from your brotherâs shop,â Mama countered.
This garnered a couple of grunts from Babbas, as well as some mumbled words in Greek. âWe will figure it out, Helena. The point is, we need to get Athena here. She and her husband can come for a visit to see our new place. Cassia will like that.â He gave me a âplease go along with meâ look. âWonât you, Cassia?â
I would love to see Athena again. Very much. And meeting Brock Benson in person sounded pretty appealing. Still, I hated the idea of bringing my cousin here just to use her. She would never forgive me, and Iâd never forgive myself.
âIâve always loved spending time with Athena,â I said. âBut maybe we should wait until we have a real plan, Babbas. You know? We donât want to appear desperate.â
âWaiting is good,â Mama said. âWeâre not ready for visitors yet. Besides, where would they stay? Our little apartment isnât company ready. Itâs filled to the brim with people and boxes.â
âAthena and her husband are famous Hollywood writers. They have money. They can stay at a hotel.â
âNiko!â My mother looked horrified by this suggestion. âWe canât put family up at a hotel. Itâs just not done. Imagine what your brother would think!â She began to argue the point, insisting that sheâd never heard of such a thing.
I had a feeling Athena and Stephen wouldnât mind stayingat a hotel. In fact, I felt pretty sure they would prefer that idea to staying in our tiny little apartment that was already crammed full. If we could talk them into coming. I still couldnât see why they would want to leave California and come to Texas just because Babbas asked them to.
âWe can worry about where they will stay once they accept the invitation,â Babbas said. âIn the meantime, I need to create a commercial with a superhero theme. And we will need a jingle. Something catchy.â
âA jingle?â Mama asked.
âSure, you know. You hear them all the time on TV and radio.â He started singing one from an insurance company commercial and Mama nodded.
Then my father decided to sing every well-known jingle that came to mind. He covered everything from McDonaldâs to Burger King to Oscar Mayer Weiner. Soon Mama was singing along. So were my brothers and sisters, whoâd drifted in upon hearing the McDonaldâs jingle, likely hoping we were going out to eat for a change. Like that would happen.
When they finally stopped singing, Babbas rose and paced the room. âWe need a jingle with a superhero theme. Something catchy. You can help with this, Cassia. Youâre musical.â
I started to argue, but a couple of catchy ideas came to mind. Ten minutes later Iâd written a tolerably good jingle for Super-Gyros. Where it had come from, I could not say. Still, Babbas fell in love with it, and even Mama offered a âWow!â My siblings joined me and before long we were all singingâwith harmony, even.
âItâs perfect, Cassia! And just right with your singing voice on the lead.â Babbas snapped his fingers. âThatâs it! Our family will sing the jingle in the commercial!â
âOh no.â No, no, no, no, no. I would not, could not, sing in a commercial for the family business, especially not if my fatherâ
âIâll wear the Super-Gyros costume and you can sing. It will be perfect.â
The next thing I knew, we were talking about adding a stage in Super-Gyros where we could perform the song on a regular basis. No thank you. But how could I go about defying him when he looked so excited and so proud of my song?
âThis will save the day, Cassia. Brock Benson will do a cameo in the commercial and your song will play in the background.â
I had to admit, the idea of my song playing behind Brock Benson did hold some appeal. But from the devilish
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