Chapter 12
12
“ O ur book group has been meeting at Coffee Loft for two years now. Ginger and crew keep our drink orders coming AND put up with our rowdiness. CL, we love you !” - the Madhatters
G inger tapped a foot as she waited for the receptionist to call her and Daisy into one of the rooms the next day. With the application deadline and prepping Coffee Loft for the fall festival taking up most of her time this past week, she’d almost forgotten Daisy’s appointment for her annual shots that morning. Beside her on the floor in her carrier, Daisy mournfully peeked at her through the wire door.
“Daisy?”
A young vet assistant ushered her back into one of the rooms and weighed Daisy. While she prepped the vaccine on the other side of the room, Ginger held onto the squirming cat .
Doctor Robinson walked into the room a short time later. She’d come highly recommended when Ginger moved to Port Chance. They shared a birthday, she’d discovered, and a fondness for Maine Coon cats.
“Ginger, hello. How’s the coffee business?” Dr. Robinson draped a towel across the examination table. She signaled for Ginger to bring Daisy.
“Busy. I haven’t seen you in a while.” She soothed Daisy with scratches where it mattered most: between her ears. Daisy fought to keep her eyes open.
“My husband bought me one of those fancy espresso machines for my birthday, though I think it was just as much a gift for him as it was for me.”
“Nice.”
“I shouldn’t complain. It’s divine having a latte ready and waiting for me as soon as I step out of the shower every morning.” Dr. Robinson’s assistant held Daisy’s back end while the doctor administered the shot. They were finished in a blink without a hiss from Daisy this time.
“You should stop in to see the fall merchandise before I switch it out for the holidays. We have the cutest coffee bar accessories on display this season. Adorable wooden organizers, ceramic trivets.”
“I will. I’ve been craving a pumpkin chai for days now anyway.”
Dr. Robinson ran her hands along Daisy’s coat, lifting her chin, checking her ears and teeth. When she finished, Ginger lifted Daisy from the table and tucked her back into the carrier .
“I keep forgetting to tell you we have an acquaintance in common,” Dr. Robinson said. “Cal Donner?”
“Yes, I know Cal. He’s a long-time customer.” That buzzy sensation gripped her again like it did whenever Cal popped into her thoughts lately. Which was a lot .
“I know. I ran into him a few weeks ago as he was leaving your patio. What a great guy.”
“He is.” The grin she’d pasted on her face felt overdone, even a little manic.
“And he’s such a rockstar in the shelter world,” Dr. Robinson gushed.
“He’s definitely found his calling. Everyone gravitates toward him when he brings his dogs to the shop.”
“I’m sure. Do you follow him online?”
She let Merris handle social media for the shop since she was much more in tune to that sort of thing. Merris enjoyed it, so it was a win-win that Ginger didn’t have to bother.
“No, I don’t.”
Dr. Robinson put a hand against her chest. “Oh, my goodness. You have to see it. Here,” she said, fishing her phone from her back pocket.
When Cal’s profile appeared, she almost didn’t recognize him. The photos looked professional-grade, for one. They were colorful and alive, full of movement and joy.
Selfies with dogs of all sizes and colors she didn’t recognize.
Cal lying on a blanket outside with Ridley.
Cal and Lola.
Cal next to a mop bucket, posing like he was on the red carpet instead of in a kennel .
On Coffee Loft’s patio.
Next to the Hearts Fur Love sign.
Gobs of people surrounding him, like he was the sun to their solar system.
Hundreds of photos.
“He has forty-two thousand followers?” Her shop had a tiny fraction of that amount. She’d had a celebrity in her midst this whole time.
“Isn’t that incredible?” Dr. Robinson’s eyes popped. “The best part are the stories he tells. If you get a chance, take a look at some of his posts.”
“I had no idea.” Of course, she didn’t. She’d been too focused on pre-conceived opinions before she really got to know him.
Dr. Robinson slipped her phone back into her pocket. “He advocates so much for dogs and adopting. It’s hard not to love the guy.”
“I know.”
Who was she kidding? Exactly what did she know?
Apparently, nothing.
Before she interviewed him, she didn’t know one morsel of truth about Cal Donner, that’s what. Wait—let’s take that back . He liked café au laits, so she knew something . But even now, she’d discovered yet another facet—a huge one, at that—that had escaped her. Full of surprises, he was. And the more she learned about him, the more she couldn’t get him off her mind.
M erris stood behind the counter with the new hire, Alice, as Ginger walked into the shop after dropping Daisy off at home.
“How’s training going?” She set the tube holding the signs for the Fall Days Festival on the counter and greeted her two employees. “Are you ready to take over operations yet?” she asked Alice.
Alice laughed nervously. “Maybe by next week?”
“She’s almost memorized the entire drink menu,” Merris said. “It took me weeks.”
“I’ve been studying,” Alice said with a sheepish grin. Her tight braids accentuated her dark eyes and the upward slashes of her brows.
“So maybe you will be ready,” she assured her.
As a new college graduate, Alice hadn’t yet found a job related to her business degree, she’d told Ginger during her interview last week. She’d waitressed, worked at a home improvement store, and she was bored, frustrated, and going broke fast, she’d said.
Had Merris not recommended her, Ginger probably wouldn’t have hired Alice. She’d displayed a lack of confidence in herself during their conversations that seemed self-sabotaging. She’d also told Ginger that she dreamed of having her own coffee truck one day, hopping around the country to art fairs and farmer’s markets. Would she want to spend all this time training Alice only to lose her in a few months if another opportunity presented itself? Her employees were like family. She paid them very well and offered perks that other food establishments would find hard to top. She did this so she could retain the people she’d invested in. Turnover at Coffee Loft was next to nothing. Ginger liked to keep it that way. Initial reservations aside, she’d hired Alice the next day.
“I’ll need all the help I can get today and tomorrow with Fall Days Festival this weekend.” She popped the cap off the tube to pull out the posters that she’d picked up from the printer, unrolling one. She held it up. “What do you think?”
“Eye-catching!” Alice said.
Merris opened her mouth to say something, but snapped it shut. She peered closer at the poster. “Did you design it?”
“Not technically, but I offered my input when the Chamber people asked. Why?”
“Like, did you say, ‘Put a guy and a woman at a café table together who look like Cal Donner and me’?”
“What?!” Ginger turned the poster around to look, her heart pounding.
Yes, there was a couple on the poster, though their profiles were all wrong. She’d never wear heels to work. And purple earrings? Big nope. The man’s swooping coif stamped him as a Hollywood type despite her discovery that Cal didn’t have an ounce of pretentiousness in his body.
“They look nothing like me and Cal.”
Merris snickered. “Ginger has a secret admirer who visits the shop regularly.”
She sighed. “It’s not so secret since you harass me about him constantly.”
“Do not.”
She nodded slowly. “All. The. Time.”
Wisely, Alice stayed silent.
“Sometimes he leaves her notes on the patio table. It’s so cute.” Merris dug into her apron pocket. “I think I have one from the other day still in my pocket. Yep, here it is.”
Ginger snatched the note and buried it in her own pocket without reading it. “For all I know it’s you who’s been writing them.”
“Me?!” Merris feigned shock. “For one, that’s not my handwriting.”
She replaced the cap on the poster tube and handed it to Merris, hoping a task would shut her up.
“I need these taped onto the front door, the placard which is in the office, and the windows facing the patio, please.”
“You’ve got it, boss.” Merris’s cheeks plumped up with her barely contained smile.
She watched Merris cross the lobby to the front doors, with Alice following closely behind. Grinning, she shook her head. Brushing off Merris’s teasing had become so inconsequential that she paid it no mind. Merris and jokes were like bread and butter, so common that the day wouldn’t be the same with one and not the other.
But as a certain someone took up more and more of her head space lately, she felt herself growing self-conscious. A mere mention of Cal made her pulse buzz like a bee hive. And when she did see him, her body acted of its own accord, with all sorts of strange beats and twitches, contrary to her brain saying, stop !
Since he dropped off his testimonial the day before he got sick, she’d read it at least a dozen times so far. It was praise for Coffee Loft, but she couldn’t help wondering if he’d specifically thought of her as he wrote it. She could almost hear him speak as she read phrases like “it’s not just a destination, but an experience, thanks to Ginger Giatti’s vision” and “the personable owner and her gift for hospitality make Coffee Loft the best coffee spot in the county.” It infused her with a warmth that stayed with her throughout the day.
Now the question was this: what was she going to do about it?
She was unpacking that morning’s delivery of to-go containers and cups, mulling over her options, when Merris poked her head in the back room, wide-eyed.
“Ridley’s on the patio. Without Cal.”