"Thanks!" Asami said. There was no question of not having manners.

She helped her friend with the door and closed it behind them. The following sight was of cat furniture everywhere. They were such odd things to see. In the course of a minute she patted a trio of plush floor pillows, held a cushion as she stroked a standing pet house, and stood on her toes to see a brown-and-white cat asleep on a podium.

A bookshelf in the back drew her to metal stool chairs at a counter by the window. She inspected a black young male lying in a basket on the floor, and thought how strange it was.

"I don't have pets," she said. "Do you?"