After thirty years of teaching English to reluctant middle schoolers, Bella Mariotti is burned out, her blood pressure dangerously high, and retirement seems like her only option.
So she does the unthinkable: she risks her savings to open a coffee shop.
At Buzzed, Bella finally stops playing by the rules. She trades her dress code wardrobe for an edgy hairstyle and a nose ring, comes out as a lesbian, and discovers the freedom of becoming the woman she’s always wanted to be.
Then something unexpected happens.
Her customers become regulars. The regulars become friends. And four very different people begin gathering at the corner table: an artist, a newly widowed orthodontist, a chef battling sobriety, and Bella’s estranged father, who has suddenly become homeless.
Over coffee and conversation, these unlikely companions become a family – and Buzzed becomes the one place where each of them can belong.
Until gentrification threatens to demolish the coffee shop.
Now the people who found friendship, acceptance, and a second chance at Bella’s corner table are challenged to come together to save the place that saved them.
Warm, funny, and deeply human, Quiet Table in the Corner is a feel-good story about late-life reinvention, unlikely friendships, and discovering that sometimes the family you need is at the table next to you.
