The Usual
by Nancy Nickel

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As the seasons change, so does the café. Cold brew gives way to pumpkin spice. Familiar faces disappear and return. People linger longer when the weather turns, seeking warmth, routine, or something they cannot quite name. Behind the counter, Mae watches. Over the course of a year, she observes the small shifts that happen between people: the conversations that linger, the relationships that form and unravel, the moments of loneliness, desire, comfort, and connection that pass through the café every day. Some encounters change lives. Others leave only the faintest trace. Yet even the briefest interactions can alter the shape of a person long after they leave. Intimate, atmospheric, and deeply human, The Usual explores the emotional lives unfolding in the spaces between orders, revealing how people seek connection, how they misunderstand it, and how what remains with us is sometimes not what happened, but what almost did.

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Nancy Nickel spent years working in cafés, first as a supervisor and later as a manager. The Usual, the first book in The Café Diaries series, grew from her fascination with the small moments of connection that unfold around coffee, conversation, and routine.

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Nancy Nickel