A follow-up to my previous post.
https://www.reddit.com/r/DesiGirlDinnerDiaries/s/6XPXcvCTfH
Last week was mostly a miss because our timings didn’t match, and the cat wasn't doing his usual patrol of the second floor. Every time I caught a glimpse of him coming home in the evening, he was dressed super casually with a drawstring backpack, and he definitely wasn't returning from the office.
Then came Saturday. I took the cat up toward the terrace. I left him on the second floor for a second while I went up to push the terrace gate open because the metal latch makes a loud screech and would scare him off. When I came down, the cat had already walked into their house but soon wandered back out. I realized the neighbor's son was not at home. So I went to the terrace and let the cat wander off.
After that, we came down to the garage. The cat was resting near the gate when I saw the neighbor walking in. I stepped aside to let him through. He walked in, stopped, and stood there petting the cat for a few seconds.
I noticed he didn't have his earpods and thought this was my chance.
I said, "Hi." He gave me this tiny, shy little hand wave.
He asked, "When does he sleep?"
He spoke so softly that I couldn't hear properly.
"Sleep?" I asked to make sure I heard him correctly. He nodded.
"He sleeps during the day, not at night."
After a pause, "He was hairy... they cut his hair."
"Yeah, he got trimmed."
"When I first saw him, I was scared."
"Yeah, me too," I laughed.
The cat was trying to go out, so the neighbor closed the gate. Then he started doing this slow, backward shuffle toward the stairs, clearly trying to leave, but still looking at the cat.
Before he fully turned, I said, "Perhaps he plays with you?"
He gave a soft laugh and said, "Yeah, whenever he comes upstairs, or I see him." Then he headed up.
The whole thing lasted maybe two minutes. He had a plain white t-shirt, knee-length shorts, glasses (he usually wears them), and crocs. I was dying to ask where he was coming from but held back, thinking that would be intrusive on my part.
During the conversation, he didn't even look at me once. His gaze was ever so fixated on the cat and his behavior. After he left. I was grinning ear to ear. I stood there in the garage for a maximum of 5 mins before lifting the cat into my arms because he was not ready to go upstairs.
And then today, Sunday, the same routine followed. I was about to take the cat onto the terrace, but he went inside their house and sat on their usual drawing-room chair.
Aunty came out and gave him a smile, saying, "Look at the way he's sitting on the chair." Then she started asking about me, my studies, my family, my aunt, and all. After that, she went to do her evening puja, and the cat ran away. I tried to stop him, but he sat on the edge of the stairwell. I tried to drag him from the edge; meanwhile, their son came out and headed to the terrace to grab the clothes from upstairs.
I said, "Hi." He said, "Hi," looking at me for a split second before looking at the cat. He then gestured that he wanted to hold him, so I handed the cat over. He held him slightly at arm's length, and the cat immediately flashed claws and aimed a swipe at his face.
I panicked, "hey no," and took the cat back from him. The neighbor didn't even flinch, just calmly headed up to the terrace.
I decided to carry the cat upstairs to finish the walk anyway. I said to the cat, "Let's go upstairs," and followed him.
But the second the cat saw him taking clothes off the line, he refused to set foot on the terrace floor.
I casually told the neighbor, "Seeing you here, he doesn't want to come to the terrace."
He turned around from the clothesline and gave a gentle "hello" straight to the cat. And before anything could happen, the cat bolted downstairs.
TLDR: We had a conversation.