“It’s a cat cafe.” Spencer looked at him like he should have known better.
“Alright.” James blinked.
“We have coffee and cats.”
James narrowed his eyes.
“And bagels,” Spencer added, lifting a shoulder. “Levi makes really good bagels.”
“It’s cute,” Theo said, looking around and walking over to a table. He sat down at an empty chair and dropped his arm down at his side. A calico cat wandered over to him and head-butted his hand.
“Where did you get all these cats?” Andy asked, reluctantly taking a seat beside Theo.
“I’ve collected them, mostly.” Spencer blushed. “Before my husbands and I moved here, I had a little sanctuary that I ran.”
“Husbands?” Andy asked.
“Two of them,” Cameron answered on his behalf. “Lumberjack and Grumpy.”
Spencer licked his lips and smiled. “Anyway. I couldn’t just leave the cats to a shelter or anything, so I brought them with us.”
“Are you new in town?”
“No. We’ve been here for years.” Spencer waved a dismissive hand in the air and turned toward a glass counter near the back wall. “Did you guys want some coffee?”
“I’m fine. If you’ve been here years, where have the cats been this whole time?”
“The house.” Spencer dipped under the counter and looked at Levi. “Did you want coffee?”
“I want coffee,” Cameron answered.
“I’m sure you do.”
“Listen.” Cameron took the seat beside Theo and turned around backward on it, facing Spencer. “If you’re not nice to me, I’m not going to ask you to plan Eddie and Charlie’s wedding.”
“They’re already married.” Spencer rolled his eyes and poured coffee into two mugs, dumping in sugar and coming back to leave them in front of Levi and James.
“Reception,” Cameron corrected.
“Our big, fat, messy Motel wedding,” Spencer chirped, leaning over to scratch between the ears of a puffy gray cat.
“That one looks like Rocco,” James said, laughing and taking a drink of his coffee.
“Who’s Rocco?” Andy asked.
Again, everyone turned and looked at him, and he felt the weight of five sets of eyes on him all at once.
“Who is Rocco,” Spencer scoffed, not a question.
“He hasn’t been here,” Theo said softly in Andy’s defense. “He doesn’t know.”
“Rocco is Levi’s brother’s boyfriend,” Spencer said.
“Also a cat,” James added.
“Your brother is…in a relationship with a cat?” Andy scratched the back of his neck, not only feeling confused, but also extremely out of his element.
He’d been thankful for the ability and the chance to travel, but a small part of him had thought when he left, everyone else’s lives would pause, but they hadn’t. His brothers had all gone on with their lives and their relationships, and they’d made new friends and had inside jokes that made no sense to Andy in the slightest. He felt lost and aloof in the place he’d always thought would be like home.
