The Orange Cat

She was asleep in the sunshine just out of view underneath that leafy shrub. Her partner, black and white, lounged nearby. It was she, the partner, who noticed that I'd spotted them. She watched with a wary eye, expecting....what? That I would rush in to shoo them out of there or sneak in closer, move in slow motion, outstretched hand groping to stroke their sun-warmed coats?
She watched. Her partner slept, oblivious to the moment.
I looked in. Then turned and walked away before anyone else had time to wonder why it was I lingered there in that strip of sunlight. I took with me a smile and a fragment of the tender warmth I'd glimpsed. The orange cat. The black and white one. The sun. The two of them.