Page 32 of She’ll Steal Your Heart
Lauren looked up to see a woman at a nearby table waving to get her attention. She turned to Darius. “I’ll leave you two to get to know each other.” She stood and walked over to the woman.
“I have a couple of questions about this guy,” she said, and Lauren saw that a gray tabby named Jasper had curled up in the chair next to her.
Lauren answered the woman’s questions and then made a loop around the café to see if anyone else needed her assistance. Darius left a few minutes later with a promise to come back and visit Gilbert again soon, and Lauren smiled, hopeful she’d found a match.
She saw a bit of herself in the shy black cat. When she first entered the foster care system at fifteen, she’d naively hoped a loving family would walk through the door of her group home and choose her. Then she would convince them to adopt Craig too, and they’d be a family again.
It hadn’t worked out that way, but it brought her joy to see these abandoned cats getting the second chance she hadn’t. Older children and teenagers were hard to find homes for, but that didn’t seem to be the case for adoptable cats. She might cry when Gilbert finally got adopted, and now that the idea had taken root, she was really hoping he might find a home with Darius and Kelsey.
Two women had sat at a table by the window, so Lauren headed over to greet them. “Welcome to Whiskers Cat Café. Have you visited us before?”
“We have, and before you ask…we’re not interested in adopting,” one of the women told her.
“Yet,” the other woman added with a playful smile.
“We’re friends of Josie Swanson,” the first woman said. “I’m Sophie, and this is Jules.”
“Oh, hi.” Lauren reminded herself she didn’t need to flinch at the mention of Josie’s name. “It’s so nice to meet you. I’m Lauren.”
“I adopted two kittens from Josie last year,” Jules told her. “But Sophie and I share a studio apartment, so we aren’t ready to expand the family yet, so to speak.”
“Two women and two cats in a studio is plenty, trust me,” Sophie said with a laugh.
“I’m sure,” Lauren agreed.
“Anyway, we’re hoping to move to a bigger place next year,” Jules said. She had glossy brown hair and a camera-ready smile. “And Soph promised me another cat once we have room.”
“I saidmaybe.” Sophie rolled her eyes, then gave Jules an affectionate look.
“We both work on Broadway, and with our crazy schedules, we won’t be having kids any time soon or even a dog,” Jules said with a shrug. “So…cats.”
“Oh wow…Broadway?” Lauren felt suddenly starstruck, even though she didn’t know Jules’s and Sophie’s last names. Here she was, casually chatting with two actresses without realizing it. Were they famous? Should she have recognized them?
Jules gave her a megawatt smile. “Yes, we both perform on Broadway. We actually met while we were auditioning for the same role.”
“She got the part,” Sophie said. “And here we are, talking your ear off when we aren’t even here to adopt a cat. Sorry.”
Lauren laughed. “No worries. A lot of people come in to play with the cats when they aren’t interested in adopting. We’re happy to have you. Now, tell me where I can see you perform?”
“I’m playing Gloria Estefan in the new production ofOn Your Feet,” Jules said, pride dripping from her words. “It’s the honor of my life to play one of my idols and a fellow Cuban American.”
“Wow…Gloria Estefan. That’s amazing,” Lauren gushed.
“And I’m between shows at the moment,” Sophie told her, “but I’ll be joining the cast ofSixafter the new year.”
“Okay, jotting this down because I definitely want to go see both of you.” Lauren pulled out her phone. “Last names, ladies?”
“Julia Vega and Sophie Rindell,” Jules told her.
Lauren saved their information in her phone and brought them coffee and pastries before getting back to work. Jules and Sophie seemed so happy together. Lauren wanted that for herself, once she was settled in her own apartment. And she wanted to see them both perform. Wendy had told her about an app that offered last-minute discounted tickets to Broadway shows, and she’d been meaning to check it out.
Maybe Mia would want to go to a show with her, as friends. Lauren wasn’t quite ready financially to splurge on Broadway tickets, even the discounted kind. But soon.
“So, raviolis, hm?” Mia said as they closed the café together that evening.
“The fresh kind, not frozen,” Lauren told her.
“Sounds great. It won’t shock you to know my pantry is again bare.”
