Chapter 7 – James
Chapter Seven
JAMES
James drummed his fingers against the steering wheel as he waited at the fourth red light in a row. The park where Hailey had held her going away party was on the outskirts of the city. The roads were quiet, yet, for some reason, full of traffic lights.
He and Leon had driven separately to the party, since James had been voluntold to help Linda and his mom sort through old files during their regularly scheduled Saturday lunchtime.
They weren’t quite to the point where Leon had an invitation to every Saturday lunch, so at least James didn’t need to lie to him about it.
Even still, he was getting tired of all the subterfuge, especially since it was all his fault.
Hailey’s party had gone surprisingly well, though. He hadn’t expected to find Leon and Hailey having a soggy heart-to-heart in the woods, but it was well overdue.
Much like the conversation James needed to have with him first thing tomorrow morning.
James rubbed at his eyes as the light turned green and he gripped the steering wheel a little harder than necessary.
All the stress of the past couple of weeks had started affecting his sleep.
He couldn’t wait to get back to Leon’s place and curl up on the couch, maybe order some takeout and snuggle with two of his favorite—
An orange blob limped into the street, and James swerved onto the shoulder, slamming the brake pedal all the way to the floor.
Thank god there hadn’t been anyone behind him.
That was exactly what Leon needed: James to get into an accident right as he was finally starting to smooth things over with Hailey.
James threw the car into park and craned his neck to look back at the street. The orange blob seemed to have made it across and was lumbering into the tall grass by the side of the road.
Without stopping to think about diseases or fleas or uncertain living arrangements, James jumped out of the car and hurried across the street. While he couldn’t be certain, it hadn’t looked like a fox or other wild creature. He was pretty sure—
The creature gave a loud, plaintive meow as James approached, and a pair of golden eyes stared up at him through the brush. Once again, with no thought or plan, James found himself unbuttoning his shirt and bending down to inspect the creature.
It was bigger than Yarmen by at least five pounds, if not more. Its fur was matted, but beneath the grime, it was a beautiful orange color. There were no visible wounds, but as James removed his shirt, the cat sat down and held its right front paw to its chest.
“Oh, baby,” James cooed, holding his shirt tightly in one hand as he held out his other hand for it to sniff.
He couldn’t spot any tags or a collar, but the cat immediately limped forward to sniff James’ hand.
After doing its due diligence, it shoved its head into James’ palm, and he knew he was done for.
It took a little coaxing and a fair amount of kitty baby-talk, but James got the cat bundled up in his shirt and hurried back to his car.
The smart thing to do would be to drive straight to the vet, but his phone had died at the party, and he knew without a shadow of a doubt that Leon would panic if James just didn’t show up for several hours. Besides, Leon’s apartment was on the way to the emergency vet’s office.
He considered, only briefly, leaving the cat in the car while he ran up to get Leon, but when it looked up at him with big, trusting eyes, James resigned himself to his fate.
The elevator ride felt a million years long, and that ball appeared in his stomach, vibrating with a mix of anxiety and anticipation.
When he reached Leon’s door, he was glad Hailey was nowhere in sight.
He didn’t think he had the wherewithal to explain his state of undress and the somewhat mangy looking creature he was clutching to his chest. Unwilling to release his hold on the cat, he ended up having to tap the door with his foot in lieu of knocking.
The full weight of what he was doing didn’t hit him until Leon answered the door, his own cat in his arms.
As Leon gaped at him, Yarmen arched his back as he sized up the other cat. “James—”
Yarmen let out a loud yowl, and with a flick of his tail, he jumped out of Leon’s arms and began rubbing himself aggressively against James’ legs.
“My phone died,” James said, tightening his grip around the cat, who was peering curiously down at Yarmen. “I almost hit this cat that limped into the middle of the road, and I know I should have gone to the vet, but I had no way to call you, and I didn’t want you to worry, and—”
Leon grabbed him by the shoulder and used his foot to corral Yarmen back inside.
“I’m so sorry. I know you have to introduce cats in a specific way, and there are vaccines and medicines and tests—” James continued to babble as Leon steered him towards the guest bathroom.
Yarmen attempted to follow them, but Leon reached down and scooped him up one-handed, tossing him onto the couch before shoving James into the bathroom and closing the door.
“I just couldn’t leave it—”
“Him,” Leon said, guiding James to sit down on the closed toilet lid.
“I just couldn’t leave him on the side of the road,” James repeated.
He didn’t even stop to wonder how Leon knew the cat was a boy.
Leon had years of experience with cats, whereas James had less than a year of interacting with Yarmen.
He clearly had no idea what it took to own a cat, but he had a lot of experience loving cats.
That ball in his stomach was red hot, and as it pressed up into his chest, it seemed to force out all the words spiraling around his head.
“He just looked so sad, and he doesn’t have a collar, and I’ve always wanted a cat, but the cat distribution system never chose me, and even if it had, my dad wouldn’t let us—”
Leon let out one of his infamous growls as he peeled back James’ shirt to inspect the cat.
“I know this isn’t the right time to get a cat.
There’s—uh, a lot going on at my house, so I wouldn’t be able to keep him there,” James said, imagining trying to acclimate a new cat to a house that was actively being packed up.
He had a terrifying vision of a moving person leaving the door open, the cat getting out, and ending up back on the street again.
“I would never want to ask you to house him out of the blue. I know a lot of cats don’t like living together, and Yarmen has always lived alone, so maybe he doesn’t want another cat all up in his space. But this little—”
“He’s actually pretty fucking big,” Leon said, squatting down to be eye level with the large ball of matted orange fur.
“But this big guy was out there, all alone, and—and, I don’t want him to be alone.”
James’ breath was coming fast now, and his eyes were stinging. Leon’s gaze flicked up to him for only a moment, but he seemed to think better of addressing whatever the hell was happening with James, and he quickly returned his attention to the cat.
James wished that stupid ball would clog up his windpipe so he could get himself to stop talking, but as he stared at Leon’s big, strong hands moving ever so gently over the orange baby in his lap, it all just came spilling out.
“I bet he used to live with his mom,” James said, and Leon’s eyebrow ticked up.
“They probably spent their whole life together, out there in the woods, but then one day his mom had to leave, and he’s been trying to be strong and brave, but it’s scary being all alone, and…
and…what if he can’t make it on his own? ”
Leon, very slowly, raised his head to stare at James, and the cat chose that moment to look up at him as well, as if equally aware James was talking nonsense.
“Darlin’—”
“I don’t want to bother you.”
Leon blinked, and the cat blinked, and James desperately swallowed around the lump in his throat.
“I don’t want the cat to bother you.”
“It’s no bother,” Leon said slowly, emphasizing each word.
“Or Yarmen. I don’t want him to bother Yarmen, but I also don’t want to just kick him to the curb—”
“We’re not going to kick him to the curb,” Leon said, pressing his hands against his thighs to stand back up. “At the bare minimum, we would make sure he got adopted by someone else if he can’t live here.”
It was so beyond stupid, but James found his eyes spilling over.
“Maybe…someone will want him.”
Leon washed his hands in the sink, drying them haphazardly on his joggers before tipping James’ chin up. His eyes searched James’ face, like maybe he’d be able to figure out what the heck was happening that way.
“You want him,” Leon stated, and all James could do was nod.
“And I want what you want, love. We’ll figure it out together, but first, we need to get him to the vet.”
Just like with his mom in the attic, that seemed like a simple enough first step. Leon led them back out to the kitchen before darting into his bedroom to get James a shirt. He returned with one of his well-worn band T-shirts and took the cat out of James’ arms.
Even though the shirt smelled like laundry detergent, beneath it was the citrusy, woodsy scent James had long since associated with Leon…and with a feeling of home. He put it on, and it felt almost like a warm hug as it settled around his shoulders.
Leon must have noticed a change in his expression, because his shoulders relaxed and he smirked at James.
“I hope you know we’re going to have to talk about whatever the hell that was in there about cat moms and being a bother,” he said, jerking his chin toward the bathroom.
“I’m pretty sure Kaden would have to refund me for every therapy session we’ve ever had if I didn’t insist on a conversation. ”
“You’re probably right,” James muttered.