Isn't that interesting.  Well, it's a little cool for it, but she puts on a heavy sweater, grabs a book, and heads outside.  Definitely no ulterior motive here, just gonna sit in a lawn chair and read and enjoy a nice fall morning on her day off.

Cat comes over to investigate her, staying out of grabbing range for now.

She doesn't look up from her book.

Cat starts winding around her chair.

She lowers one hand over the arm of her chair, evenly and predictably, until it reaches a height convenient for, say, sniffing or headbutting.

There are a couple of cold kitty nose boops while the cat sniffs her, then a slow headbutt. 

Mission success!  She peers over the side of the chair and begins gentle pets, assuming he continues to seem amenable to that.

Yes that is indeed an acceptable response!

This is a good human who gives very good pats. Cat approved.

Cat petting is so good, and so much better when you're comfortably sitting in your yard!  "Some people would be bothered by having their reading interrupted, you know."  Pet pet pet pet.  "But I'm not one of them right now.  This is a shitty romance novel."  Scritches.  "Sometimes shitty romance novels are exactly what I need on like, an emotional level, but honestly I just grabbed it on my way to come see you, which I did because you are a delightful, wonderful being.  So I'm not like, super invested in it, at present."

She sets the book in the adjacent chair and leans over the side of hers so she can pet with both hands.  "You are very sweet and nice and soft.  Are you somebody's?  I feel like cats that aren't somebody's aren't this great and cool and pettable.  Although I guess I wouldn't know."

"Mrow." (His face scrunches up like he tastes something bad.)

She pauses pats, hovering her hand a few inches away from him, in case that was the problem.

No, she can't stop petting him! Headbutt time.

Pats resume!  "Pfft, okay, sorry."  But hmm, can she use infrequent stops to lead him around to the front of the chair, where she can then try to encourage him to hop in her lap via such advanced strategies as stopping leaning over, scritching at the fabric of her jeans, and asking him if he wants to?

That's a bit uncertain, but he eventually decides that laps are a superior place for receiving appropriate scritches.

They totally are; observe the increased scritch quality!  And she's taking care to avoid doing anything that would prevent him from hopping down if he wanted to.

"You're totally somebody's; there's no way feral cats are this friendly, otherwise I would've already gotten buddy-buddy with like a hundred of them.  I think that means the responsible thing is probably to call animal control?  Or like, put up found posters or something; I bet whoever it is really misses you."

Angry mrow.

She - moves her hands out of biting distance?  That seems like the thing to do.  "You're giving me some real mixed signals here, bucko."

Huff. He puts his chin on his crossed paws as dramatically as he can.

This gets a small giggle out of Ari.  "You're quite the character."

She picks up the book again and starts reading.  After a little while, she starts petting him with her free hand, almost absentmindedly.

That is acceptable. He's now friendly again.

Ari can't claim to understand the capricious whims of cats!  Although that's probably more to do with how there are lots of things she doesn't understand than cats being something inherently nonsensical.  She keeps up the reading and slow, calm pets until either he moves or she gets too cold.

Probably she's going to get too cold first.

It takes her a while to notice; it's not until after she's been shivering for a bit that she realizes that oh, hey, sitting still outside when the weather's this crisp is not very sustainable, even when you have the nicest of lap warmers.  And then she's faced with a dilemma, because on the one hand, she's gonna freeze out here, but on the other, cat.

She puts down the book so she can pet with both hands again, both to get the most out of the last few minutes before she goes inside and to warm up her book-holding hand.  "I'm gonna have to leave in a second, but you're very nice and sweet and I hope you keep showing up."

Mrp.

He stands, stretches, and jumps down to walk over to her door, glancing behind his shoulder.

Huh.  That's....weird.  Like, actually weird, not mildly-amusing, aren't-cats-funny weird.

Eh, whatever, looks like she'll be able to be able to not freeze and keep being catfriend, so she's not complaining.  She re-scoops her book and opens the door.