Gym Shorts, Grocery Aisles, and the Coffee Shop Loop

Gym Shorts, Grocery Aisles, and the Coffee Shop Loop

I woke up late for work, so I rushed out of the apartment and realized I was wearing my old high school gym shorts instead of the suit I’d picked out. In the hallway of the building, the doors kept opening onto the grocery store I used to shop at as a kid, but the aisles were all labeled in a language I didn’t recognize. I tried to find the elevator to get to the office, but every floor was a different office I’d worked at years ago, and the names on the doors kept shifting. I finally got to my desk, only to find my boss sitting at a table in a coffee shop, sipping tea with my college roommate, both laughing about a joke I couldn’t remember. I tried to speak, but my voice came out as a soft hum. I felt a wave of panic, then an odd calm, as if the whole scene was just a memory playing on a loop. I woke up just as the coffee shop door opened and the bell rang.