New Beginnings at the Cosy Cat Cafe by Julie Haworth

Author:Julie Haworth
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
Published: 2024-07-02T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 23

Ryan? Ryan? What on earth was he doing? He hadn’t made any contact since dropping her off at the airport in Thailand. How would he even know about the cat café? It didn’t make any sense. Rose and Joyce had realized something was wrong when they saw the blood drain from Tori’s face; they’d been as shocked as she was at seeing Ryan’s name on her phone. Tori’s head hadn’t stopped pounding all afternoon and even though she’d gone to bed hours ago, it was no use, she just couldn’t sleep. Her mind was whirring, trying to find an explanation, something, anything, which would explain why Ryan would make contact now. It just didn’t add up. Should she message him? Follow him back? No, why should she? She shook her head. She’d forget it; if Ryan wanted to follow her on Insta, fine, that didn’t mean she had to talk to him. She’d put him out of her mind and focus on the business.

When Tori’s alarm went off the next morning, she woke with a dull headache. It felt as though she’d only just fallen asleep. Despite her resolution to put Ryan out of her head, he’d managed to remain very much lodged there when she’d eventually drifted off. She sat up, pulled back the duvet and gave Ernie, who was asleep in his usual spot at the end of her bed, a gentle scratch on the head.

‘You don’t have any trouble sleeping, do you, sweetheart?’ she said. Ernie rolled on to his side, purring. ‘You’ve been dreaming about chasing mice and eating tuna, right?’

Tori shuffled across the room and looked in the mirror. ‘Eurrgh. Look at these bags, Ernie,’ she said, pulling at the skin under her eyes. ‘I look awful.’ And then she remembered she had lunch plans with Leo today. She groaned. It was going to take a lot of make-up to make her feel presentable today. A whole lot.

She jumped in the shower, brushed her teeth and reached for her make-up bag. ‘You don’t know how lucky you are,’ she said to Ernie, ‘you just roll out of bed looking gorgeous.’ Ernie hopped up onto her dressing table and began batting her mascara with his paws, almost knocking over the framed picture she had on display of him as a kitten. ‘Hey, I need that,’ she said, making a grab for the mascara. ‘Gosh, were you ever this tiny?’ she said, picking up the photo. ‘You know, the Cosy Cup may be full of cats now, but you’re still my number one boy,’ she said, tickling him under the chin.

Make-up done, she pulled on her favourite pair of skinny jeans, one of the branded T-shirts with the café’s logo on that had arrived yesterday, much to her delight, and grabbed her handbag. ‘Come on, you, I need to go and see how our new kitties are getting on.’ As she made her way down to the kitchen, she spotted a note on the table from her mum.

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