Hold

𝑭𝒐𝒖𝒓

Thanks to the disrespectful mood Sunshine woke up in, I was running late. I'd need four hands to count the number of times I'd yelled at him in the past couple of hours. He'd scratched my couch, dropped my pot plant and scattered damp soil all over my tiled floor with his paws and had now pulled the stunt of stunts, jumping onto my counter with the same dirty paws as I filled the bathtub with water so I could wash him up.

"Zokuwonela, Sunshine?!" I yelled, seeing red and trying to remind myself that this was my baby, who I loved dearly. "That's it! You're in timeout." I said when I calmed myself down enough to handle him with care. I carried his whining self off my counter and put him in his cage, which I typically only kept him in at night when I was sleeping so he wouldn't wander around in the middle of the night.

He was still whining when my phone buzzed on the kitchen counter. Without even checking the caller ID, I picked up and apologetically said, "I know. I know. I'm sorry I'm running late. My son decided to be a brat today and you know how that goes."

"You have a son?" a very confused Towani exclaimed in shock on the other end of the line, his voice putting an instant grin on my face.

"Towa." I giggled. "I'm sorry. I thought you were my sister."

"Okay, but you have a son?" he repeated, the incredulity in his voice intensifying.

"His name is Sunshine. He's my pet cat." I finally clarified, immediately getting a deep exhale from him. "Why do you sound so stressed out about the idea of me having a child, though?"

"I was just shocked, wondering just how much I missed in the time you took to figure things out." he chuckled nervously, the low rumble in the back of his throat raising the hair on the back of my neck. Goodness, how was I so gone for this man?

"There was no time or space for anything that could've resulted in me falling pregnant, trust me." I quipped, putting my phone on loud speaker so I could clean while I talked and hopefully not piss my girls off too much with my unplanned tardiness.

"I see." Towani said, his voice finally back to normal. "Fun fact, I have a cat, too, now. Her name is Oreo."

"Why Oreo?"

"She looks like an Oreo. I'll send you a picture so you understand."

In less than ten seconds, my phone pinged with the aforementioned picture, my insides melting at the cuteness of the fluffy, brown and white kitten on my screen. "Gosh, she's adorable! Is she still that small?"

"Yeah. She was born two months ago."

"Ahh, my heart!" I shrieked, forcing myself to get back to cleaning up Sunshine's mess.

"I know, I can't get enough of her cuteness." Towa shared sweetly. "How old is Sunshine, and how come he's being a brat?"

"Seven months, and I have no idea. I thought he knew better." I rolled my eyes, but still somehow managed to quickly check on him, see what was suddenly keeping him so quiet in that cage of his. He was slowly falling asleep, probably tired himself with his silly midmorning shenanigans.