A second later, Romeo leaps out of his owner’s arms and darts to my feet. He tries to climb my legs—ow—but he gets tangled in the bottom of my maxi dress and has to fight his way out. His owner shouts and dives toward me, but Romeo doesn’t want to be caught. He dodges and weaves around the crowd, keeping his eyes on Juliet.
Clutching my cat, I back away, but she’s doing her own fighting . . . to get down. When her claws sink deep into my arms, I yelp and let her go. Romeo and Juliet race to each other, stopping a foot apart.
Romeo stands, tail erect, looking at Juliet. Juliet waits in her worse-for-the-wear dress, looking back at him. Should I grab her again? I brace for an awful cat fight.
Instead, they purr and rub the sides of their heads together and then run them down the lengths of each other’s bodies. When their tails curl around each other’s heads, they turn and do it all again on the other side.
“Aww,” one of the other CelebriCat owners says, “Romeo and Juliet are in love.”
Romeo’s owner and I stare at our cats as they snuggle for a moment. His expression is uncertain. He says, “Looks like they might have taken to each other.”
I want to tell him what I think of that—and of him. But with a herculean effort to be polite, I instead quote a line from The Two Gentleman of Verona.
“Love will not be spurred to what it loathes.”
I snatch up my Persian and move to the far side of the group. Other than the second meet and greet tomorrow morning, which I can’t help, I’ll make sure Juliet never sees Romeo again.
She’s a cat. She’ll get over it.
Chapter Eleven
“’Tis he, that villain Romeo.”
- Romeo and Juliet (Act 1, Scene 5)
Kathleen
A half-hour later, with Juliet comfortably ensconced in my room with James, who’s napping after a hard morning of eating a free breakfast and being insufferable, I head to the lobby. Viv and Jess are already there, sitting in a foursome of chairs. Their heads are close together, deep in conversation, but they smile and invite me to sit when they see me.
“How did the rest of the meet and greet go?” they ask as I settle in.
“Really well!” I think of Juliet and Romeo’s spectacle at the end. “Well, mostly.”
They give me a questioning look. “Juliet liked Romeo a little more than I’d like.” They exchange glances and raised eyebrows, but don’t comment. “Are you two having a good time at the convention so far?”
Viv nods and leans back in her chair with her sandaled foot on the seat. She wears about ten anklets on her right ankle. “We went to a panel about cats on film and a seminar on special needs cats, because our Count Catula is blind in one eye and is losing his sight in the other. We want to make sure we know how to take care of him if he goes fully blind.”
I frown. “Poor guy. He’s lucky to have you two as parents.”
“We’re lucky to have him,” Jess says. “And our other fur babies.”
“We love them so much!” Viv squeals. I know what she means.
Joe walks into the lobby, and I wave to him. “I hope you don’t mind if a friend of mine joins us? We have a lunch date after this.”
The women look over. “No worries,” Jess says. “Hey, I recognize him from the lounge last night. No judgment or anything, but did you meet him here?”
I flush, which I happen to know makes my face look infused by pink lemonade. “Yes. Right after you two said hello. I was planning on having a drink and going back to my room, but . . .” I lower my voice, “we ended up going on an amazing date.”
“And now lunch. It’s getting serious.” Viv’s voice is teasing.
I introduce Joe to Jess and Viv. He greets them and kisses my cheek before sitting.
“So, what were you two wanting to talk to me about?” I ask the women.
Jess pulls her hair over one shoulder and glances around before she speaks. “Okay, I don’t know if you’ve heard, but some of the Catulets met up for drinks last night.”
“No, I didn’t hear. How fun—I’m sorry I missed that.”
“It was hilarious,” Jess says. “But it got really interesting toward the end when we ran into a group of Meowtagues.”
Joe shifts in his chair. I glance at him, but he only smiles back.
“What happened?” I ask.
“Nothing really, just exchanged some words with them. Kind of like we do online.” Viv winks. “But we learned something from the woman whose Instagram handle is @iheartcats. Her real name is Kathy.”
“Oh yes, she’s really sweet.” She’s one of the most supportive Catulets. She didn’t come to the meet and greet today, or at least she didn’t introduce herself. “What did she tell you?”
The women lean in, so I do, too. I can’t help noticing that Joe has been very quiet, and his body language is sort of . . . stiff.
Viv pulls her other foot up on the chair so she’s sitting cross-legged. If I did that, I’d look like a praying mantis.
Viv says, “So, you know that everyone in attendance at CatFest has the chance to vote on the award winners tonight. Well, Kathy said she was talking to Romeo’s owner in the lounge last night, and he told her to vote a bunch of times for Romeo for Best Newcomer by using incognito browser screens. He didn’t know she was a Catulet.”
I gasp. “Would that work?”
“Who knows? Maybe. But the point is, he’s encouraging his followers to cheat!”
“I can’t believe he would do that,” I say.
“Me either,” Joe scoffs. “Did she tell you his name?”
I glance at him; he looks mad. That’s really kind of him to care so much about this on my behalf. I touch his hand and smile gratefully.
Viv shrugs. “We assumed it was the guy who had Romeo at the meet and greet today. Who else could it be?”
Joe scoffs. “He must have been drunk last night.”
“Maybe, but his followers listen to him. We thought you should know,” Viv says to me. “Not only do we want Juliet to win, but historically, the majority of significant awards and sponsorships at CatFest go to men. We want to be sure the vote is at least fair.”
I run a hand through my hair and glance at Joe, who still looks . . . something. Annoyed? Skeptical? “What can I do?”
“Go to the convention organizers,” Jess says. “Tell them it’s a rumor but ask them to check the data. They should have ways to see if Romeo’s getting significantly more votes today than Juliet at least. Something in the data should give them a hint if the Meowtagues are cheating.”
I nod. “Okay, I’ll do that. Thanks for telling me.” I lean back in my seat. “I can’t believe he would say that. That guy is such a jerk! I never even caught his name today. Do you know what it is, so I can tell the organizers?”
“Boyd.” Jess and Viv say his name at the same time Joe does.
Joe clears his throat when I glance at him. “I saw his name badge at the meet and greet.”
Huh, I don’t remember him wearing one. “Well, I’m going to make sure Boyd knows where he can stick his cheating ways.”