“I’m just glad I can go on about Kion to you, I keep in how much I wanna just gush about him because I know my non-parent friends don’t wanna hear it. He’s just so..” She shook her head, sitting across from her friend with a coffee in hand while their kids were at school, “Unique. Wonderful. Big hearted. He’s been spending so much more time with Seth — and I think it’s been good for the both of them.” 

Karla didn’t get to go out a lot. She was usually at work or at home with her daughter. But tonight she was out listening as the band performed and swayed along with the music. She didn’t know them very well but she was enjoying the music. She looked beside her and smiled. “They are good no?” The latina smiled and nodded towards the stage. “Kind of makes you wanna dance?” She wiggled her brows playfully to see their reaction. 

Imani was glad she had agreed to coming out with Karla — she always liked spending time with the girl outside of work, and with everything that was going on with Seth and them trying to figure out themselves and how he would be a father to Kion she needed a break. “You found my guilty pleasure. I used to love to dance back in college.” 

Their entire lives, Seth and Imani had been endlessly different. He was a brash kid, always picking fights on the playground and running into every situation headfirst. She was gentler, put more thought into everything. Too much thought, sometimes. But she drew out a soft side of Seth that no one else saw. He was still an asshole. Always still an asshole. But he wasn’t sure either of them could count the nights where they’d fallen asleep together with his head rested on her chest so he could listen to the sound of her heartbeat. They’d always still been themselves when they were together, but Seth had always been completely aware that they saved the best bits of themselves tended to only come out for one another.

Imani seemed happy as a mother. It suited her. It had come out of nowhere, but there was no denying that Kion completed something inside her. Even from afar Seth had always desperately admired how lit up she had always seemed lately. But the other part of him, the selfish part of him, had always been painfully aware that it meant his other half had changed. It had clicked a long time ago in his head that getting pregnant was part of the reason they’d drifted apart. It had to be. She had grown up and Seth hadn’t. All the joy she radiated couldn’t distract him from that.

When she caved though, and he swore he could see her composure relaxing when she did, Seth’s expression lit up. Like a kid seeing the first firework on New Year’s light up the night sky. A businessman, Seth had grown to calculate how things would pan out in the future before executing anything. But he wasn’t letting himself do that this time. He wanted another night with Imani and he wouldn’t let the knowledge that it’d only make the following day harder stop that.

“Fine with me. I like looking better than you anyway.” He led her through the couples dancing across the floor so they could leave. When they passed the guy that had been staring at her before, Seth immaturely shot a finger-gun and a wink his way with Imani close in tow. “We’re not going to that place. I almost died after that time.” An exaggeration, because Seth Wheeler didn’t experience anything without cranking his drama levels up to the max, but he had been sick enough to refuse to return. “We’ll get that Cajun place by your old apartment instead. So we can both get diarrhea.”

If Imani closed her eyes, she could remember everything about Seth. From his voice, to the way he laughed -- his genuine one, not the way he chuckled when someone said something he thought was absolutely idiotic. She remembered the birth mark that laid under his left bicep, how the scar felt on his chin from when he fell when they were racing their bikes down a hill. She remembered it all. 

And sometimes, she hated it.

Because it wasn’t triggered by seeing him again. It was some nights when she was desperate to share Kion with someone. For another person to love the five year old as much as his mother did. To see him as he was, the brilliant and blossoming happy boy that had so much love to give it wasn’t enough for his tiny body to handle. And every one of those nights, she wanted it to be Seth. 

“No one is doing any shitting tonight, Set. Unless we’re playing Mario Kart or laser tag, then I will absolutely shit on you.” A grin -- genuine large and made her pierced nose slightly wrinkle as she looked over at him. She nodded toward her car, letting the male follow her over. She always kept a pair of clothes in the back, for her and Kion. Imani stayed prepared, with the simplest things. She knew that after work she would smell too much like fries to show up at his school so she would quickly change in the trunk, as she was doing now, with her baby father who didn’t even know he was her baby father looking at her skeptically. Grabbing a beach towel, she threw it at his chest, “Hold that up for me.” 

“That’s perfectly fine. Wherever you feel comfortable or happy is a place you should spend your free time at.” Quinn gave the woman a smile as she took a sip of her drink. “I, personally, like cafes or coffee shops– and I don’t go out much either. Although that’s more of a choice than a ‘not having time or opportunities to’ kind of thing. You want to leave?”

The woman’s words made her smile, her energy almost contagious. “I own a uh -- Mom and Pop’s type diner. It just called Ma and Pa’s -- I didn’t change it after this couple sold it to me, just kind of.. restored or modernized it. I like that feeling of home.” Imani rambled on before she nodded at the offer, “I would much rather be at a cafe that sells wine, or maybe alcoholic coffee. I’m already tired.” 

Camden let out a small laugh and nodded, “I don’t get out much either, but then when I do I guess I remember why” he said with a small shrug of his shoulders. “And this place being as loud as it is is definitely a good reminder” he said. He looked around the crowded room and let out a sigh, “Everyone is screaming just to be able to talk to the person in front of them” he said before looking back to Imani, “is this just how people socialize these days?”

“Everyone glamorizes social lives,” Imani spoke as her gaze traveled along the room, then back to her company, who she was trying not to look directly in the eyes. Not only did she not get out much -- she didn’t talk to the opposite sex much and this man that towered over her made her squirm on the barstool slightly. “I hope not.” She answered back, “I wish I could tell you. I mean, I watch people eat most of the time, so.”