Milkshake Hearts

Chapter 124: Mocha & Nutmeg

"So... we impulse adopted two cats. Recommendations, please?" Shayne texts Damien mid-morning the next day.

"Omg!!! Amazing!" Damien's reply is near-instant, quickly followed up by a, "do you have them already?"

"Next weekend we can actually pick them up, so not yet, but Court wants to go on a cat things Amazon shopping spree first," Shayne replies, Damien coming back with various product recommendations throughout the day, from toys to slow-feeders to water fountains and sprays to protect their furniture from any scratching.

It leads Courtney and Shayne to spend much of their final day before they're back at work visiting pet shops and trawling through Amazon categories they've never visited before, buying up the handful of things they think are absolutely necessary in the first instance, at least.

As much as their domestic, fur-family-building days at home are perfect and blissful and lovely, they don't mind the fact that they have to return to work the next day. They both like their job, and by coming back on a Wednesday, they've missed the early-week meetings and instead jump straight into a day of filming silly pit content.

Plus, their call time isn't until 10am, and it's for a high school Beopardy shoot. Courtney may play dumb a little at Beopardy, but it's fun, and Shayne has fun making fun of everyone as he hosts, too.

"How was the honeymoon?" Ian asks them as they wander over to the set, having not had a chance to speak to them yet that morning past a quick hello.

"Oooh it was awesome," Courtney starts, grinning.

"It was like, a perfect tropical paradise, it was gorgeous. And we spent a lot of time sitting on the beach or by the pool drinking cocktails," Shayne continues on her response, Ian nodding in response.

"It sounds good, you'll have to show us pictures after," he tells them, the others around them agreeing before they are directed to take their spots on the set to start filming.

"Guys, we know you liked Beopardy last time, and now we're back to see if these people remembered anything they learned in high school! But first, why don't you punch that bell?" Shayne intros the video, miming a punch towards camera as he does.

"Yeah, punch that bitch," Jackie adds, to an audible sigh from the producer that they'll have to bleep less than thirty seconds into the video.

"Well, let's meet our contestants, who I'm sure will be awesome at this," he continues his intro, intentionally looking sceptically into camera, "we got Jackie Uweh-"

"I did alright at high school, actually!" Jackie jumps in, defensive, "whether I remember it..."

"Ian Hecox," Shayne continues, knowing Ian will also have something to say.

"High school is the one where you don't pay attention and write stupid raps about video games for the internet, right?" he replies.

"No, no, high school is the traumatic one," Damien adds in, matter-of-factly.

"Damien Haas," Shayne follows with his introduction, before immediately moving on to the final contestant, "and Courtney Mi-"

"Uh-uh, that's not my name!" Courtney jumps in, insistent, raising an eyebrow at him. Ian groans, Damien and Jackie laugh, and Shayne smiles widely at her.

"Right, right – it's Courtney Topp-Miller," Shayne corrects himself, Courtney feeling herself smile softly in response. Yes, yes, that feels nice.

"Ugh, this is the first video we're filming after they're back from their honeymoon," Ian jumps in to explain, eyes rolling jokingly.

"Dammit, how can we trust Shayne to be fair today?" Jackie calls him out, then.