“Sounds good. All rescues?” asked Lauren.
“Yeah. Trey always picks good cats for us.”
Lauren tried to picture this Trey. Paige was much better at maintaining relationships with Brooklyn shelters and rescue organizations. Trey was a familiar name, but Lauren couldn’t remember what he looked like. Tall, skinny, bearded maybe. Probably. That described half the men in Brooklyn.
“Does anyone else get sad when the cats leave?” asked Victor. “I miss Callie. It won’t be the same around here.”
“I do miss the cats,” said Lauren. “But they’ve all gone to good forever homes. That’s the goal here. We can be sad that six cats have left, but also happy they will be well cared for.”
“Anyway,” Paige said. “Huge success. People are already asking about the next one. I’ve got it penciled in for August. Maybe we can do some kind of summer theme.”
“Great. If that’s all, I’m calling the staff meeting. Get back to work, everyone.” Lauren stood. She was pleased with the adoption event results, but she was feeling a little off her game.
She should really stop telling herself that Caleb wasn’t the issue. Because he was on her mind and had been all day. Because they had once again argued, this time with plenty of witnesses, and then they’d had mind-blowing sex in a closet. Lauren wasn’t even mad about the fight—she suspected he’d picked it precisely so they would have sex somewhere nearby. That didn’t bother her. What bothered her was that Caleb could make her feel that amazing and then just…bail. Because not ten minutes after they’d reemerged from the back, he was gone. All he’d left was an incoherent message from Monique that became “he said to say hi” in the game of telephone her staff played.
Why would he just leave?
Well, probably because they weren’t actually dating and he didn’t actually owe her anything.
“Boss? Hello? Earth to Lauren.”
Lauren looked up. Paige was looking at her expectantly.
“Sorry, I spaced out. Guess I didn’t sleep enough last night.”
“Oh, really? Did someone at the party catch your interest?”
“Not because of sexy reasons. Did you ask me a question?”
“Yeah, I just… Well, I was talking to Lindsay last night, and she brought up again that if we have that kitchen on premises that is just a big empty space right now, we really should use it. I was wondering if we could revisit the plan to hire a pastry chef.”
“Yes, I want to. Let me put some numbers together and have a talk with Diane. Who…wow. How is it that lately, I just have to say a person’s name aloud, and they appear?”
“Unknown superpower?”
Diane breezed over. “Hello, my girls. I heard the adoption event last night was a smashing success. Sorry I didn’t get to talk to you much. I fell into conversation with a fellow who wants to run for city council. I figured I’d offer him some encouraging words.”
Lauren laughed. “Well, we found six cats new homes.”
“That’s great news. The party was a delight. You girls do good work. And Victor does, too.” Diane fluttered into a chair. She had on a purple chiffon caftan over a white shirt and pants, her short hair perfectly coiffed. The fuchsia lipstick was a bold choice. “I had a wild idea. Tell me what you think.”
Paige glance at Lauren, looking mildly alarmed. Every so often, Diane came to them with a crazy idea that often ran contrary to how Lauren would prefer to run the café. Since Diane owned the café, they had to either try to implement her odd ideas or tell her why they weren’t possible.
Diane launched into her spiel. “I went to a fundraiser for a young lawmaker in Manhattan last week, where I met a woman who runs a writing program for kids, which got me to thinking about writers. Writers and cats specifically. I wonder if there are writers’ groups in the area who would like to use our space, maybe after regular hours, for meetings or to write together or that kind of thing.”
“We can look into that,” said Lauren. It wasn’t a terrible idea. One of Diane’s previous wild hairs had been to make the café a space for students to study during certain hours, but the kids had been so loud it had bothered some of the cats. But older writers might be fine. The only trick would be to talk staff into staying after hours. Or hiring new people. “We should schedule a meeting to talk personnel soon.”
“Are you having an issue with someone?”
“No, I need more someones, now that the morning rush has gotten so nutty.”
Diane smiled. “Sure, we can discuss that. I have an appointment in a few, but I’ll let you know when I have time. How are things otherwise? How is Dr. Fitch?”
“Lauren and Dr. Fitch still hate each other,” said Paige.
“Aw, come on,” said Lauren. “Way to blow my cover.”
“They had a huge fight in the middle of the party last night. Did you not see them argue? He was kind of a jerk. I think he stepped over the line.”
