“Oh, I’m not sure—”
He turned down the volume on her as she continued speaking and stared at her face for a moment, brainstorming. Then he went on. “Just buying her something won’t really prove to her that I care. Buying something is too easy for a guy like me. So it has to have meaning, and it has to have meaning to someone like Edie.” He rubbed his chin, thinking. “She loves her cats. She loves all cats. I’d love to do something that involved cats on a big scale that would show that I mean what I say, that I understand who she is and I love her. So it has to be big.” He leaned back in his chair and thought for a moment, as Bianca kept silently talking, a puzzled look on her face in the camera. “Finding homes for all of the old elderly cats at shelters was my initial thought, but I keep getting hung up on how to find them homes. It’s almost like I’d need to build another shelter, but getting people to come to it is the problem. I’m just the computer geek . . .” He paused, thoughts spiraling through his head.
An app. He could build an app of some kind that would advertise cats to be adopted. But how to draw people in? Make it a game, of course. “Of course,” he murmured aloud. “A crazy-cat-lady game. Draw in the user, then send them to the location that you want. If they’re anything like me, once they meet the cats, they’ll fall in love.”
And then he had it.
Magnus snapped his fingers. “Thanks for the help, Bianca.” He clicked off the Skype and switched windows, sending a message to an old programmer buddy that was a whiz with creating apps on the fly.
Project: Romancing His Cat Lady was underway.
***
Three weeks later
Edie flipped over a couch cushion, upsetting a lounging cat. Sneezy meowed at her, gave her an indignant look, and then hobbled away to the bed. She finished turning over the couch, then dug through the laundry basket full of dirty clothing. After that, she checked the nightstands, under the bed, and in the bathroom that Gretchen had designated as “hers” until she moved out.
No phone. Where was it?
Edie had been reading a book in her room, curled up with her cats, when she realized that the day had been awfully quiet, and she felt rather . . . down. Today was the first day that her phone hadn’t rung off the hook with calls and texts from Magnus, and she was feeling a little neglected.
Okay, a lot. Didn’t the man care that she was hurting? Or had he just given up because it was too hard to win Edie back?
And why did the thought of that hurt even more?
Of course, once the thought was in her head, she couldn’t let it go. Her book no longer held interest, and the cats lounging on her lap made her twitch instead of relax. So she’d reached for the normal place that she kept her phone . . . only to find it missing.
That had started the grand phone hunt.
On one hand, she was glad it was missing. That meant she hadn’t been forgotten, technically. Maybe she’d find her phone and it’d be full of texts from Magnus. More sweet pictures of Lady C, whose pregnant belly was swollen with kittens. Or Lady D, curled up against his leg while he worked. More of the simple I miss you, I wish we could talk messages that melted her heart.
As long as her phone was missing, there was still hope.
It wasn’t in her room, though. Edie searched everywhere, and then searched the entire place again. When that turned up nothing, she backtracked her steps. Maybe the library? The gardens?
She ran into Gretchen in the main kitchen. She had a large knife and a cutting board out, and was dicing shallots. “Hey Eeeds,” Gretchen called out happily as she appeared. “You in the mood for quiche for lunch?”
“Sure, whatever. Hey, have you seen my phone? I’ve lost it.”
“Oh. Your phone?” The look on her face was a little too wide-eyed. “Gosh, I don’t know.”
Edie paused. A familiar cat-sticker-covered case was on the counter next to Gretchen’s cutting board. “That’s not it?”
“This?” Gretchen held it up innocently. “Is it yours? I found it in the library.”
Edie did her best not to snatch it from her friend’s hand. “Thank you.” She plucked it away and then ran a finger over the screen immediately, looking for new texts.
Nothing. Her heart sank. “Has it been ringing?”
“Nope,” Gretchen said. “So. Quiche? Do you like mushrooms?”
“Mushrooms are fine,” Edie said, pulling up a barstool and sitting at the kitchen island. She didn’t understand it. Not one text from Magnus? Really? She stared at her texts, willing something new to pop up. When it didn’t, she sighed and reduced the window on her phone.
Something on her phone . . . was different. She paged through the list of apps, then realized there was something new on the last page. The icon was the picture of . . . a cat head. Edie glanced up at Gretchen. “Were you using my phone?”
“Me? No. Why?”
“There’s a new app on here—one I didn’t install.”
“Gee, that sure is weird.” Gretchen’s face was the picture of innocence. “What is it?”
Edie clicked on it, then made a face at the cartoony title that came up. “Cat Lady Café? Seriously? Is this a joke?”
Gretchen just gave a high-pitched giggle.
Okay, that was totally fishy. She peered at her friend, then clicked on the Start button of the app.
Immediately, a loading screen appeared. As it did, it flashed up messages.
Did you know that there are thousands of pet-friendly apartments in New York City? Click here to find one!
Next, came a picture of a sweet-looking tortie cat with a bow on its neck. An adoption profile for the cat came up, and it was cleverly set up to look like a dating profile.
Name: Fiesta
A/S/L: 6, Female, Midtown Café
I’m a sweet, furry girl looking for my forever lap. Could you be the man (or lady) of my dreams? I’m open to Mr. Right Now as well as Mr. Right. I’m a sucker for seafood dates, long naps in sunshine, and a scratch behind the ears. To speed date me, go to the Midtown Café and come say hello.
Edie smiled at the screen, wondering at the mysterious Midtown Café that was mentioned. Then, the game started, and Edie was offered the ability to choose her cat lady. One had two braids like she liked to wear her hair, and she picked that one, a niggling suspicion starting to form in her mind. The game started, and as Edie thumbed through the controls, it seemed to be all about matching up cats to prospective owners through the use of puzzles, blocks, and trivia. As the screen loaded to the next level, she was shown another “dating profile,” this time for a beautiful Turkish Van cat named Moxie that only had one eye. Edie played a bit longer, but she eventually failed at the level, and instead of another cat picture, this time, she was shown a picture of a café.
Want to speed date a kitty or just come in for a cup of coffee? Feel the need for some feline company? Come check out Coffee N’ Cats, the first chain of cat cafés in NYC. We have two locations open and four more opening next month. Come in for coffee, pet our feline friends, and take an adoptee home with you. Coffee N’ Cats—Peace. Love. Paws. Coffee.
The logo of the café flashed up, and then was quickly followed by a Sullivan Games logo as the app closed.
Edie’s heart squeezed, hard.
Was this . . . Magnus? She looked up at Gretchen, her mouth open in shock. Gretchen had a ridiculous, huge smile on her face. Oh. Oh . . . This was him. This was Magnus proving that he loved her. Her game wizard was showing her that he was in this for the long haul. Her heart gave another squeeze again, and she felt like laughing and crying at the same time. Instead, she loaded the app once more, watching as profiles of different cats paraded through the game. The cats were never kittens, but older or “special needs.” Her heart felt as if it was going to burst in her chest when the Sullivan Games logo pulsed onto the screen again.