The Solid Grounds Coffee Company

by Carla Laureano

  Ana was watching him in a way that made him think she’d read his mind and gave him a small smile. “So, are you going to tell us where you’ve been and what you’ve been doing? Or are you going to make us wait until dessert?”

  “Honestly, I hadn’t thought much past the lamb. It’s amazing, Rachel. Thanks for letting me slip in at the last minute.”

  Rachel smiled her acknowledgment, and everyone at the table echoed his thoughts, but from the eyes fixed on him, he knew he wouldn’t get to enjoy his meal until he explained.

  Might as well be blunt. “I bought a coffee farm in Colombia.” He went through the whole story for what felt like the dozenth time, though he left out the loss of his sponsorship and the situation with Vivian, of course. Then he went on to the real kicker. “I’m going to open a roasting business here in Colorado. But before I can, I’m looking for funding to help me get set up. Most of my assets are sunk into the farm itself.”

  Ana was the first to speak up. “Your dad wouldn’t help?”

  “He’s looking over a proposal, but he’s pretty risk averse, even if it’s his own son.” Bryan paused. “Especially when it’s his own son. And I’d rather have an outside partner if I can manage it. Family and business usually don’t mix.”

  “Any leads?” Alex asked.

  Bryan took a bite of the risotto and almost got too distracted to continue. It was perfect. “I have a couple of friends that I’m going to approach. We’ll see what happens.” Friends might be overstating it a little bit. Acquaintances was probably a better word. But Denver wasn’t a large city, and considering who his father was, he had a pretty good idea of who might invest and who wouldn’t.

  “What’s the business going to be called?” Melody asked.

  “The farm is called Flor de Oro, but nothing has really stuck yet for the roastery.”

  Guests began throwing out potential names, but once again he felt Ana’s eyes on him, assessing. Or maybe it just seemed that way to him. He hadn’t expected to feel this aware of her presence in the room. Apparently, time and distance hadn’t dimmed his attraction to her.

  When the main course was finished and all plates were cleared, Melody brought out their dessert: strawberry custard tarts. “We’d normally have specialty coffee to serve, but our barista, Mark, had an emergency. We do have some regular drip, and it’s pretty good if I do say so myself.”

  “I can pull shots,” Ana said.

  Now everyone looked at her, including Rachel and Melody.

  “What?”

  “I didn’t know you knew anything about coffee,” Bryan said.

  She gave him a slight smile. “You know very little about me.” She rose from her seat. “What does everyone want?”

  “You don’t have to do that, Ana,” Rachel said quickly. “Sit down and enjoy dessert. Black coffee will go well with the tarts anyway.”

  The others murmured their agreement, and Ana sank back into her seat and picked up her dessert fork. But Bryan’s curiosity was piqued. Ana was perhaps the most professional, focused person he knew besides his own dad. When had she learned how to pull espresso shots?

  He barely kept the questions to himself until the supper was over, and he purposely lingered until everyone but the girls, their boyfriends, and Ana were left. He moved to Ana’s side. “I don’t suppose the offer is still open? I wouldn’t mind a cortado right now.”

  Ana studied him for a second. “You just want to see if I can really do it.”

  “Maybe.”

  “Well, I can, but it’s not worth getting the machine dirty for one shot. Another time, maybe.”

  “I’ll hold you to that. How did you learn all this anyway?”

  Ana shrugged. “Like most people did. Needed a job with flexible hours. I was a decent barista and made good tips.”

  “What else do you know about coffee?”

  “I was an assistant manager, so I know a little about running a shop. A bit about flavor and bean selection, but little about the actual mechanics of the roasting. Why?”

  Bryan hadn’t even fully formulated why he was asking, but it came out of his mouth all the same. “When I get the business up and running, I’m going to need a sales manager. Someone who understands business and marketing and publicity, and has some coffee experience too, so it all sounds natural. I don’t suppose that’s something you’d be interested in?”

  She seemed to be choosing her words carefully. “I’m flattered that you’d ask. But I like my job—I’m good at my job—and I don’t intend on leaving it anytime soon.” Her eyes took on a mischievous twinkle. “Besides, you couldn’t afford me.”

  He laughed. “Probably not. Would you ever consider being a consultant?”

  “I might consider it.” She gave him a secretive smile. “Good night, Bryan.”

  She slipped into the kitchen, ostensibly to say goodbye, but she never came back. Bryan sat down in one of the vacated seats, his mind buzzing. Until now he hadn’t really thought about it, but he did need an operations manager. He would be completely consumed with the importing and the roasting. He hadn’t given much consideration to everything else that would need to be done to actually sell his beans and make a profit. Messaging, packaging, sales and distribution. Suddenly, the month that he’d given himself to find a place seemed ridiculously naive. If he didn’t have the other elements in place, he’d be hemorrhaging money while he figured it all out. And that was the dumbest business move he could make.

  He absolutely needed help. And now he was pretty certain that Ana was the one to give it.

  * * *

  Ana slipped back into the kitchen, a smile lingering on her face. Seeing Bryan had been a surprise, but at least it was a pleasant one. He seemed different after his long absence. There were still glimpses of that flirtatious nature, but it was tempered somehow. Was it just the responsibility he felt, buying a farm in Colombia? Or was it something else? Alex had said Bryan only disappeared when he had trouble with a woman, but to her knowledge, he hadn’t been seeing anyone when he left. Not that she’d have any reason to know for sure.

  “I see that smile,” Melody said from where she was cleaning up her bench. “Don’t try to hide it. You were glad to see Bryan.”

  “I was, actually.” She paused. “He asked me to work for him.”

  “Really?” Rachel’s eyebrows lifted. “That’s a new one. What did you say?”

  “I told him he couldn’t afford me. I’ll help him out a little, though. At least with the paperwork.” She paused. “Rachel, I need to talk to you for a minute.”

  At the serious tone, Rachel stopped what she was doing and turned. “What is it?”

  Better to just have out with it. “The venue you and Alex chose isn’t available. They double-booked.”

  Rachel blinked. “How could that happen?”

  “Calendar snafu, apparently. I’m so sorry, Rachel. I feel responsible.”

  “Why? You’re not the one who double-booked the venue.”

  “Yeah, but I pushed you toward that one when there were other spots still available . . .”

  “Stop.” Rachel dropped her towel and moved to rest both hands on Ana’s shoulders. “Both Alex and I agreed that was the perfect place. We asked you to book it, and if you’ll recall, we’re the ones who signed the contract.”

  Ana exhaled. She should have known that always-calm Rachel would react this way. “I’m still looking for alternatives. I’m halfway through my list with no luck, but something has to turn up.”

  “It will.” Rachel dropped her hands and went back to wiping down her station. “We’ll figure out something.”

  “What about the lodge in Silverlark where Justin took me last year?” Melody suggested. “That place is gorgeous and it can hold tons of people.”

  Rachel considered for a moment. “That’s an option. But it’s pretty far, isn’t it? Everyone would have to drive, or we’d have to charter buses to take them up there.”

  “That could be fun,” Melody sa
id.

  “I’ll make a note,” Ana said. “Don’t talk to Justin yet, though. A venue in Denver would be preferred, especially because of the out-of-town guests.”

  Melody made a zip motion across her lips and winked at Ana as if to say Told you she wouldn’t freak. Ana still wasn’t sure how Rachel managed to stay so calm. Had it been her wedding, she’d be panicked. It wasn’t even her wedding and she was still panicked.

  “Did I tell you we’re getting ready to put my house on the market?” Rachel said suddenly. “Alex is coming over tomorrow night to help me paint. We’re going to try to get it up in May. With any luck, we’ll get an offer right away and be able to close escrow right after the wedding.”

  “That’s great, Rachel,” Ana said. “Are you going to miss your place?”

  She paused to consider. “Maybe a little. It’s the first house I ever actually owned. The first time I had a salary that could support a mortgage. But Alex’s place is amazing and it would be silly to give it up to move into mine.”

  “But his only has one bedroom,” Melody said. “What happens when there’s little baby Kanins running around?”

  “We thought maybe we’d remodel. The condo is big enough to add another bedroom. The living area is cavernous.”

  Melody gasped. “You have thought about it then!”

  “Not right away, of course. But yeah. I mean, he’s turning thirty-six. I’m turning thirty-two. We’ve got some time, but not a lot of time.”

  Melody sighed happily. “Rachel as a mom. I can just picture it. Your kids are going to be flat-out gorgeous. Won’t they, Ana?”

  “Without a doubt.” Ana smiled, but inwardly she couldn’t help but feel a stab of envy. Rachel was getting married soon and potentially having kids. Melody was happily in a relationship with a great guy. And she . . . well, her night out with Christopher Mason had been better than some of her recent dates. “Next thing we know, it’ll be you and Justin.”

  “What about me?” Justin pushed through the door into the kitchen and went straight to Melody, wrapping his arms around her waist from behind and planting a kiss on her cheek. “Are you almost ready to go?”

  “In a couple of minutes. I’ll meet you out front.”

  Justin seemed to realize that he was interrupting something and took the hint. He kissed her once more and returned to the front of the house.

  Ana and Rachel stared expectantly, but Melody just shrugged. “I’m trying not to get ahead of myself. He’s back in Colorado and he lives nearby . . . That’s good enough for now.”

  “How does he like the new job?” Rachel asked. “I keep forgetting to ask him.”

  “It’s good. He likes having a regular route and he’s home every night by seven. It beats his AvionElite schedule.”

  When Melody and Justin met, he had been a pilot for a fractional company that sold shares of private jets, which meant he was gone several weeks out of the month. He’d been in the process of buying his dream charter business, but its location in Florida made the romance look nearly impossible. After a lot of heartache, he’d taken a job with Mountain State Airways, a commuter airline that flew between Colorado Springs, Denver, Grand Junction, and Salt Lake City. He and Melody might not be talking marriage, but the fact he had come back was a statement of commitment.

  More commitment than Ana had ever been able to elicit from a man.

  She straightened abruptly and smiled at her friends. “I better go now. I’m going to check into some new venues for your wedding, Rachel, and I’ll let you know what I come up with.”

  Rachel hugged her hard. “Thanks, Ana. I really appreciate you doing this.”

  “Of course.” She shifted to give Melody a hug goodbye too, then dug her keys from her purse. “Are we still coming over for dinner on Wednesday?”

  Rachel grimaced. “I’m sorry. I forgot Alex and I are going to his parents’ house that night.”

  “Wow,” Melody said. “This isn’t the first time, right?”

  “No, but it’s been a while.”

  “Not a problem,” Ana said. “Let me know if you reschedule.” She threw one last smile in their direction, strode out the back door, and unlocked the driver’s side of her black Mercedes.

  Where she sat, in the dark, feeling unaccountably lonely.

  No, not lonely. Left out. Left behind.

  Which was stupid. After all, hadn’t she always been the hard-charging one? The career-oriented one? It wasn’t as if she didn’t have a social life. She dated. A lot. It was just that none of those dates had ended in something lasting like Rachel’s and Melody’s relationships. All the guys she met were either too self-absorbed or too needy. Where were the normal ones who were happy to spend some free time together but otherwise allowed her to have her own life?

  But it wasn’t just that. It was that in Rachel and Melody finding their happily-ever-afters and their business together, they’d become a tight little unit of two. It wasn’t intentional, of course, and it was as much Ana’s fault as theirs. Hadn’t she been the one to throw them over in favor of her new problem client last night?

  She cranked the key in the ignition and the motor purred to life, nearly silent in the cabin of the luxury behemoth. It was completely ungrateful to want more than she already had; it was downright spiteful to resent her friends’ happiness. She sent a prayer of apology skyward, crossed herself automatically, and backed out of the narrow parking spot.

  She was just unsettled because of all the unknowns in her life right now. The new client, the wedding venue. Once she got those things figured out, she’d be feeling like her old self once more.

  Chapter Four

  “SO WHAT DO YOU THINK?” Bryan turned off the ignition of his car and peered through the windshield at the building on the opposite side of the street. It was constructed of old red brick, as most of the neighborhood’s buildings were, with a peeling white metal sign above. “It used to be a ketchup factory.”

  Alex leaned forward in the passenger seat to take it in. “That makes sense. Because it looks like it’s either being held together by ketchup or rust. Maybe a mixture of both.”

  Bryan laughed as he opened the door. “Don’t judge it until you see it. The inside is better.”

  Alex didn’t look convinced, but he climbed out and stood next to Bryan while they waited for traffic to clear enough to cross to the other side. Bryan pulled a key out of his pocket and fitted it into the glass door on the right side of the roll-up warehouse door.

  “You have a key? You already rented it?”

  The lock opened with a smart click, but the door itself took a little yank to clear the metal doorframe. “No, but the listing agent is a friend of my dad’s, so he said he’d trust me with it. I told him I’d make a decision by the end of the week.”

  “You still don’t have any money,” Alex said.

  “Don’t bother me with irrelevant matters like that.” Bryan gestured for Alex to enter first, then followed him in and locked the door behind them.

  The office area was spacious but dingy, with threadbare blue commercial flooring and white walls that looked to be nothing more than drywall screwed into the original brick. A grayish acoustical tile ceiling added to the depressing feel of the space. “I’d rip down the drywall, pull up the carpet, clean up the floors. Bring in some industrial furniture and shelving to hold sample bags. All we really need is a place to meet customers should they come by the roastery.”

  Alex looked around, nodding slowly. “It’s not the worst. It has potential. I’m reserving judgment.”

  “Good, because this is the part you have to see.” Bryan led Alex into what had been the warehouse and appreciated the shocked look that came over his friend’s face.

  It was big, at least five thousand square feet, with soaring twenty-foot ceilings and old transom windows atop the high brick walls. Ductwork snaked across the ceiling overhead.

  “What would you do with all this space?”

  “I’m glad you asked.”
Bryan moved to an oddly shaped jog in the space behind the office. “I was thinking about closing this off to be a cupping room. I’d put a sample roaster in there, so we could hold cuppings for coffee shop owners and distributors to taste our different roasts. If we open it up from the office, it could stay closed off from the main roasting area.”

  He moved on and swept a hand toward the back. “This area here we would build out and insulate to store our beans. Humidity and climate have a major effect on the roast. The goal would be to keep it at a constant level year-round. We’re not going to have a huge crop yield, so I’m certainly not going to risk ruining what we have. And once we get going, I’ll probably need to buy beans from other farms. It will allow me to expand our offerings beyond the variety that I grow.”

  “You do know a lot about coffee.” Alex seemed a little surprised, and Bryan tried not to be hurt that his best friend had underestimated him.

  “I spent the better part of the last year figuring this stuff out. I know you think I’m a screwup, Alex—”

  “I don’t—”

  “Yes, you do. But you’ll remember I actually do have a business degree—magna cum laude, in fact. I’m smart enough to do this. And determined. What else do I need?”

  Alex threw him a sidelong glance. “Money?”

  Bryan laughed. “Well, there is that. But I have a plan.”

  “And what’s that? Besides hiring Ana to do all the work.”

  “I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that.” Bryan settled on the edge of an abandoned table, ignoring the fact it was covered in dust and he’d now have a dust print on the seat of his athletic pants. “I’ve done a lot of favors over the years. All those people who say they owe me one? I’m calling them in.”

  Alex didn’t look convinced. “You’re calling in favors.”

  “They were big favors, bro.”

  “Well, that may be. But landlords don’t tend to take payment in favors.”

  “They do when they’re your dad.”

  Alex looked shocked. “What?”

  Bryan laughed. “My dad owns this building. Why do you think the agent let me have the key? I’m going to rent it from him, but at a reduced rate. It’s been sitting vacant for over two years and costing him money in upkeep and security. He offered to give me the space cheap until I broke even, but I need to build it out and furnish it.” It hadn’t been quite as easy as he’d made it sound. Bryan had laid out an entire business plan and his projected earnings report based on a conservative expected yield on his farm, low initial overhead, and a 35 percent profit margin. Mitchell had point-blank told him that it was a bad risk to lend him money, but if he was going forward with it, he’d give him the building at a quarter of the going occupancy rate. For a self-made man who didn’t believe in coddling his son, it was a significant show of support.