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Shelby pushed open the door and heard a small bell chime.
She’d seen this shop a few times before, but never had the time to go inside. Now, on her lunch break, she could finally see what it was all about.
No more than five tables fit in the space, with a counter near the back and a display box beside it. The whole shop smelled wonderful; coffee beans and sweet things, flowers on the front windowsill, something light and fruity floating through the air. Shelby ran their fingers along the delicate petals; pink chrysanthemums, they recognized. Her own store sold them by the dozen.
And, lounging on tables and shelves on the walls, were at least a dozen cats. They all looked different, every colour and pattern a cat could be, and many of them had chunks taken out of ears, stubby tails, or even stumps in place of a missing leg.
Just as Shelby wondered how friendly they were, a small, orange and brown cat trotted up to them with the confidence of a creature that didn’t know any better. She reached out tentatively and put her hand near its face, expecting it to poke around for a moment before going off on its own again.
To their surprise, it sniffed their fingers and nuzzled into the palm of their hand, purring like a seismic event. Shelby felt like static electricity climbed up her arms, and she had to bite her lip to keep herself from squealing.
A thump came from the back room, and Shelby jumped at the noise. A moment later, a girl roughly their age barreled out the door and into the space behind the counter.
“Welcome to Katherine’s Cat Café and Adoption Center!” She announced, slightly out of breath. A wide, cheerful smile stretched across her face, and it seemed to make the room lighter.
Shelby stopped in her tracks.
She had never seen a more beautiful person in her life.
Wavy black hair was pulled back in a ponytail, with only a few tendrils left out to frame her face. Her eyes lit up to see a customer walk through the doors—or perhaps to see how well they got along with the cats. Her apron was a soft pink, covered in white paw prints that looked less like an intentional pattern, and more like a sneaky kitty stepped in flour and walked all over it.
“What can I—oh! I see you’ve met Reese!”
She gestured down at the cat, still pushing its nose into Shelby’s hand.
They chuckled, “Yeah, they’re a sweetheart.”
The girl nodded, leaning on the counter with a soft look on her face.
“He usually doesn’t like people too much.” She noted. “Trauma, and all that.”
“Oh. Yeah.” Shelby said dumbly. She scratched the back of her neck and considered how to phrase her question. “Are, uh… do they all have that?”
The girl laughed like a windchime in a spring breeze. Shelby realized they were getting poetic, but it hardly registered before the girl was talking again, and they had to pay attention.
“No, no, not all of them. Most,” She gestured at a few of the cats around the shop, and scratched behind the ears of a small, grey cat on the counter. “But some of them don’t. It depends on where we get them.”
“Ah. Makes sense.” She agreed.
“Mhm! Now, what can I get for you?” She asked, spreading her hands out on the counter.
Shelby took a moment to look at the pastries in the display case, the drinks on the menu, then back to the girl. She practically glowed; the late afternoon sun came through the wide windows and highlighted every perfect thing about her: the curve of her nose, the richness of her eyes, the flecks of mascara around them, like she’d put it on in a hurry. Her long fingers tapped the counter, and her smile never wavered, though she seemed to be waiting for something—right. Shelby’s order.
“Uh… well…” They floundered, squinting at the menu. It was all the way across the shop, but they were reluctant to step away from Reese where he batted at their hand and moved it towards and away from his face.
She looked helplessly between the barely visible menu and the cat holding her attention. Eventually, the girl glanced between them and laughed, then grabbed something from under the table and brought it over.
“Here.” She said kindly, flipping a printed menu into Shelby’s hand. “It’s hard to walk away from something so cute, I get it!”
Shelby nodded gratefully and looked down at the sheet.
“Yeah. I don’t have any pets myself, but…” They looked down at Reese’s innocent, open face, and found themself asking, “They’re for adoption, right?”
It seemed to take them both aback. Shelby hadn’t expected to offer something like that, and it seemed that the girl hadn’t either. After less than a second, her face cracked open and her eyes crinkled with how hard she smiled, leaning her weight on the table that Reese lounged on.
“They are! Are you interested?” She responded, a look of pure joy on her face.
Shelby felt a blush creep up her cheeks and the tips of her ears.
“Oh, uh—yeah, I guess I… am?” They said. Reese nuzzled into their hand again, but they hardly noticed it; they couldn’t take their eyes off the girl.
“That’s wonderful! Reese has been here for a while, and I should probably bring up some difficulties you might have with him, but I’ve been waiting to give him to a loving home!” She clapped her hands and skipped behind the counter, waving Shelby over. When she hesitated, looking back at Reese imploringly, she giggled, “Just pick him up and bring him over here. He doesn’t mind, I promise.”
After a moment of hesitation, they slipped their hands underneath his furry body and scooped him up into their arms. They expected a rebellion of some kind, him trying to wiggle his way out and back onto the floor; but it never came. He snuggled into the crook of their arms and shut his eyes, his tail coming to rest over his paws.
Shelby looked down at him like the greatest honour in the world had just been bestowed upon her.
“Are you alright?” The girl asked behind the counter.
For a second, Shelby didn’t respond. They needed the time to get their emotions under control—then realized that there was really no point, and they were going to crack anyway.
“I’ll be honest, I think I’m about to start sobbing.” She explained, voice wobbling. Her eyes burned and a familiar feeling crawled up her throat, begging to be let out in a chorus of ugly crying.
“Oh! Oh!” The girl exclaimed, first with surprise, then excitement and understanding. “Aw, I can tell you’ll be a great cat parent already.”
Shelby came back to themself and freed one hand to rub at their eyes, then focused back on the girl with a watery smile.
“Right, yeah. About that?” She prodded.
The girl nodded and laid out a paper on the counter, setting a pen beside it. She pointed to different spaces, explaining what the paperwork was for and what they would need to do.
“So you just put your name here and here, then put some form of contact here, like a phone number or something.” She said with a wave of her hand. “And here you’ll put if you’re a first-time cat owner, if you have any other pets, if you have any allergies; things like that.”
Shelby nodded along, doing her best to keep up. She couldn’t quite focus on the words, all blurry and smudged across her vision, and rubbed her eyes again to rid them of the pools there. Then, after a couple failed attempts, she realized—quite dumbly—that she didn’t have her glasses on.
“…And this is just so we know if there’s anything you need help getting, like beds or—”
“Wait, wait!” Shelby burst out. They reached into their pocket and fished out their reading glasses, sighing at how much clearer the world became. “Alright, go on!”
The girl laughed—really, genuinely laughed. It sounded like flowers swaying in a field, or a carefully curated garden. She thought of the flowers in the front window, and felt like they fit her perfectly.
“Sorry, sorry, I don’t mean to laugh.” She apologized as she took a deep breath.
“Oh, don’t say sorry! It was lovely!” Shelby hurried to respond. They paused as they realized what they had said, and attempted to backtrack. “Not—I mean, your laugh was lovely, not the—not really that it was at me, you know?”
She said nothing, and Shelby started to think she had messed up. Said the wrong thing, as she usually did, and it was really paying off this time—she wouldn’t be able to get this girl’s number, or even her name before she was asked to leave, and then she wouldn’t be able to adopt Reese, and she could probably never show her face here again—
“You’re pretty.” The girl said abruptly, breaking Shelby out of their worry.
“I—sorry?” She chuckled confusedly.
“You’re just… you’re pretty. Do you paint?” She asked.
Shelby blinked.
“Well, uh… yeah, I do. How’d you know?” They answered. Reese shifted in their arms, then settled down again with a sigh.
“You’ve got paint on your sleeves.” She pointed out, lightly touching the hems of Shelby’s jacket. “And, I don’t know, you just seem like the artsy type.”
“I wish I could paint better.” Shelby muttered without thinking. “Then maybe I could draw you and do your beauty some justice.”
She clicked her jaw shut, eyes going wide. The girl stared, mouth hanging open as a light blush bloomed across her face.
Shelby twirled around and marched to the door.
“Well, that’s enough talking for today, I think! See you another time!” They announced, shaking their head slightly.
Behind her, stuttering footsteps moved on the tile, accompanied by that perfect laugh, as the girl rushed to catch up with her and grab her wrist.
“Hey, come on, don’t—” She covered her mouth as she laughed, “Don’t leave! It was sweet, really!”
Shelby turned their head away, hoping their face wasn’t visible as they shrunk in on themself in embarrassment. The girl chased their eyes until they stood directly across from each other and Shelby couldn’t hire anymore.
“Seriously, that’s probably the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me.” She said, clasping both of her hands around Shelby’s. “And, hey, you can’t leave yet! You haven’t even adopted this cutie!”
She scratched Reese behind his ears, smiling at the way he purred from the touch. She kept one hand entwined with Shelby’s and dragged her back to the counter.
“Let me get you a coffee while you fill that out.” She offered. Shelby nearly declined, but got a withering glare before they even opened their mouth. “Not a question. It’s customary, trust me.”
With a sigh and shrug, she got to work on the papers.
“Whatever you say.” She mumbled with a smile. Though the girl was facing away from them, they could see the stretch of her cheeks, and imagine how she would be smiling. It practically set their heart aflutter just at the thought of making her smile.
She answered the questions easily, even with one arm still filled to the brim with a cat. A few of the others slinked over to inspect her work and see what she was about, and she gave each of them a little pat—if they let her, of course—before getting back to work.
By the time she finished, the girl had brought over a warm cup of wonderful smelling coffee, and they sipped on it while they talked about the adoption process, and what it would look like to own a cat like Reese.
“He’s had some hard houses, so it might be difficult to get him out of his shell.” She glanced down at the bundle in their arms, “Though, I think you’ve got that covered.”
“He really is a sweetheart.” Shelby agreed, scratching him under the chin. “Anything else I should know?”
The girl thought for a moment. Finally, she snapped her fingers and said, “Oh! He’s blind, so he probably won’t be able to get around your house very well until he’s used to it. He’ll figure it out pretty quick, but make sure you block off anywhere you don’t want him exploring.”
Shelby nodded along until the words hit her brain.
“Wait, he’s blind?” She exclaimed, immediately checking his wide-open eyes to make sure she hadn’t missed anything.
They looked normal, though they weren’t exactly an expert on what that meant.
The girl nodded, a bewildered and disappointed look eclipsing her face.
“Yes, he is. You can see how dilated and milky his eyes are.” She rubbed his face as she spoke, and he nuzzled into the contact.
Sure enough, when she looked, she saw the film over his eyes, the unfocused nature of them. It explained why he hadn’t looked at her particularly often, except for the few moments where he stared into her soul.
“Oh my god, I didn’t even realize!” They exclaimed. “Leave it to me to miss that a cat is blind.”
The girl laughed stiltedly, then cleared her throat almost nervously.
“So, uhm… does that mean…” She trailed off. After a look from Shelby, she continued, “Well, I just… do you still want to adopt him?”
The question took Shelby aback.
“What? Of course, I love this cat like he’s my own child already! I can’t leave here without him!” She declared, snuggling him closer to her chest. The girl let out a sigh of relief, obvious on her face. “I’ll just have to do some more research. No big deal.”
With their confirmation, the room seemed lighter. The girl grinned and grabbed the paperwork off the counter, shuffling it into order and looking it over once. She slipped it into a file under the counter, then reached to take Reese out of their hands.
Reluctantly, she handed him over, though he seemed a bit distressed at the loss. Shelby stroked his nose and he settled back in, purring all over again.
“Perfect. Just a few more legal things we have to do, but that can wait until tomorrow, right? The evening rush is about to come in.” She explained.
Sure enough, when Shelby looked outside, she saw the sun dipping lower in the sky. They had well and truly missed the rest of their shift, then. Scott could probably handle the flower shop on his own, and once they told him how important it was, he would completely understand.
She nodded, watching as the girl started bustling around, preparing items and keeping Reese close on the counter.
After far too long and not nearly long enough, she summoned up all her courage and said casually, “So, since you have my name and number now… could I get yours?”
The girl blinked at them like they’d spouted off a riddle. Then, a smile broke out against her face, dusted by a light pink.
“Well, since you asked so nicely.” She teased. “Give me your phone, and I’ll put it in.”
Shelby eagerly dug her phone out of her pocket and handed it over, watching as the girl typed in her information. When she handed it back, there was a new contact, simply named Katherine <3.
They paused. Then, they smacked themself in forehead.
“Katherine’s Cat Café.” She groaned. “Of course, your name is Katherine.”
Sha laughed that beautiful laugh right as the first customers filtered in. Shelby gave Reese a pat on the head and whispered a promise to pick him up tomorrow, then gave Katherine a timid wave and beelined for the door.
When she reached it, still clutching her phone to her chest, she looked back at the counter. Katherine was taking a customer’s order, likely preparing to deal with the long line.
But, as subtly as she could, she caught Shelby’s eye and blew them a kiss before moving on to the next customer.
Electricity ran through her body, and she scampered out the door, into the chill evening air.
They’d gotten a new crush, a girl’s phone number, and a sweet, blind cat all in the same day.
She started the walk back to the flower shop with a pep in her step.
Scott would definitely be proud.