Chapter 7 – James #3
“Oh,” Leon said, his cheeks flushing pink as he stared down at the cat in James’ lap. Sensing he had someone’s attention, he flicked his tail in the air, narrowly avoiding smacking James in the face.
James squeezed Leon’s fingers, slowly increasing the pressure until Leon looked back up at him.
“They’re moving in together. In September.
There’s a continuing care community out near your place that has a bunch of amenities and programs they can all do together, and it has the medical support they may need as they get older. ”
Leon’s warm brown eyes widened, and his eyebrow ring disappeared behind an errant lock of his hair. “Oh, shit. That’s a big step.”
Before that ball in James’ stomach had a chance to burn its way through the wall of his abdomen, Leon let out a soft huff. “I’m assuming they all own their houses? That’s a fuck ton to coordinate, while also starting a life together. It’ll be a lot easier for us, since we don’t own our places.”
James’ mouth fell open, and the cat tried to whack James in the face again. He began absently petting him, his fingers deftly pulling out little bits of leaf and sticks as he went.
“You don’t co-own the house, right?” Leon asked, and James shook his head, all those words from earlier nowhere to be found.
A vet tech called for Jack and Pebbles, and a teenager holding a large tortoise two seats away from them stood up and walked across the waiting room.
“Are you going to buy the house?” Leon asked.
Once again, James shook his head. He came across a mat of fur, and instead of picking at it and risking hurting the poor cat, he dropped his hand off the side of the chair.
“I’ve given it a lot of thought, but I think the house needs too much work, and there are too many memories there.
” He struggled to swallow around the ball, which was now sitting at the base of his throat.
“I spent some of my loneliest, hardest years in that house. Long-term, I want to live somewhere happy, and full of nothing but love and warmth.”
The furball in his lap shifted, curling his tail around James’ side.
Leon’s hand was limp in his, but James bit his tongue, giving Leon time to process what he’d just said. The TV in front of them was showing some kind of home and garden show, and James tried to focus on what the realtor was saying about curb appeal.
While James read the subtitles, and Leon sat next to him in silence, four more pets were called back.
Finally, when James was about ready to ask Leon for his phone so he could jot down notes about navigating the housing market, Leon squeezed his hand.
“Where do you think you’re going to look for a happy place to live? Noah and Aspen seem to really like their new place. It’s…a bit far from my place, but you might like it, and I’m sure we could make it work.”
James felt a little like how he’d felt on that road earlier. Leon was slamming on the brakes, and James’ heart was at risk of flying out the front window.
He had known Leon might not be ready or interested in living with him. Now he came with a large orange furball. There were so many things to consider, for both Leon and Yarmen. Of course he wasn’t going to agree to live together in the waiting room of an emergency vet—
Except that wasn’t quite right. James hadn’t explicitly asked him if he could move in, with his new feline companion in tow.
If he wanted this, to start a life with Leon in a shared home with their two fur babies, he had to fight for it.
James turned in his seat, but right as he opened his mouth, a nurse called, “Leon and…Cat.”
Leon huffed out a soft breath, tightening his grip on James’ hand as he stood up and helped James to his feet. “You’re going to have to think of a name for him.”
“I’m not very creative with names,” James muttered, allowing himself to be led down the hall to an exam room. “When I was a kid, all my stuffed animals were just called what they were. Bear, dragon, sloth, millipede.”
That eyebrow piercing shot up. “You had a Millipede stuffed animal?”
The vet tech let out a sharp laugh she immediately tried to hide behind her hand. “I guess Cat wasn’t too far off, huh?” she said.
James ignored them both, still reeling from having somehow messed up his first attempt at the moving conversation. He focused on gently setting the cat down on the exam table and smoothing the edges of his probably ruined shirt.
Leon wrapped an arm around James’ waist, and when the vet tech turned to do something on her computer, he leaned in and whispered, “I think James is an amazing name.”
Warmth and that giddy anticipation he’d felt at his mom’s house flooded through him.
He loved this man, with every fiber of his being.
He wanted them to name the cat together and bring him home to what he was still desperately hoping could be their apartment.
He wanted to curl up in their bed and listen to their two cats playing in the other room.
He wanted, more than anything else, to be there by Leon’s side as he tackled PTSD and healed from what had been a tough year for them both.
Maybe, if they tackled it together, it could be just a bit easier moving forward.