The party was a resounding success. Sophie poured herself another wine and glanced around. All her guests were busy chatting, hovering over the platters of nibbles. Laughter melded with the music.
She turned her head to the kitchen where a heated but friendly disagreement sounded loudly through the door. Something about whether the fancy little savoury pastries were ready yet. Sophie wandered that way. It was her party so she should possibly be involved in what was going on in the kitchen.
She ran an eye over the dishes laid out on the kitchen table for the main course. Her helpers would take them to the dining room once the pastries had been distributed. Colourful salads, oval plates of sliced meats, side dishes from all over the world, and, garnished with green leaves, looking melt in the mouth delicious, the centrepiece – a baked salmon.
Sophie looked forward to bearing it out in triumph, the first proper meal cooked in her new home, a satisfying welcome to her friends and family. Yes, it would be the highlight of the evening.
But that was before the cat showed up … slinking through the open back door (left open to air the kitchen from the smell of burnt fancy pastries), skinny, hungry … and fast …
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Guessed what would happen as soon as you mentioned the salmon LOL
It wasn’t very subtle, was it??
THAT WAS BEFORE THE CAT SHOWED UP
It had been a lonely life for all of Taylor Williams 26 years. Incredibly shy, he had found it extremely difficult to make friends, first through primary and secondary schools and then during his engineering degree at university.
So much so, that he had not a single person he could truly call a friend. Acquaintances, yes – one had to be polite in social dealings – but friendship was another matter altogether.
Although the office where he worked as a civil engineer was busy, most of the time Taylor spent long periods on his own, poring over highly technical drawings as the next project appeared on the horizon.
Bridges, large buildings, roads – Taylor was involved with them all, meticulously planning each stage of a development to ensure there were no mistakes, hidden or otherwise, that could come back to bite the firm on the bum and result in expensive and lengthy litigation.
While conversations during these projects waxed and waned, Taylor never became close with any of his work colleagues and, instead of sharing Friday nights at after work drinks, always journeyed home alone to his empty and quiet flat.
At these times, television was his only real company and friends the stars of movies that he avidly watched.
That was before the cat showed up. Undoubtedly a stray, the domestic short hair grey tabby was quite unremarkable in appearance and could not have been more than a couple of years old.
It just turned up on Taylor’s doorstep one Friday night after work.
Obviously hungry, it meowed its way through curling manoeuvres around his legs and, as soon as he opened the front door, shot inside his apartment.
Taylor tried to shoo it out – with no success.
Finally, he relented and poured some milk into a saucer. The cat ravenously devoured it. Taylor then found some ham in the fridge, which he cut into small pieces. Grateful wolfing noises followed as the animal scoffed the lot.
Turning on the TV, Taylor noticed and advertisement for Dine cat food and made a mental note to buy some in the morning.
He popped his head outside his flat and knocked on his next-door neighbour’s door.
“You haven’t lost a cat, by any chance,” he inquired politely.
The neighbour shook his head and could offer no suggestion as to the animal’s origins. Taylor resolved to check next day with the rest of the building’s residents just to make sure.
Nobody knew anything about the cat, confirming Taylor’s suspicions it must have somehow wandered unnoticed into the building through the security door.
He decided to keep the animal, named him Tabby, and thought he would be good company on the long evenings following his work.
Tabby, for his part, was so grateful to find a home with regular meals that he was more than content to spend his days curled up on the couch or observing life through the loungeroom window.
For some reason, having a pet gave Taylor something to talk about at work outside engineering drawings and he soon discovered that many of his colleagues were animal owners and lovers.
Gradually, his conversations expanded to include their family lives and weekend activities and, before he knew it, Taylor was joining his workmates for Friday night drinks and making what were to become lifelong friendships.
Animals are special in that way.
Saw that coming, soon as you mentioned the salmon 😂😂