“Ah— I guess it’s alright. I’m thinking of looking for a bigger apartment, but this is doing well for me for now.” Dom walked over to the fridge and looked inside before pulling out a water bottle and handing it over to her. “Have a seat. Please.” He shoved his hands in his pockets and shuffled his feet a little bit. “Thanks again for bringing Sterling home. I really appreciate that.” He said before taking a seat as well in his recliner. He paused, and then fought to figure out what to say. It had never been this hard to talk to her before. They were best friends at one point, why couldn’t they get back to that? Oh right, maybe because after they broke up he got one of their closest friends pregnant. 

It wasn’t that he was expecting to see Didi at his place with Sterling, but he wasn’t. He absolutely wasn’t. He had thought that when he called the school, that one of the other kids’ parents would have taken Sterling and dropped him off when he or Lily couldn’t make it down to the school. He wasn’t expecting Didi to be the one to, still he smiled and invited her into his place. “Thanks again for bringing him home. Go play in your room Sterling.” Dom instructed to his son who ran off without so much as a question or hello. He smiled a little and rubbed the back of his neck. “Do you want something to drink?” He tried not to think about how Didi was still engaged to Buster. He tried not to think of a lot of things when it came to Didi. At best he was doing his best to stay above these unknown waters, still unsure of how to fully act around his first love.

The situation was uncomfortable. An unbearable uncomfortable everyone knew about except for Lily and Sterling, who was far too young to understand why there was tension at the table. Dom could tell Lily was confused, suspicious even. Didi practically jumping out of her seat didn’t help. He looked down to his son and ran his fingers through his son’s mop of hair, making a mental note to get him a hair cut. “Doesn’t surprise me. Like his dad. A nerd.” Lily teased Dom who couldn’t help but laugh, and only just slightly forced. 

Carefully, Dom watched their body language and couldn’t help but shift a little uncomfortably in his seat and reached for Lily’s hand, his fingers laced with hers and squeezing it slightly just to maintain his bearing. Something he knew Lily would notice after dating for so long. “A couple of times. We like it here for the most part.” Dom answered and thanked the lord that the waiter came by so that Dom could give his and Lily’s order, while Sterling shouted what he wanted and then added a mumble please after Lily’s stern look. While Buster ordered his food, he couldn’t help but steal a glance at Didi trying to convince himself that she wasn’t actually here with Buster.

Didi smiled lightly as she watched Dom’s fingers run through his son’s hair, the simple sentiment making her heart feel warm for a moment - as if her brain was trying to think of anything else other than the evening that was unfolding in front of them. If she had thought to herself back at school that one day she would witness Dom do such a thing, she would have simply rolled her eyes, especially at the thought of at the other side of the table.

Didi’s blue eyes followed his own hand, only realising that she had been staring when she felt how hard she was biting on her bottom lip. She was brought back to earth as the waiter appeared, muttering a thanks to her fiance for ordering as she laughed at Sterling’s behaviour, a soft smile on her features. “You always have such lovely manners at school Sterling, show a lot of the other children up.” She said genuinely before her eyes met with Dom’s. “I guess you have your dad to thank for that.”

The entire time Dom was feeling worried. Of course he was feeling worried, why wouldn’t he? This night had a high potential of turning out to be disastrous all because he was curious on who the man Didi was going to marry. His eyes darted over to Buster, biting back a scowl and pulling himself a bit closer to Lily as if she played the role of a shield for him that night. He’d mean to ask Lily quietly and more to themselves, but instead it had started a conversation and inside jokes between the two blondes sitting across the table. He kept glancing back nervously between Lily and Didi unsure of how he felt about the situation. “Well then a steak should be filling. I think we should get the seafood gnochi; mac ‘n cheese for you, Sterling?” Lily asked the little boy who simply nodded still hooked in his pages. She hugged the boy close to her and kissed his cheek. “You’re lucky you get to hang out with this little guy all day.” Lily exclaimed, Dom knowing she was just being her typical sweet self. But it made him sit uneasily. He felt uncomfortable with Buster sitting at the other side of the table.

Didi played with her hair awkwardly, trying to keep her smile plastered on her face. Her mind was going at about a hundred miles per hour and she was too busy trying to avoid eye contact with Dom across the table that she nearly jumped out of her skin when Buster’s hand moved to her knee. Clearing her throat and stopping herself from getting cross-eyed from staring at the menu intently, the blonde gave the man across from her a confused look. She had absolutely no idea why he was acting so strange, in the back of her mind she knew she should have mentioned Buster, but there was no way she would have seen him again. Shifting uncomfortably in her seat, she took her glass into her hands and took a large gulp of it, her eyes trained anywhere than the company in front of her. “Oh, I definitely count myself lucky for being about to hang out with this little one.” She said with a grin, turning to face Sterling. “One of my best students by far.” She said with a nod.

Hated it. He hated it. This was a shitty idea. Why did he suggest this? Oh right, because he didn’t think that Didi was going to be marrying fucking Buster. He wondered if his face was doing the displeased thing it did when he didn’t like something when Didi called the blonde ‘darling’. His stomach churned and he realized that he no longer wanted to eat. He wanted to fight past Dom for asking Didi. Instead Dom picked up his glass of water and drank it before giving a fake impressed look and nodded. He didn’t care. Dom didn’t care about anything about Buster and he knew that wasn’t fair. Maybe the man had changed, maybe he wasn’t the same twerp he knew back then. But then the man opened his mouth again and Dom clenched his jaw when he smiled at Lily. The dark haired man placed his arm behind the back of Lily’s seat, his fingers brushing against her shoulder. 

Before Dom even had a chance to make a comment, Didi was already trying to engage Sterling into a conversation. “’mreadingboutminecraft.” His words were pushed together and his eyes didn’t look up from his iPad engrossed in his reading. Dom patted his son’s head affectionately before he opened up his menu to try and keep himself busy. “Do you wanna split a meal, not … feeling too hungry.” Dom asked to Lily and then glanced to his ex and her … fiance. He mentally choked on the word. He hadn’t a clue on how to react or what to say in this situation. It could have been anyone else and she was with Buster. Buster. “So… —” Dom didn’t want to have to actively engage in conversation with the idiot that sat on the other end of the table, but at the same time he also didn’t want to be rude. “Do you know what you want to eat?”

Didi smiled when Sterling responded to her, it didn’t surprise her one bit that he was too engrossed in his reading to have a conversation with her, so she simply gave up and turned her attention back to the adults at the table. “You’re lucky if you get to split a meal.” She heard her fiancee say as she turned to look at him. “Didi would never share food in her life, I almost get my hand bitten off if I try to take chocolate from her, let alone a meal.” He added with a chuckle, nudging Didi gently as she rolled her eyes at him. “That’s because I am always very hungry.” She fired back with a small laugh as her eyes skimmed the menu before she looked up at Dom for the first time since she had sat down when he asked the question. “I think I might go for the steak, I haven’t eaten in a few hours.” She replied, smiling at him before looking over at Lily.

Once everyone was seated, Sterling contently playing his games, Dom also took his seat. His eyes darted towards to Buster at his snide comment. Even after ten years, the burning hate for him still bubbled in the pit of his stomach like a bad brew. “Can I have some juice please?” Sterling asked the waiter politely and Dom felt so thankful for having the blessing that was Sterling. He could feel Lily looking at him with a curious look on her face, her head tilted and her eyebrow quirked up in a way Dom knew she was asking him what Buster meant. “Yup. We were best friends in high school. Lost touch after a while.” Dom explained casually with a small nod. “How was your drive here? Hard to find?” He quickly directed to Didi to change the topic, his eyes averted down and away from the couple in front of him. Bad idea. Bad. Bad. Idea. 

Didi stayed silent as Dom spoke, her gaze not leaving the wine glass in front of her as she tried to distract her mind. She knew that what he said had been necessary but hearing him dismiss their relationship as easily as he did was unsettling to her. The blonde didn’t even look up when the question was directed towards her, she simply shrugged. “No, not at all. We haven’t been to this restaurant before but Buster knows the area quite well don’t you, darling?” She said, looking up only to face her fiancee as the waiter returned with drinks for them all. “Yes, we come to this area for business meetings a lot, so I know the area well.” 

This was the problem with arriving early to anything; the waiting. He was always waiting and in turn was drinking his glass of water as slowly as possible. Dom looked to Sterling who was clearly getting bored then tapped Lily’s knee. “Grab his iPad and let him do his reading. He’ll get distracted until dinner.” He watched the brunette pull out the iPad for Sterling and started to set it up. Once Sterling was taken care of, he picked up his water once more only to choke on it when he saw Didi arrive with someone who looked all too familiar. No. This had to be a joke. He must have just looked like Buster. It couldn’t actually have been him. But the look on the blonde man’s face told him other wise. He set his drink down slowly trying to look to where Didi was introducing herself to his girlfriend. “Didi.” Was all he could manage to say. He cleared his throat when Lily stood up and found himself standing as well. Dom had nothing to say, his brain had frozen. Thank God for Lily though, who smiled and stretched her hand out. 

Didi wasn’t sure if she had ever felt so awkward in her life but she was avoiding the gaze of the two men at the table like her life depended on it. “Of course they are good things, I doubt there’s anything bad to say.” She said with a wide smile and shaking her hand before she sat down, tucking some hair behind her ear. Lily was very beautiful and she seemed very sweet, something she was happy about but a pang of jealousy was still washing through her. “I am his teacher, yes, so we know each other well.” Didi said before turning to Sterling and giving him a smile before she cleared her throat at the next thing mentioned. The blonde paused for a second, staring at the empty glass in front of her as she tried to think of something to say.

A double date sounded like both a horrific and interesting idea at the time. When Dominic told Lily about how an old high school friend (omitting out the ‘ex-girlfriend’ bit) was Sterling’s teacher, the first thing Lily mentioned was how small the world was and then immediately shifted gears to the idea of a double date once Dom brought up that she was also engaged. Now it was a quarter past seven and Lily was curled under the duvet make up and hair done. “Are you going to get dressed at any point or did you plan on going naked?” Dom asked leaning his arm against the door frame with an amused grin. The woman lifted her head up and smirked, “Like you would let me go out without clothes on.” She sat up and carefully ran her fingers through her hair. “Also my sister called and she can’t look after Sterling. Winnie is sick.” Dom chewed on the inside of his cheek wondering what kind of double date had children along for the ride, but it could be worse. “Alright, we’ll take him along. Just finish getting ready and and I’ll get Sterling changed.”

Half an hour later, Dom and Lily were sitting at the restaurant with Sterling placed beside Lily in the booth. Butterflies had grown in his stomach and were now flapping about with each nerve wracking second. They were early with ten minutes to spare. He tapped his foot, ate bread, tried to make small talk but his eyes were focused on the entrance waiting for Didi and her fiance to walk through the door. “They should be here soon.” was all Dom could say to that would partially distract him or even convince that she would. 

When Didi had mentioned the double date to Buster he seemed to just agree and show little interest in the details like most things she told him. The blonde was thankful for it in this instance though as she had no idea how he would react to the idea of going on a double date with her ex-boyfriend who disliked him and she knew that the feeling was mutual from the reaction she usually received from talking about Dom. The only question he had asked about the date was where it was before they had gotten into the car and that was it. Checking her watch she could see that they were on time but she knew that Dom would be early so she tried to subtly rush her fiancee as much as she could get away with. “Buster, the valet will look after the car, I don’t want to keep them waiting.” She urged him, taking his hand and letting out a sigh of relief when he agreed, thanking the man in front of him before handing over the keys.