The task of keeping the expensive cup of tea she’d just purchased from spilling out from the thick ceramic teacup onto the matching saucer distracts Sophie from the dilemma at hand. The newly opened cat café had proved to be more popular than she’d anticipated it to be, and it just so happened to be that there weren’t any vacant tables she could take for her own. Who would have expected so many people to want to eat food surrounded by cats? The bakery in Ingary wouldn’t have stood for such a thing; many of the cats in the area had been strays and it would have been unsanitary to allow them to roam about so.
“I hope you don’t mind my imposition,” she says as she sets her clattering cup down gently at the first open seat she finds and slides into place. There’s already a gentleman seated across from the spot she claims, one who looks like he actually takes care of himself, and she would much rather sit with this one than any of the other patrons scattered around the room cooing at cats. “I was looking forward to sitting down to drink this without standing up. It won’t be long, I’m sure. I don’t quite understand the general hubbub surrounding this place.”