The Cat Cafe

1 (10 years ago, age 14) 

The bell rang. Students ran into the class and hurried so the teacher wouldn’t guess that they were messing around. I sat at my desk, head held high. To my left sat the embodiment of an angel, Apollo. What a strange name, it’s the name for the Greek god of the sun and medicine yet it was given to a boy of hair resembling crow feathers. I stared at him for a little longer, hoping he wouldn’t notice. His black locks sat on his head like a crown, his eyes were like golden daggers to my heart and his smile filled my stomach with butterflies. I slumped in my chair as I looked at myself. My short hair stuck to my neck from the rain on the journey to school. My eyes had bags under them due to the hours I spent studying last night. 

Apollo tapped me on the shoulder, “Do you have a spare piece of paper, I forgot my notebook?”

“Ye, sure...”

Why was he talking to me? I scrambled to rip a page out of my book as carefully as possible. 

“Here you go”

He looked at me with kind eyes as he took the page from me

“Thanks! Do you want to go for coffee after school?”

I squealed inside. Were my dreams coming true? Could I become his friend, or more…?

“I’d love that thanks!”

Class went on. He slid me a note. The address was on there and the time too, Cät cäfe, 54 winston avenue, 4:30 pm. A cat cafe? I didn’t think he’d like these sort of places. Doesn’t matter, just one more similarity between the prince and me.

I heard a small vibration in my bag. It was Ali, what did she want now? My best friend since we were 5. I should probably tell her about my date with Apollo. Is it a date? No, just a thank you for the paper. He probably does this for everyone, why is he so polite?! 

“See you in an hour! Bye Winona!”

“You can call me Wyn, don’t worry, see you”

I stood lovestruck as he ran to meet his friends. I felt a light tap on my shoulder. 

“Hey stop staring at lover boy like some stalker and let’s go!”

I felt my cheeks burn up at her word choice. Why is Ali so heartless?!

“Why are you so mean?!!”

“Because you are staring at him like a kid at a candy store” she said as she munched on her uneaten lunch.

She probably forgot to eat her lunch because of guitar practice. I need to tell her I can’t go to band practice tonight.

“Are you seriously ditching us for some boy?!” She gasped, pretending to be offended. She knew how much I loved him already. 

“I’m going to a cat cafe with him,” I blushed at the thought of it.

“I need to get you ready for your date then!” She picked at my hair I’m disgust.

“It’s not a date!” 

“You sure about that? Your cheeks are telling me different.”

We walked to my house. It wasn’t grand like hers but it was nice enough. We ran to my room. 

My mum shouted at us, “Don’t run in the house!”

“Sorry, Ms. Calloway!”

Ali brushed my brown hair and tied it up into a half up ponytail. I got changed into a T-shirt and some jeans.

“Say hi to the band for me! I need to go or I’ll be late.” If I didn’t get going now I’d be late.

Ali offered to spy on me for my mum, but I don’t care. A sudden realisation came to me, I was going to meet Apollo, the love of my life, the keeper of the key to my heart, the sole inhabitant of my thoughts. 

I felt as if I was being cooked in an oven because my whole face felt on fire. No need to worry though because it is just a simple thank you, right? Apollo would never love me. Maybe he wants to be my friend?

2  (present, age 24)

There he was, the love of my life, at the same place of our first date, I wonder if he is dating anyone. 

I should go up to him, after all we are friends. I can’t believe he owns the place now. While I’m just a teacher. Ok, I’ll go up to him and ask him if he wants to go out with me and if he says no,I’ll just call Ali over and I’ll drown my sorrows in ice cream.

I walked up to him, I hadn’t felt this way since high school. My stomach felt as if it would burst. He was still as beautiful as ever. His raven colored hair entranced me and his eyes were like windows to the kindest soul. 

“Look at you, all successful!” My soul burned with desire, “I can’t believe you own the place, my little apple!”

“I’m awfully sorry, do I know you?” He looked at me in confusion.

“Apollo..” My heart shattered into a million pieces, “It's me, Wyn! Don’t you remember me?!”

“I have customers to attend to, I don’t have time for pranks.”

“But I…” My voice wavered.

I felt my eyes well up. Before I knew it, I was running out of the building, wind running through my hair, tears streaming down my face. Without knowing it, I was knocking on the door of Lovinns Manor.

“Is Ali here? It’s me, Wyn,” I asked, trying to pull myself together.

A small man wearing a tuxedo answered the door, “ I’m sorry, Mistress Alison is busy right now, can I leave a message?”

“Who is it, Penworth?” I heard a familiar voice cry out.

Penworth explained who I was by calling me a nobody named Wyn. I couldn’t help but feel a bit offended.

A sophisticated woman with long ginger hair and piercing green eyes came to the door. 

“Wynnie!! I thought you were in New York! What are you doing here, is something wrong? Hey… why are you crying?” Her glad expression turned to worry once she saw my bloodshot eyes and messy hair.

She took a deep breath and took me to the lounge. I could feel my stomach tightening while I tried to hold back my tears.

I told her everything that happened, that Apollo didn’t recognise me, that he probably hated me. 

“Don’t you know what happened?” Ali looked at me as if I’d been living under a rock. “Apollo went into a coma 3 months after you left, he was in the coma for 2 years. He just woke up 7 months ago.” 

I gasped. My whole body felt weak. Could I have been the cause of the coma? Is it my fault this happened? Why did I have to leave? 

I could feel my head getting heavier, my eyelids closed. I could hear a faint voice calling my name.

3 (10 years ago, age 14) 

A black cat purred as I stroked it’s ears. It calmed my nerves a bit. Though I could still feel my heart racing, this seemed to attract more cats. 

“Hey, sorry if I’m a bit late, I had to run an errand,” I could see he looked a bit nervous, it surprised me a bit. I didn’t think he could get like that. 

“It’s fine, I had the kitties here!” I smiled, trying to calm his nerves like the cats did to me. 

He sat next to me and held up a cute, brown Scottish fold. It looked a bit grumpy, if I’m honest. 

“Look it’s you!” He smiled kindly, he looked so proud of himself, I couldn’t help but laugh.

“Hey!” He pouted. “You should laugh more, you have a beautiful smile!”

I felt my face turn red. I smiled at him and he smiled back.

A waiter came up to us and asked if we wanted anything.

“A cappuccino and a bread bun for me, please,” I said.

“Hot chocolate and a cookie please!”

The same black cat came up to me, I picked it up and showed Apollo, 

“This is you!” I told him.

“Ooh, A minuet, good choice!” He exclaimed happily.

Our order came, and it looked so adorable, the bun had sesame seeds in the shape of whiskers and the cookie had cat ears.

“Do you want some?... Hahaaha!” We both said the same thing at the same time. It was as if our souls were connected and our thoughts overlapped and our hearts were synchronized.

4 (present, age 24)

I woke up to silk sheets and the lovely aroma of coffee. My eyelids felt weak. I heard a sound from the other side of the room.

“Oh, are you up?” 

I yawned, how long had I been asleep? The room was dark, and the only light source was the glint of moonlight on the glass, shining through the window.

Ali slammed the door in annoyance and her footsteps resonated through the manor. I couldn’t think of anything I could’ve done to anger her. Was she ok?

“Lady Alison is needed elsewhere, if there is anything you need… don’t hesitate to ask.” He coughed out, he obviously didn’t like me but he could at least pretend to. He scowled at me, did he want an answer?

I should make an effort to get on his good side, “Sure, I can do it myself so you can relax around me, no need to be so uptight!” I smiled.

 I trudged out of the bed and I could sense the bags under my eyes. The cold water penetrated my skin and woke me up brutally.

Why did Apollo go into a coma?

I found myself in the centre of town.

My throat tightened, my jaw clenched and I gritted my teeth. My thoughts turned to static and my face flushed red. I couldn’t understand what was going on, how could I make him remember, how could I change the past.

I screamed in my brittle voice, “Why did you have to forget me?”, dark spots appeared on the concrete below me. My tears put out the furnace of pain that was lit ever since he didn’t remember me. The suffering and anger became numb and I didn’t care about what people said when they saw a 24 year old woman crying in the streets, clutching her trembling body in an equally shaky embrace. 

“Hey, what’s wrong?” The silvery voice that I had longed to hear for so many years, asked worriedly.

His soft hand took mine and my heart fluttered just as it had done all those years ago.

5 (10 years ago, age 14) 

The sweet whistles of the same tune sung every morning, reached my ears. I happily hopped down the spiral staircase. I dreamt of him last night as well, I dreamt of his perfect face, I dreamt of his kind manner, I dreamt of his golden eyes that had small wrinkles in the corners from his endless, joyous laughter and captivating smile.

The smell of burnt toast broke the trance I was in. I rushed to turn the smoke alarm off before it woke my baby sister, Lilith. 

“Thank you for that, your breakfast is on the table,” My mother began, “How is that new friend of yours by the way?”

It had been 3 weeks since we’d started hanging out with each other as friends , yet every time I thought about Apollo my face turned a light red hue.

I used a knife to remove the black crumbs in the once soft bread and continued to spread an overly sweet peanut butter.

“He’s okay, I’m taking him to meet the band today after school so I might be a bit late.” 

“That’s fine, just call me when you get back, love you.”

With the piece of bread in my mouth and my bag on my shoulder I ran out the door as I realised how late I was. The wind blew through my short, muddy-brown hair and pieces of paper fell out of my unzipped bag. Soft, warm droplets of sweat started to build up on my forehead but were swiftly exchanged with cold, heavy rain. I paused for a moment to acknowledge how unlucky I was as I looked for a non-existent umbrella in my bag.

A light tap on my shoulder made me look up, even though he had dark hair, his face radiated and it was like the sun clearing away the clouds that troubled me.

“Are you ok? We can share my umbrella if you don’t have one.” He beamed.

We stared longingly into each other’s eyes. It felt as if the clocks had stopped and time stood still.

“Um,” I paused, “If that’s okay with you.” 

I quickly ran under the umbrella, careful not to hit him with my damp bag. My cheeks burned as I accidentally bumped into him.

He held the umbrella over my head as he chuckled at my clumsiness. My heart filled with happiness as I thought of his laugh.

“Hey, what’s wrong, Wyn?”

Even though the rain continued, salty streams ran down my face. Happy tears. Tears of joy. I’d never felt this way before, it was as if I was dancing on cotton candy clouds and when I was with him. Was this love? 

“Nothing, I’m just happy,” I admitted, “I’m glad you’re here.” 

“Glad to be here with you,” he whispered.

6 (present, age 24)

I sat down at a table. My head hurt so much. How did I get here?

I buried my head in my hands as my face burned up. My stomach did somersaults. I was at the Cät Cäfe. Again.

Was I dreaming? I quickly pinched myself to make sure. A tiny but intense pain ran up my arm.

“Wyn, right? What happened?” He asked. 

“I’m so sorry you had to see me like that,” I replied, “I guess I was just upset that you didn’t remember me, I didn’t know you were in a coma, please forgive me.” 

I went on to explain how I knew him, my relationship with him and… 

“The thing is I've liked you since high school, and to be honest, I still do,” I flushed and twiddled my fingers as I acknowledged what I said. Once I told him one thing, I couldn’t stop talking about everything I knew about him, from our first encounter, our time as boyfriend and girlfriend to why I had to leave this place and go to New York.

“I got a better teaching opportunity, they offered me a job at Harvard as a professor of art history.” I explained. “I’m sorry to dump all this on you, but I needed to tell you, I wouldn’t be able to survive without telling you.” 

I took a bite of my usual sweet bread bun. It was still as delicious as it was the first time I tried it.

“I’m actually glad about it, you know, I thought you were maybe some psycho or stalker.” He chuckled to himself and smiled sweetly. He scrunched his eyes as he smiled.

“Friends?” I requested, extending my hand out for him to take.

He took my hand in his, “Friends.”

My heart did leaps, the sun spread across our faces and his eyes lit up like fireworks.

In that moment, we both knew how deeply in love we were.

Epilogue 

A long and exhausted yawn came out of my mouth. I rubbed my eyes and got out of bed. It’s been 5 years since I found out that Apollo forgot me/ when I found out that he went into a coma. We’ve come a long way since then, today is our wedding day. 

I went downstairs to the kitchen, a plate with a piece of french toast and a sticky note awaited me on the table. The sticky note read, ‘Good morning I’ve gone to get everything ready for the wedding, so I left you some breakfast! See you soon!!’

I squealed in delight as I ran to Lovinns manor. I heard a faint ringtone, it was Ali calling.

“I’m at the door, let me in!” 

“I’m coming, I’m coming!”

I hung up the phone and greeted my childhood at the door. We giggled and ran up the stairs, memories from centuries ago resurfaced. When I was going to hang out with my soon-to-be husband at our cafe, where our wedding was located. Our cat cafe, where I would officially become his wife and he, my husband.

Ali did my hair, I put on my flowing white dress.

I ran out the door, to the venue. I paused in front of a shop window for a moment and grinned at my billowing dress.