baby. “We had to bring them back to the pet store. They didn’t mind taking them back…they should
make a nice profit. Now Jonas has two male hamsters for Mia in his apartment.”
Maya wipes her eyes with a sigh and sits back in her chair. “I get it now. I didn’t see it as much at
work, maybe because you’re all scattered most of the time, but Bree said you guys are alot, and she’s
totally right.”
I shrug, but don’t bother denying it. We are a lot. Always have been. We didn’t name our company
Brashfor nothing.
“You’re lucky that cat hasn’t…found the missing hamsters,” she says voice low as she eyes Mia.
Jonas and I trade glances over the baby’s head.
“We hadn’t really considered that,” Jonas says with a frown. “Minnie doesn’t live up here. She’s
Micah’s cat, but Mia insists that she be a part of family dinners. Do you think she’d E-A-T a
hamster?”
“Enough with the hamster talk,” Colton growls as he crouches next to Jonas. “They’re D-E-A-D
guaranteed.”
“You wish they were D-E-A-D,” I snicker. “You wouldn’t be able to show your face in this room
otherwise, you big baby.”
Colton scowls at me. “Rude! Mia baby, let’s get you home. Time for bed.”
I will replay the next moment, over and over again, for the rest of my life. It will bring me sheer
joy for years to come.
As Colton leans between us, reaching for Mia, in a moment of absolute divine timing, Minnie
jumps onto my lap with a plaintive meow. It takes a second for us to register the large cream-colored
spot on her dark fur. And another second to register the face and tiny hands gripping on for dear life.
It’s Mia that says it, just a second before we all realize it, and pandemonium breaks loose.
Her voice is pure joy, pure glee. “Hamser on Minnie!”
Colton’s shriek comes directly from the bowels of hell. He throws his body backward in sheer
terror, landing between Maya’s chair and mine. Then he begins a frantic swimming motion, kicking
his legs, trying to back crawl away from the tiny hamster clinging like a monkey onto the cat’s back.
For Colt, this is completely on-brand. Anything little and furry and he loses his mind.
He doesn’t make it anywhere, and realizing the danger of his situation, the terrifying hamster only
feet from him, he flips, bumping Maya’s chair. I grab for her instinctively, dragging her towards me as
