over the years and the time had come to pay his debts. If he didn't they would go after his family. She was shocked of course. Never in a million years had she seen this coming. Over the next two weeks they closed up the cafe. They sold off chairs, tables, art work. They donated most of the cutlery and china. They repainted the walls. They reminisced about everything that had happened there during the many years they had worked side by side. She tried applying for other jobs, but stopped herself halfway through each application. Working at that cafe had been her life, her identity. And now it was lost because of her boss' gambling addiction. She wasn't a person who got mad, she understood that addiction was an illness. She was scared of the future. One evening she got drunk with her boss. He somehow got her to go with him to where he'd gambled most of his money away. It was an underground club. The poker table caught her eye and she sat down. She was dealt a few cards and before she knew it the game was on. She won. She won again. She felt the rush that came with each win. At the end of the night she was a rich woman. Next morning she spent the money buying the cafe and the day after that she was who she was always gonna be.