Love and Coffee

Chapter 1 The meeting

It was a sunny morning in Mumbai, it never really is cold, but today was a perfect mix of breezy and sunny. It was a short drive to my cat café, Coffee Cats, but the preparation for that is what took time. I had to feed all my cats, Lulu, Lemon, Zesty, Mocha and Pompom and pack them in their carriers and had to carry them one at a time to the car, two at a time becomes two too heavy. Carry their treats, and communal water bowl too. Everything was set up at their play area in the café, but for hygiene reasons, I took the water bowl and treats too. I was covered in cat fur by the last trip to the car, but luckily, I have a lint brush in my car, my bedroom, my bag, my washroom and at least three in the café- so we were good to go.

Lulu and Zesty were the quiet ones, the rest were quite vocal for their displeasure to be stolen away from play time to work. I didn't make them work, that's silly. But they were hard-working cats who brought in the customers with their cuteness all day and they deserved a raise. And those cute tie bibs too. I ordered them online but they were yet to deliver. We made our way to the café and CeCe, my barista, had already opened for the day. CeCe was a barista by day, and a DJ by night, I went to one of her gigs, her psych-trance beats with roots in Hinduism is quite innovative.

"Morning boss"

"Morning employee", I said. We had a thing for ironic professionalism.

CeCe helped me place each cat in the play area and I was about to leave to the back office to do some bookkeeping work, when the bell chimed as a new customer walked in with his own Persian in his arms. The cat was beautiful calico with half of her face patched with orange and some spots of black on the body on an otherwise white fur canvas. Customers' cats weren't allowed to play with my cats, they had to be with their owner at all times. But he didn't know that. Nor did he have any intention of putting his fur baby in the play pen. He browsed out coffee options, he had a satchel with him which he was carrying on his shoulder, he had come to work. He was the type of guy to order one coffee and stay all day. But knowing that he brought his cat along, perhaps he would leave by noon?

"One Americano, please" he said.

"Named to be called?' CeCe asked holding a regular sized coffee mug with a card on it.

"Really? I am the only male customer here"

"Really. It is our shop policy" I chimed in with a smile. When he saw me smile, his sour face immediately turned bright and he gave me a perfect bright smile.

"Name is Rohan" he said to me, still smiling. Wow, was I that good looking?

"R-O-H-A-N" CeCe spelled it out as she was writing.

"Your coffee will be there shortly" I said, giving another reassuring smile.

It had been 6 months since Coffee Cats had opened and sure people would come for the cats, but not for the drinks or food. We then came up with the rule that you had to order something in order to play with the cats. I even thought about charging a fee to play with my cats, but then what was the point of the café? Sales were struggling and we needed more recurring customers for our drinks and deli food too, not just the cats!

"And your name?" he asked the question directing towards me. He thought I was a customer too. Haha.

"Her name is Jasmine and she is the owner of this cat café" CeCe said matter of factly.

Ignoring CeCe, who was now looking at him with daggering eyes, he extended out his hand to me. I had to walk towards him a few steps to shake it. We did.

"Nice to meet you Rohan" I said sweetly.

"Nice to meet you too Jasmine" he replied.

We exchanged small pleasantries and I told him I had to go to the back office to work when he suggested I sit on the 6 person table with him and do the bookkeeping.

"The café will look fuller too, might attract more customers!" he said enthusiastically.

"Well, it's only 9am, and it usually gets busier, but sure" I half lied. It doesn't. We probably have 2-5 customers till lunch hour; the morning time is supposed to be the busiest, but here we were, with 1 paying customer and a liar, filling the seats. My café was decently sized, a large play area for the cats, double that size for customers, a decent coffee station... so yeah, it did look empty a lot. I knew I should've gone with a smaller café but then it would no longer be in a busy locality and sure the rent would be less, but customers too would be far and few. Oh! how wrong I was about that decision. My father encouraged me to open it in this locality for he believed that exotic cat cafes were a niche and if the food and drinks are good, people would flock to it. I'm still waiting for the crowd... paying crowd.

Perhaps it was the menu. We hadn't kept up with the new coffee making methods as quickly as the other cafes. We just now got the cold brewing coffee system installed- 6 months too late. And our blends were mediocre if I were being honest. The classics were a hit, but if you were the type to try a new café for its signature coffee, we didn't have one yet. CeCe and I were going to brainstorm on some new coffee ideas. I had a friend who is a 5-star hotel pastry chef and we had a meeting with him in the next week. Let's hope for the best. Fingers crossed.

"Sure, you're absolutely right. Let me go grab my files and laptop and I will join you in just a minute" I said"

"The usual for you too, boss?" CeCe asked as the coffee maker was now grinding the beans.

"Yes, an americano. Large. Thanks CeCe".

"You drink americano too?" Rohan asked, disbelieved.

"Yeah, it helps me focus better" I said in a chime-y voice.

"Oh god, same!" he exclaimed.

We both grinned and he went to sit while I went behind the counter to the back office. When I came back, both our americanos were ready and he was already sitting next to his cat, the Persian calico.

"What's her name?"

"It's Guddi" he said, "because she's just like a doll"

"Nice to meet you, Guddi!" I said waving at her while she gave me one glance and looked away.