Cat-astrophe!

It was another lovely day in Sackville. The sun was shining, and all you could hear were the birds chirping. Bright sun rays shone through the glass window of Paul’s small apartment, causing him to wake up from his deep sleep. His blue eyes fluttered open to see his exotic shorthair cat named Armando. The sound of an alarm clock starts to fill the room. Paul’s eyes widen realizing what time it is.

“6:00 am?! I’m gonna be late for work! You silly cat!” Paul says as he takes a white piece of fabric out of Armando’s mouth. “Why do you keep tearing up my curtains?” Armando jumps off the bed and leaves the room. 

Paul hops out of bed and rushes to his bathroom. He combs his blonde hair and quickly puts on a white t-shirt and black jeans. He grabs his green Starbucks apron and walks into the kitchen. From a brown cupboard, he takes out a small can labeled “Cat Food”, and scraps its contents into a blue cat food dish. “No matter the time, I will always have time to feed my little kitty, isn’t that right Armando?”

Armando purrs as Paul fills up his dish with his favorite cat food. As soon as Paul finishes emptying the can, Armando quickly starts eating, almost finishing in a matter of 30 seconds! Armando starts meowing clearly asking for more food.

“Sorry buddy, but I got to get to work! I can’t miss serving my favorite customer!” Paul quickly puts on his shoes, grabs his phone and rushes out the door. He runs as fast as he can down the road until he stands in front of a small Starbucks on a street corner. He raises his wrist to look at the time. “6:15 am. Perfect!” he says to himself. He takes a deep breath and pushes the glass doors open. The whole café is empty, except for one man behind the counter loading the coffee grinder. 

“Early again, Paul? You do know you don’t have to get here this early,” says the man.

“Oh I know Geoff, I just adore working here,” Paul replied.

“Can you cover my late shift tonight?” asks Geoff.

“Sure I can! What time do you want me here?” 

“My shift is 8:00 pm until 10:00 pm, and you have to close up too,” says Geoff.

“Great! What can I do to prep for the day?”

“Well you can start by cleaning the tables and then organizing the gift cards” 

Paul eagerly grabs a cloth and begins wiping the tables when…

 “Tap Tap Tap!” He heard on the door. It was Armando. 

“I’ll be back in a little bit,” says Paul to the man behind the counter.

“Alright, just be back as soon as you can,” Geoff responded.  

“What are you doing here?” Paul whispers to Armando. Armando doesn't respond because he is a cat, and cats can't speak. Paul carefully picks up Armando as fast as he can, and scurries back to his apartment only to arrive at 6:56 am.

Paul shrieks, “Armando now I’m actually going to be late!” Paul sprints back to his Starbucks only to find his favorite customer walking in the other direction with his white chocolate mocha.

Cortez, who was walking in the other direction thinks to himself, “I wonder where that nice man was today,” Cortez, an excellent musician, was walking to his studio to record his first album. Along with his coffee, he had a black satchel around his shoulder carrying his laptop. 

Paul stared in awe, “I wish I were that talented,” he sighed. “Sometimes, I swear Armando gets too protective,” Paul tells Geoff, “but that would be silly! Armando is just a cat, right?”

Geoff chuckles, “I highly doubt Armando can get jealous, I mean why would he hate Cortez?”

 Not thinking any more of it, Paul continued working until the end of his first shift. 

Then he went home and watched some Television. 

He went back to Starbucks at around 7:30 pm for his 8:00 pm shift. At around 8:30 pm the rush died down. He isn’t used to being alone in the shop. Normally Geoff or Laura is in the shop with him, but not tonight. All of a sudden, the sound of a bell rings through the café. Finally, a customer!

Cortez walks into the dark doorway. “ Hi, Paul!”

Paul’s eyes widen, his favorite customer just so happened to show up, twice! Being at a loss for words, Paul mumbles, “Hey Cortez, how can I help you?”

 “My usual please,” Cortez responds politely.

 “Coming right up”

 “I forgot my keys here earlier. Do you think you can help me look for them?” 

Paul delightedly offers to help, “Sure, where were you sitting?”

“I was sitting right over there,” Cortez points to a small booth in the corner.

“While your hot chocolate is boiling, I’ll help you look for them!”

Cortez sets his satchel on one of the tables, and starts to search in the small booth. He takes his grey beanie off, and looks under the tables. After a while the kettle starts to whistle, signaling that the hot chocolate is ready to make. 

“You’re drink is ready Cortez!” Paul announced. Paul sets Cortez’s travel mug onto the counter, “I’ll look for your keys while you drink, after a long day at the studio, you deserve a break!” 

“How did you know I work at the studio?” Cortez asks as his takes a sip of his drink.

Paul stutters, realizing he hasn’t technically told him, “Um, I just a-assumed since that’s where you g-go a lot, hah hah!” Paul quickly stops talking and continues to look for the keys. 

After Cortez finishes most of his drink, he walks over to where Paul is searching for the keys. They both gasp at the same time, realizing they found the keys. 

“I found them!” they both say in unison. As they both grab for the keys, Cortez and Paul somehow end up holding each other’s hand. Paul starts to blush and stares at Cortez. They stare at each other for a moment still holding hands, until a scratching noise came from the front door. Cortez let go, looking to see what the noise was. Outside the door, sat a meowing cat, clearly trying to ruin the moment. The moment Paul has been waiting for since he started his job, was ruined all because of his cat.

Cortez smiles, “Well, I better get going, I’m sure you have to close up the shop soon. It was nice to be able to talk to you, and thanks for finding my keys!” Cortez gets up off of the floor, and turns around quickly trying to hide his red face. “Want to hang out tomorrow after your shift?” 

Trying not to act to desperate, Paul pauses pretending to think, “Sure, I don’t think I’m doing anything after work.”

Cortez grabs his stuff off of the table and opens the door to leave. Armando gives him an ugly stare as he walked away.

After a moment of staring at him while he was leaving, Paul re-evaluates what just happened. His special moment ruined by the cat. 

“You!” he shouts pointing at Armando. “You interrupted us on purpose!” 

Armando stares innocently as if nothing had just happened, “Meeeooowww!”

Paul looks at Armando and starts to smile, “It doesn’t matter, he just asked me out! Oh my god!” Paul picks up Armando and brings him into a hug. “I get to go out with Cortez!”

Almost at the mention of Cortez's name, Armando hissed and jumped out of Paul’s arms. He decided to leave Paul to walk home by himself, he had other plans to work on anyways.

Paul thought this was the best day ever! He had been waiting so long for this. He quickly closed up the shop, and skipped home. He had to prepare what he was gonna wear, or even what kind of flowers he was gonna give him! Paul decided that as soon as he got home, he would get a nice shower and go to bed so he would get a good night's sleep. He took a nice hot shower, put on his pajamas, and went to bed. “Goodnight Armando!” he said to Armando.

Armando didn’t seem to care about the time of day. He jumped out of their bed, and walked out of the room. He climbed up the apartment's window sill and climbed out the window.

“I’m sure he’ll be back soon,” Paul thought. It didn’t take a long time for Paul to fall asleep. If it was any regular night, he would be a lot more worried about Armando, but today was different. He was going to hang out with the hottest person on Earth!

The next day, Paul awoke at 6:00 am. He didn’t have to work until 8:00 am, so Paul decided to start his day off by relaxing. “I think I’ll watch some TV,” he said aloud. 

As soon as Paul turned on the TV, Armando hopped back through the window entering the living room. Armando crawled over to cuddle with Paul.

“Hey kitty, where have you been all night?” Paul asked while petting him. As Paul ran his fingers through Armando’s fur, something red appeared on his hand. “Kitty, what have you been up to?”

Paul turned on the remote, and flipped to the news channel.

“Breaking News! Last night a man was murdered in front of his home! Cortez Ramos, age 20…” Paul didn't know what to do! He and Cortez were just about go on a date and just like that, he’s gone! Paul didn't go to work for a week. He went to visit his mother to try and take his mind off it but it wasn’t working. He met up with some childhood friends but all he could think about was Cortez. Three months later Paul was promoted to shift manager at his Starbucks and then manager. All of his dreams had come true, yet all he could think about was Cortez.

One day he thought enough was enough so he booked a session with a grief counselor. On his way to his appointment he walked by the record store and in the window, was Cortez's completed album! He rushed in and asked the teenager behind the counter how much it was. Paul bought it and ran to his apartment. He rushed to his computer and inserted the disk. Out of his speakers streamed the voice of Cortez! It was really him! After this event Paul got his life back. He always knew that Cortez was there with him.