Page 58 of Autumn at the Cat Cafe

He slowed his steps and looked at her. “I’m sorry, Via.”

The sympathy in his eyes touched her, but she expected it to disappear, like every other emotion she’d seen a glimpse of. Not this time. If anything, it intensified.

The armor around her heart started to crack. She hadn’t planned to admit out loud the most humiliating thing that ever happened to her. She’d avoided doing it last night. But now that she did, she felt freer. He wasn’t judging her. Didn’t ask any questions. Just a simple show of compassion, and it was all she needed. “Thanks, Leo.”

He nodded. “I’d better get going. I want to get a couple miles in before tackling the day.” He took off, heading for the road that led away from Pecan Corner.

She continued her walk with Sir, and when they reached the apartment, he was ready to go another round. “Not today,” she said, scooping him up and heading upstairs. “Too much to do.” This week was just as busy as the last one. In addition to Cuddles and Coffee tomorrow, there was Senior Day on Wednesday, Pawtrait Night on Thursday night, plus apple picking in the evening on Wednesday. Then, ugh, Friday night’s Meow and Mingle speed-dating event. Thankfully, Dora was handling that. Saturday was camping, and she had to fit in working in Second Chapter during the evenings too. Nope, no time for a two-round walk. Sir would have to deal.

Via glanced at Leo’s closed apartment door. Now that they were officially friends, there was a different vibe between them, and she liked it. Her heart would also be safe because she would never give it to him. But she would enjoy their friendship as long as it lasted.

Chapter 14

Leo had hoped his run would have cleared his head, but it was still a jumbled mess. Because despite all his talk about chemicals and he and Via deciding to only just be friends, he still couldn’t stop thinking about her in a completely non-friendly way.

When they ran into each other that morning, he’d intended to walk her and Sir downstairs and then go on his run. Walking with her around the square had been on impulse. So had asking her about her past. He hadn’t expected her to tell him about her ex, and it was worse than he thought. She’d looked so dejected, he had to hold himself back from taking her in his arms to comfort her.

This was completely unfamiliar territory for him. Even in all the schools he attended, he kept his distance, didn’t get close to people. He dated around, found it unsatisfying. He’d settled himself into a pattern of going to work, spending his nights alone, then rinse and repeat. He wasn’t a complete hermit—there were plenty of opportunities to be social in his line of work, and those were enough. Occasionally, when he was invited to a wedding or a co-worker was having a baby, he thought about marriage and family. But he didn’t have a clue what a normal family was. He hadn’t even known he had an uncle—that’s how messed up his family was.

Then he met Via, and a week later she was rocking his world.

She seemed comfortable with their decision to stay friends. He was starting to regret it, but it was the right thing to do. In a couple of weeks he’d be gone. There was no point in starting something he would never finish, and while he would never intentionally hurt her, now that he knew how badly her heart had been broken, he was even more determined not to.

When he reached his apartment, he searched for his key... oh no. He’d left it inside again. He gave the spare back to Via already. Now he had to go downstairs and ask for it back. After he showered from his run, he’d go to Buck’s hardware store and get another one made and keep it under Earl’s old doormat. Not the safest thing, but he was finding out that Via was right. Pecan Corner was like a town stuck in the past. It was appealing.

He entered Pawsitive Vibes and walked into the cat lounge. To his surprise, there were no customers. Birdie was there, shooing a little gray cat off the café counter. He walked over.

“Hi, Leo,” she said, picking up the cat when it wouldn’t mind her. “This is Squeaks. She’s about to win Naughty Cat of the Week if she doesn’t start behaving.”

“That’s a thing?”

“Here at our café it is.” She pointed to the wall behind him.

He turned and saw a picture of Sir Meow in a fancy gold frame underneath a curved banner that said—sure enough—“Naughty Cat of the Week.” From Sir’s imperious pose, he seemed rather proud of it.

“Sir’s been there ever since you arrived.” She set Squeaks down on the floor and she scampered off. “What can I do for you this fine morning?”

“Is Via around? Forgot my key again.”

“She and Sir went to the yarn store.”

He was wondering where Sir was. Usually he would be sniffing him by now. “You wouldn’t happen to have a key, would you?”

“Sorry. Only Via does. She’ll be back soon. She left about half an hour ago.” Birdie regarded him for a second, then opened a small refrigerator that was visible from behind the counter, took out a bottle of water, and handed it to him.

“I’ll pay you when I get back in my apartment.”

“On the house,” she said with a grin. “A friend of Via’s is a friend of Pawsitive Vibes.”

A bottle of water here, a family-slash-friend discount there... not to mention Earl’s apparent blasé attitude when it came to keeping track of his sales and finances. Pecan Corner sure was generous.

“Squeaks, leave Luna alone.” Birdie sighed. “That darn cat.” She took off to stop Squeaks from pestering an adult black feline. Naughty indeed.

Leo considered walking to Fantastic Fibers and Textiles, but that was on the opposite side of the square and right now his legs weren’t ready for anything longer than the journey back upstairs to his apartment. He decided to take the opportunity to explore the café further.

The fall decor was abundant, of course. There were two four-top and three two-top tables in the middle of the expansive room, a couch and several comfy-looking chairs against the walls. Numerous baskets tilted on their sides were all over the café, and a few hung from the ceiling, each containing a soft cushion. He saw three multilevel cat houses spread out in the room. A small two-shelf bookcase filled with cat magazines, cat books, and cat coloring books was by the coffee counter. Cat art covered the walls, and he stopped in front of a gorgeous watercolor of a cat surrounded by pumpkins. The cat was similar to Luna.

Next to the painting was a bulletin board. Via’s Autumn Bucket List was there, held up by an orange cat pushpin. There were a couple more lists from other people, and all of them had stars next to each activity, as if marking them finished. That was confirmed when he saw orange stars beside the activities he knew Via had completed, including their pumpkin patch excursion. Another notice immediately caught his attention.