Page 86 of New Beginnings at the Cosy Cat Cafe
‘Well, that’s decided then. Come and sit down and I’ll get Daisy settled in,’ said Tori, opening the internal door leading into the café.
As they walked back into the room, there were calls of ‘Where did you find her?’ from the regulars. Claire looked unsettled by all the attention and tried to brush it off by simply replying ‘On the green.’ Lara was eager to hear all about Daisy’s rescue and the pair of them seemed to hit it off instantly. Tori couldn’t say the same about Leo. As she watched from behind the coffee machine, she noticed Claire had inched her chair closer to his and was tossing her hair around flirtatiously. Leo looked unusually subdued andtight-lipped around her, which was weird given how friendly he usually seemed to be…
‘Penny for them?’ asked Joyce, returning to the counter and making Tori jump.
‘You nearly gave me a heart attack!’
‘You were miles away. Something on your mind?’
‘No, not really,’ said Tori, not quite meeting her mum’s eye.
‘Hmm, I’ll wager it’s something to do with a certain young man.’ She nodded in Leo’s direction. ‘He seems like one of the good ones, you know.’
‘You said that about Ryan and look where that got me.’
Joyce took a step back, visibly shaken by Tori’s words. ‘Oh, I’m sorry, Mum,’ said Tori, her shoulders slumping. ‘It’s just been a stressful day already and I’m just a bit confused right now, to be honest.’
‘Oh, love, come here,’ said Joyce, wrapping an arm around her. ‘No one’s saying you need to go rushing into anything. But Leo’s a good lad, that’s all. You just need to see how he is with that niece of his to know that.’
‘I know,’ said Tori, nodding. ‘We’re just going to take things slow, see what happens. What harm can a date do?’
‘Slow and steady often wins the race, love. I’m glad you’re not writing him off because you’re still hurting about Ryan.’
Tori wondered if her mum’s advice might be different if she knew that Ryan had been in contact. She was right about Leo though. He was one of the good ones. Every moment she spent with him made that even clearer to her. She didn’twant to let her experience with Ryan cloud her judgement, but she knew there was still something inside her that was warning her, holding her back. She was looking forward to having dinner with him on Thursday; perhaps spending some more time together on their own would help her to decide how she really felt about him…
When Tori woke the following morning and switched on her phone, it pinged immediately with a message. She smiled when she saw it was from Rose.Morning, hun I heard about what happened with Daisy yesterday, are you okay? I don’t want to freak you out, but have you checked your Google reviews this morning? She opened up the browser and typedCosy Cat Caféinto the search bar, clicking on the reviews tab and saw that her average rating had dropped from 4.9 stars yesterday to 2.1. Rubbing her eyes, she looked at the screen again. 2.1? That couldn’t be right. She scanned the most recent comments, which had been posted last night.1.0 Terrible service, dreadful food and one of the cats even escaped during our visit! 1.2 What a joke this place is! Staff were distracted, too busy searching for a lost cat! 1.5 Dreadful place. Not hygienic having cats where food is served! Steer clear!
She threw her phone down on to the bed and sank back into her pillow. That was it – the Cosy Cat was doomed. Doomed before it had even really got started. Surely no one was going to go out of their way to visit after reading those reviews? They made the place sound awful. Bad food… unhygienic… distracted staff… and worst of all, theyimplied she wasn’t even able to keep the cats safe.Oh God!She exhaled deeply and rubbed her temples. How could she come back from this? She reached for her phone and called Rose, who answered on the first ring.
‘You’ve read them then?’ Rose asked gently.
‘Yep.’ Tori let out a long, deep breath. ‘I don’t even know what to say. They’re awful, Rose, awful. They’re right about Daisy escaping, of course, but everything else is just, well, it’s just…’
‘Lies!’
‘Exactly! You don’t think our food is bad, do you?’
‘Not at all, it’s bloomin’ delicious.’
‘Well, clearly some people do.’
‘Notsomepeople.Oneperson.’
‘What do you mean,oneperson? There’s more than one bad review.’
‘Jake and I have got a theory…’
‘Go on…’
‘There’s seven bad reviews and they were all left last night, right?’
‘Yep, looks like it.’
‘Right, well, how likely do you think it is that seven different customers yesterday went home and left a one-star review?’
Tori paused while she considered the likelihood of that happening. ‘Erm, not very.’
‘Exactly! And that’s why Jake and I think all the reviews were written by the same person.’
