* ᴡɪᴛʜ / ᴡɪᴛʜᴏᴜᴛ

The ride there went smoothly and when they got to the milkshake place, it soon reached nightfall as the sun was setting. Removing her helmet, she placed it in the bike’s compartment and turned to admire the view. She felt calm in that instant and most of her worries seemed to subside as she looked forward for a sweet treat. Following Tommy inside the diner, she looked around and found the place quaint and cute. Reaching his side, she glanced up at the menu and hummed in response as she pondered on a decision. “Umm, I think a strawberry milkshake would do. How about you?” Her choice was simple, but she was craving something fruity and craving. “Where’d you find this place by the way? It’s really cute.” 

"Hm... I think I’ll have the caramel fudge.” He should feel terrible that he’s indulging his sweet tooth so quickly after a session at the gym, and one might see the irony in it, but he’s never been able to resist his cravings, especially since he now had someone else to share them with. “Del told me about it. You know Delphine?” They move up the line and already he’s preparing his wallet. “She’s never been, but she mentioned it to me once. She’d be angry if she found out I went without her, so I’ll probably just get her one to-go. Although... it might get warm on the way back.” But it’s the thought that counts, isn’t it?

He places their order when they get to the front and insists on paying for both. “My treat,” he says to preempt any objections from her. They prepare their drinks right in front of them and he watches while they wait at the side, mesmerized by how quickly they move, resembling an assembly line. Finally, their milkshakes are ready and a stunned woooow leaves his lips as he admires the handiwork. “Yeah, I’m definitely gonna have to take Del.” 

@txboone​.

 The day ticked by as slow as a class in middle school would – ten minutes left of the day, that’s two five minutes, 600 seconds. Hearing her last associate call from the front they were leaving, supposing that meant all the guests were out finally. She hung in the back a bit longer, setting the trays up for the morning shift. Alicia really loved her place, Kay was more than amazing for letting her be the one to take it over. It seemed irrational at the time, sure 3 years it a while to know someone but most did things like that when they’ve known someone for 10 years. 

   A few tink noises pulled her from her thoughts. Her immediate thought was ‘ghosts’, fucking stupid. Rolling her eyes she made slow movements to the front of the shop, not seeing anyone till the tinking noises happened again. Alicia let out a loud sigh realizing who it was, actually having to put a hand over her heart. “Tommy jesus christ - what’re you doing? Other than giving me a heart attack.”

Maybe entering the shop through the service entrance wasn’t the best idea, but he’d grown accustomed to the habit of steering clear from her customers when the shop was still open. If he entered through the front and someone was still inside, he’d hate for them to think he’d be terrorizing the place with the cut around his shoulders. And while, in theory, he should be the least of their worries, his affiliation with the Prims has colored him with the same reputation as his club members.

So, if anything, he can blame Alicia being startled at the Prims, not him.

Rowan pulls a face when he calls her Mrs. Thane, not really a fan of the formalities between them. “Call me that again and I’m gonna take back that offer,” the words come out with a slight laugh, her tone light and teasing. It isn’t something that she necessarily hates, but honestly – she isn’t that much older than him, and she likes to think that they’re at least friends rather than her just being an extension of her husband, so she tries to steer it away from that direction. She nods when he mentions it being a nice day, eager to agree. “Yeah, s’not often you can actually stand outside and be able to breathe through the humidity, huh?” She asks with a raise of a brow. As much as she loves Olympus, she could certainly do without the wet heat of Louisiana sometimes. “Oh—” there’s surprise that comes when he offers to take the dog’s leash, but she hands it to him anyway. “Yeah — sure. If you don’t mind.” With free hands, she moves to rummage through the diaper bag hanging on the back of the shoulder for her wallet, glancing up at Tommy again as she sifts through the mess that it’s become in the last few weeks. “Seth cut you loose today?”

He bows his head apologetically at the way he’s addressed her, a spitting image of Scout after he’d mauled the hotdog in his hand. “Yeah, everyone’s on the same boat, too, I think...” The crowds are bigger than usual today, a lot more congested, and he doesn’t blame Rowan for still deciding to tread the outside. It is a nice day.

He stands behind Benny’s stroller, Scout’s leash already in his hand. “Ooh, tell him to add extra mustard, please!” he says eagerly, leaning forward to try and make sure that he’s getting that extra mustard. “They haven’t really been giving me much to do lately. And I don’t really like hanging out at the club house these days. It’s too hot and everyone’s just kinda stuffed in there and it always smells like spilled beer and dried sweat...” He realizes what he sounds like, and immediately tries to pull himself together lest he be mistaken for whining to her. “Not that... that’s a bad thing. I just... prefer to be out here.”

“I feel like we shouldn’t be here.”

The sentiment makes her freeze, smile falling almost immediately as he held her gaze with an intensity she didn’t expect. “What are you…” But the words seemed to wither away as he continued to explain himself. She pressed her lips together before letting out a breath, hand now on the table as he continued to sip at his tea. “Olympus is our home.” Was it though? The concept of home had always been abstract to her. Sometimes, it had been a person, other times it had been a place. 

Guiltily, though, at the back of her mind, she had thought of Olympus not as her home, but as a safe cage from the skeletons threatening to fall out of her closet. She studied Tommy’s expression before leaning against the back of her chair. 

“Where should we be, then, Tommy?” She finally asked. A small smile then quirked at the corners of her lips. “Portland? California? Nebraska?” She allowed herself to imagine. “I always wanted to see New York.” Wistful thinking never hurt anyone. 

They’d talk about this before. Maybe not as a conversation, but mentioned in passing, life a dream meant only to last in the moments that they appear and forgotten as soon as you awake. The prospect of leaving Olympus had always been there, even before either of them had ever brought it up. But saying it out loud always brings with it the feeling of danger. Like they shouldn’t be talking about it. Like they shouldn’t even be thinking about it.

True to that very feeling, Delphine first deflects the idea, but even she doesn’t seem convinced, and he can tell just by how quickly she decides to indulge him after the fact. "New York...” he repeats, the name saturated in relief. “We can go to New York. Right?” Faint hope introduces itself to this little fantasy, and as impressionable as he’d always been, he almost seems convinced that it’s real. “We can go to Broadway...I’ve never seen a play before.”

By the time Tommy’s got the truck unloaded and the crates inside, Reina’s already started taking stock of what’s come in. Truthfully, as much as she’d like to trust both the supplier and Thomas to get everything she ordered in one piece, Reina doesn’t trust anyone but herself to make sure everything is in check. So far it’s all present and accounted for, though, and she’s happy enough to get the reassurance that Tommy at least isn’t in the business of fucking her over. Reina probably should have known he’d never do that, though — if anything, he’s one of the kids in the club that’s the farthest up her ass, and she’d be lying if she said she doesn’t love it. “Looks good from what I can see. I’ll check more thoroughly later but I’m not too worried.” Although, if anything is missing he’ll be sure to get a call from her as soon as she figures it out. Reina spares a glance at him, and then the truck he’d been hauling shit from, contemplating her next statement before she puts it out in the open. She’s hoping to get something going with the truck and the seedier side of their business, and she wouldn’t ask just anyone to help out with that but Thomas is in the club. If anyone’s gonna be hauling around illegal shit for her, she’d want it to be a club member she’s close to. “You wanna make this a full time gig, kid? You did a good job and I wouldn’t mind paying you steadily if you want to keep it up.”

Hands pinned behind his back, he promptly waits for Reina to tell him to fuck off or to ask for his help with something else. A full-time job offer, however, is unexpected. “Wait… really?” Wide-eyed and eager to please, Tommy’s interest is piqued, mostly because Reina is probably the last person he expects to offer him actual work, let alone to praise him and tell him he did a good job. It makes him feel good, and the desperation to do better does not hide itself with how he all but bounds towards the unsuspecting woman. He does, however, take a step forward, almost like he means to hug her (blame his muscle memory), but remembers himself and stop before he could go any nearer.

Liz set down on the steps of the porch so she could watch how the man in front of her was busy with the boarding. She did feel kinda bad that she was doing nothing now and that he was doing the work for him. She was happy with his help tho. With a smile on her lips, she watched him but the smile slowly faded as Tommy told her about why he had decided to take a few drinks. “You do know that a change of clothes and some warm blankets would work better?” They should have that at the Club House, at least that was what she expected.

The blonde quickly put down her drink on the porch before she got up from the steps, as she suddenly heard a pained sound from Tommy. “I thought I was clumsy, but I think you might be worse,” Liz chuckled as she quickly moved in, taking his hand in both her hands to look at the damage that has been done. “We are going inside under the bright light of the bathroom to see where the splinter is, so I can get it out, and then I will give you a Band-Aid,” she told him. She kneeled down so she could get the drinks off the floor and she put them on one of the broad windowsills.

Liz led Tommy inside into the bathroom, searching for the First-Aid kit that she had there. She found it pretty quickly and got the band-aids out of the box. She held up his hand and took the tweezers in her other hand. Once she saw the splinter, she carefully pulled it out with the tweezers and dropped it in the sink so she had both her hands-free to put on the band-aid. Once she had done that, she placed a kiss on his finger, a laugh in her voice as she spoke. “There, that should be okay.”

“Well, yeah, don’t you think I would’ve thought of that?” Still, he recalls what a terrible decision it was even if the obvious options had been unavailable. “I hate getting drunk, anyway. It’s just… how does anyone even enjoy the feeling of being intoxicated? You can’t think straight, plus you get really sick in the morning. I don’t see why everyone loves it so much.” An opinion he keeps mostly to himself in the presence of his fellow club members or they’d never let him live it down.

It astounds him how frequently he gets into these situations. If it’s not a weapon-related injury, it’s a broken nose. If it’s not that, it’s a paper cut. And if it’s not that, it’s a splinter. He’s lucky that someone’s there to fix it for him each time, though the amount of times it’s occurred is just embarrassing at this point.

He follows Liz inside, cradling his hand in the other as the injured finger throbs. Leaning against the doorframe of the bathroom, he watches as Liz prepares to pull the splinter out with a pair of tweezers that will do just the trick, but he remembers the last time he got a splinter on his foot, and if it’s as painful as he recalls, then he can’t promise he won’t scream for help. He grabs Liz’s shoulder and squeezes tightly—too tightly—when the tweezers pinch at the tiny, tiny fragment of wood and plucks it out. He sucks in a breath through his teeth and watches as the punctured flesh is covered with a Band-Aid. 

“Thanks, Liz,” he says, and pokes at his finger to see if it still hurt. “Ow.” It does. “... sorry you had to see that. I think I just don’t get along with wood. Or paper.”

She hated seeing Tommy like this, and while she didn’t truly understand why it made him this upset, she could understand his frustration. She gnawed at her bottom lip before scooting closer towards him, hooking a finger under his chin and raising his head so he could look at her. “Tommy, we can fix it. The garden has seen bad days… and this isn’t going to be the last storm.” She offered him what she hoped was a reassuring smile. 

“We’re just going to have to keep making sure it gets taken cared of.” She pursed her lips before tilting her head, a frown furrowing her brows. “What’s the matter? Really?” 

To say that she knows him better than he knows himself would be a terrible cliché, and yet it’s how it always ends up being— she senses something he doesn’t realize is there, and before he knows it, she gets him to admit it out loud before he could even properly consider it in his own head. It’s a whole process which he’s later learned is how he ends up understanding his feelings. He wonders how emotionally constipated he’d be if it weren’t for her.

He licks his upper lip and sets the mug down. The tea’s not so bad anymore; the taste really grows on you after a while. “I feel like we shouldn’t be here.” Blue eyes move towards her face, studying her expression like he’s already waiting for her to respond even without giving her the whole picture. “Olympus. Don’t you just… don’t you feel like this is all a sign that we should just… get out of here?”

Graciously smiling at the offer, Gisele nodded and responded with, “Aww, that’s kind of you Tommy, thank you! I appreciate it and will do.” After what had happened to The Studio, the amount of support she’d been receiving were tremendous and it truly caught her off guard. However, she soon realized that it held value to the community of Olympus and that motivated her even more to keep going and get the repairs done. “Sure see ya in a bit!” 

The dancer went ahead and gathered her belongings, before heading out to meet with Tommy. Taking his helmet, she tilted her head and held a curious gaze as she wondered where they were going. Once he explained himself, a genuine smile crept onto her lips as she gave the nod of approval. “Ouuu, milkshakes! I can’t wait! I’d love that, thanks for taking me!” She then slipped on the helmet and gave him the thumbs up that she was ready to go. 

He’s glad to know that she’s as excited as he is about milkshakes— not very many people he knows are, as most of his friends and acquaintances prefer alcohol. He mounts his bike and waits for Gisele to get settled behind him before taking off, making sure not to go too fast since he has a passenger with him. He usually only really takes Del with him on these rides; speaking of whom, he reminds himself to take one out for her, too, for when he passes by her place on his way home.

When they get to the milkshake place, the neon sign out front is already glowing with how dark it’s gotten already, though there are still wisps of blue and purple and red in the sky. He parks and helps her unmount before getting off himself, then opens the door for her when they step inside. It’s a classic retro family diner style of an establishment, though considerably smaller since they only serve milkshake, ice cream, and a few pastries displayed behind a glass at the counter. There are a handful of tables and chairs, but mostly long ones for sharing with other customers and rows of tall, colorful plastic stools that spin.

He goes near the counter to scan the glowing menu above it, a hand pensively cupping his jaw as he tries to decide which flavor to go for. “You know what you want yet?”

If there was anything in this world that truly kept Oliver going, it was how loved his daughter was. Oliver thought Riley was the greatest human on this planet. Could you blame him? She was charismatic and amazing, her energy completely magnetic. Her zing for life was practically contagious. Even now, he can’t help the beaming smile that graces his expression as Tommy calls out for her, a protectiveness to his tone. 

As Tommy speaks, though, Oliver can’t help but furrow his brows in amusement and concern. “That was the least convincing thing I’ve ever heard in my entire life.” He says with a laugh, smiling warmly at the other. The social worker bumps his shoulder once more, “Everything okay?” Oliver Stone was one to meddle, that’s for sure. But he only does so because he cares. Oh, and he’s nosy. A nosy man with a heart of pure gold. 

That’s when his gaze averts back towards Zach, that same nervousness from before cascading over him. The thought of raising a teenager truly did scare him. But, for now, he’ll keep those thoughts at the back of his mind. “Um, I’m not sure, actually..” He starts, still walking alongside the other man, “He hasn’t quite opened up about that yet. He seems really reluctant. I can’t really blame him. Most kids in his situation have a hard time opening up. I mean, shit, look at Eli. I have to pry things out of my husband most days.” Oliver was aware of Tommy’s own situation and his entire ordeal growing up. Having grown up around the Thane family, as well, it was hard not to run into him. “What was your experience like? If you don’t mind me asking, of course.”

He didn’t mean to worry Oliver, though he appreciates how concerned the older man sounds when he asks again that even he has to wonder if there truly is something wrong. Often, he feels like other people catch on faster than he does. “No, Oliver… everything’s fine, really.” He chuckles. “I’m just tired, I guess.” He shrugs it off, and he knows Oliver would understand, especially after the events that had transpired all over town. He’s sure, as a family man, that Oliver himself has been stressed out over it, too.

He spots a strange-looking twig that Riley must’ve missed, so he pauses briefly to pick it up, dusts it off, and stuffs it into his pocket to present to their notorious little twig-hoarder later on. It’s the simple things, isn’t it? “Yeah… I mean, I get it,” he says when Oliver mentions how he hasn’t been able to crack the kid open just yet. “But at least he likes you. And he trusts you… he did choose to come to you, out of everyone else.” It’s a comment on Oliver’s character as well, how open and receptive he is of others, how it’s easy to feel safe and comfortable with him. Much like how he feels now, when he asks about his father; a subject he doesn’t touch on too frequently, mostly because no one really asks. The fact that Oliver does because he feels like he can (and he, in fact, can) is hard evidence of the covenant of trust he shares with him that he shares with very few people.

“Well… it was just me and him, as far as I can recall.” He never knew his mother, and before he could be old enough to ask about it, he’d lost his father, too. “I guess I just never knew any different, for the most part. Like... I know I had a dad, I had memories of him… and then I just didn’t.” It’s so strange, hearing it out loud and not just echoes that bounce off the walls of his head when he feels like he misses him, a person he never knew long enough to be truly affected by his loss. He trains his eyes on the back of Zach’s head, feeling a sense of kinship wash over him. “Don’t get me wrong— the Thanes are... everything to me. Uncle Cronus was very kind to take me in. But there’s always that looming figure over me, like someone else used to be there.” He glances at Oliver’s profile beside him. “I never thought badly of him, my dad. I think we had a good relationship,” he adds, wondering if Zach could say the same. “It could be different for him, though. And he’s still so young.”

Tommy brings a wave of relief, glad that her dog didn’t decide to act like a dickhead to a stranger. The last thing she needs right now is him to knock down an old lady, or for someone to cry about how he’d scratched them up and try to sue her. Still, she’s not thrilled that he’d decided to pull a stunt like this, especially when he’s supposed to be the well behaved out of their dogs. Benny, usually shy like his father, is glad to have the attention turned on him and babbles out a sentence with the few words he knows while Tommy bends to look at him and Rowan tightens Scout’s collar so that he can’t make a second round of his escape. However, he shocks her again when he jumps forward to grab the hot dog. “For the love of fuckin’ God– Scout!” She scolds him, pulling him back by his collar with a groan.

She takes a few minutes to settle him and make him sit at her side before turning her attention back to Tommy. “I’m sorry — I dunno what’s wrong with him. He’s not usually like this. Lemme replace that for you, s’the least I can do.” ” Granted, their entire house feels like it’s been nothing but chaos for the last few weeks, so maybe it isn’t surprising but Rowan’s not looking to go down that road just yet. “Oh — we didn’t really have a destination in mind, honestly. Just tryin’ to get outta the house for a bit, since it’s not so humid today you can’t even breathe.” 

He had every intention of buying another hotdog, but he can’t really refuse the offer, especially since he’s a little short on cash. “Thanks, Mrs. Thane.” For a while, he’s always sort of just known her as ‘Andy’s wife’, but since getting better acquainted with her, he’s come to find her more as a friend, and even harbors a better relationship with her than with her husband. However, he still hasn’t been able to shake off the habit of calling her his Mrs. just as he first had all those years ago.

“Yeah… I thought the same. It really is a nice day out today, huh?” he says, regarding her picturesque little family, minus one, out on a midday stroll. He’s always envied them deep down. “Do you want me to…?” He motions to the dog’s leash just to free her hands for a bit. He’s always had a fondness for animals and considers himself better with them than he is with people. Most of them, anyway.

A grin spreads across Adrian’s face as he watches the hesitant way Tommy nods. He might be able to get a few songs out of him if he’s lucky. And, as hopelessly shy as this kid is, Adrian doesn’t think he’ll have to pull out all the stops.

“Well,” he says, his hand resting on Tommy’s forearm, dragging down to take hold of his hand, “We go back to one of the private rooms, you tell me how many songs you want me for and I tell you how much it’ll cost you.” He laces their fingers together, playing the gentle touch he used with the closeted guys who came to him during the week. The ones who scared too easily if Adrian was a little mean to them, a little too forward, a little too sarcastic. “Then, we have a good time together. You ready?”

Even through his jacket, Adrian’s touch is electric enough to send a shiver down his spine, make the hairs on his arm rise, make his heart pump an excess of blood that makes him red all over. Tommy isn’t touch-starved, but he is touch-sensitive, the effect of which is starting to make itself present in the way he starts to feel the need to adjust his pants.

“Uhm… okay? I’ll do whatever you say,” he mutters, unable to take his eyes off the way Adrian takes his hand with such confidence that he would’ve easily been fooled into thinking this isn’t their first time. Maybe it’s all the other men Adrian has been with in the past that allows him to treat Tommy like they’d been together before. An imagined memory that Tommy doesn’t mind having just for tonight.

Oz pressed his lips into a firm line. He knew that while his friendship with Tommy was important (incredibly important, he couldn’t even put it into words), it wasn’t an easy one. Tommy needed reassurance and validation, and Oz was more than willing to give it to him… if he didn’t fuckin’ resist it all the time. He let out a sigh before running his hands through his hair, settling a bit more comfortably on the floor beside the bike. 

“Tommy, how many times do we have to tell you? You’re not imposing. Family can’t impose on family.” He said with a shake of his head. He frowned at his friend before clapping a hand on his knee. 

“Did something happen to bring this up? Did Del say something?” While he loved his friend, she could be a conniving little snake at times. 

“No, Oz, it’s not—” The retort comes out much quicker than he’d anticipated that he ends up with his mouth agape, unsure of what to say next. He turns and finds Oz settled on the floor, and the way he has to look down at the man whose eyes are currently bearing into his soul to try and search for answers he won’t disclose makes him feel uneasy.

He tosses the small rug on the seat of the motorcycle, back turned towards Oz once again. “It’s not Del. Stop… bringing up Del, she’s got nothin’ to… she won’t say anything like that.” The offense he takes over Oz thinking that Delphine would ever get an idea like that in his head is quickly replaced by defeat, and resigns to the fact that he can never hide anything from his friend.

“You don’t have to be nice about it, Oz,” he begins, a statement as vague as his behavior has been for the past couple of weeks. “Uncle Monty said… you guys were having some financial troubles… and that… your ma feels like… I overstay my welcome sometimes… and it’s just…” It’s a fine line that he’s trying to walk, and he could easily fall into offending Oz and his family for what he (or his Uncle Monty) is trying to insinuate or land on a misunderstanding that it’s he who no longer wants to spend time with them. “…is it true?” He twist the rug in his hands like he’s wringing something out of it, perhaps the truth from Oz, if there’s anything to be truthful about at all. 

“Thank you, Tommy, you’re seriously my savior here.” Liz let him know as she followed him back towards the house. She got up the porch and as she wanted to walk into the house to indeed get them the drinks that she had promised him, he asked her about her date. Her gaze found Tommy back, watching how he got the first few nails out of the boarding. “Well, he wasn’t a serial murderer, at least not during the first date,” she chuckled as she raised her eyebrows at the other man. With those words, she quickly moved into the house and got them two drinks. With the drinks in hand, she walked back out again and sat down on the steps to the porch. “The date was nice, it was despite the fact that the storm interrupted it early at the restaurant.” She took a sip of her drink and reached the other drink out to him. “Now, are you going to tell me why you got drunk?”

He accepts the drink and takes a sip before he sets it down on the ground, away from the proximity of his feet. “At least he’s not a serial killer,” he repeats and picks up the hammer again. “That’s all we could ever really hope for.” He smiles at Liz. He just wants her to be happy, to find someone she can be herself with, and someone who’ll appreciate her for it.

He resumes pulling nails out again, back turned towards Liz by the time she asks him about his experience from the night prior.“Uh… dunno,” he begins, face turned away so Liz doesn’t have to see how his cheeks have stained red so easily. “I got soaked and I needed something to warm myself with. No big deal.” He’s been drunk before. Just probably not how most other people get drunk.

He struggles to pull at a particularly tough nail, so he grasps the edge of the wooden board with his free hand and pulls harder, only it comes off too suddenly, the hand he’s using for leverage slipping over the edge and ends up getting a splinter. “Ow… geez…” So maybe there are other people out there better suited for the job. He drops the hammer on the ground and examines his thumb, squeezing it until a dot of red appears on his skin. “Do you, um... ow- have a Band-Aid?” he asks, sucking on the reddened flesh.

How bad? 

Delphine grimaced. Bad to the point that you wouldn’t have thought it was a garden to begin with. She pressed her lips together and thought back to the time Tommy had surprised her with it. She had been staying at his place after having her heart broken for the nth time that year and when she had woken up, he called her from outside his complex to show her the little patch of land filled with flower beds and greenery for her to take care of. 

Now… now it was all gone. She reached out and rested a hand on top of his before offering him a small smile. 

“Doesn’t change anything. We’ll just have to fix it back up. Flowers grow back.” 

The news is like a splash of cold water to the face, jolting him properly awake. His hand stiffens underneath Delphine’s, curls his fingers into a fist, and tears it away from hers. “We worked hard on those flowers,” he argues quietly, like there’s something they can do to bring them back. Like they had a choice on whether or not the garden would be spared. He realizes that he’s being ridiculous, however, and shakes his head to dismiss his concerns. It’s not just about the fact that their flowers were now all gone, or that it would take weeks, maybe even months to restore everything— it’s the thought of Del one day thinking that it’s not worth maintaining anymore. That she can’t keep starting over again. That maybe there are better things worth investing her time and efforts in.

Gisele gladly accepted the hug, before moving forward and proceeding to fill her water bottle. “I’m glad to hear that, your wellbeing is important especially during times like this.” A solemn expression formed on her face as she nodded in agreement, “Yeah…It definitely left a mark in this town.” Once her water was filled, she took a long sip of her water to hydrate herself before shrugging in response. “I’m alright, hanging in there…The Studio ended up facing damages, shattered windows and flooding, so I’m currently dealing with that.” Gesturing a hand at the space they were in, she expressed a smile and opted to shed some light to the situation. “At least some establishments were able to get by and luckily, I still have this place to attend to.” At Tommy’s offer to eat out, Gisele nodded and accepted the invite, “Sure! Let me just grab my things. I’m fine with anything by the way!” 

Lips drawn into a hard, thin line, “Well, if there’s anything I can do to help, just let me know, okay?” he tells her, and genuinely means it; he’s not been very busy lately, and he knows he’ll be much more useful helping out around town rather than staying at home doing nothing. The club won’t let him near any of the dealings, though he figures they must have put those operations on pause for the time being, anyway. “Cool, I’ll wait for you outside,” he says and starts on his way towards the exit.

He’s already prepared the extra helmet he has underneath his seat at all times for opportunities like this and is gesturing for Gisele to take it when she emerges from the doors. “I know this place just near New Orleans. They’ve got the best milkshakes I’ve ever had.” Which he knows defeats the purpose of having just worked out, but they’ve all had a rough weekend; they deserve a little treat.

Surprisingly, Reina’s in a good mood today. They’ve got the new windows installed and things seem to be on the up and up, even if the pace is excruciatingly slow. So she’s actually thrilled to see Thomas pull up with the vast amount of new alcohol inventory she had to order thanks to half of her supply having been shattered on the floor — she’s thrilled, that is, until he calls her Mrs. Thane. “Reina’s fine, Thomas.” Mrs. Thane has always made her feel old even if it’s been her title for two decades, and besides, Tommy’s known her long enough to have the privilege of just calling her by her first name. Her words aren’t as sharp as they normally are, though, and she holds the door for him to come in just the same. “Thank you for doing that run for me, sweetheart. You have any trouble picking them up? I know those fuckers at that supplier sometimes like to skimp on orders.”

He doesn’t retract his words when she advises him to just call her by her first name, primarily because he’ll probably resort to calling her Mrs. Thane again. He quickly jogs back towards the truck to grab one of the crates, which he effortlessly picks up and brings inside the store just by the door to keep them open, followed by another and another. He smiles in response when Reina thanks him for the errand and notes how she hasn’t made some scathing remark about how long it’s taken him to deliver the crates back to the store. He wonders why, but he’s afraid that it would just make her revert to her natural state of biting his head off.

“No, no problem at all. They were just a little swamped but I managed to talk to the guy in charge so he could bump us up.” A lie right through his teeth— the manager told him to wait for three hours and wait for three hours he did. “But, anyway... do you wanna check if they’ve got all your orders right?” he says, gesturing to the bottles. “‘cause I don’t mind going back tomorrow if they messed up.”

Even though it’s kind of early, Declan has to stifle a yawn, then stop in a horrified moment when he realizes how old it makes him feel. He usually tries to get in his nap before Tommy comes over, but he’d picked up a double that early morning and hadn’t managed it. Damn alcohol for being a depressant at one. “You’re the  one who came over so early even after I told you Bambi wasn’t coming over today.” His traitorous cat, who likes to act like Tommy is the one who scoops up his shit voluntarily, stretches his back before settling on top of the other man. “We could, but I get enough of that in the hospital. Don’t you have anything interesting going on in your life?” He kicks at Tommy’s leg with a halfhearted effort. “Use your words so I don’t have to put in effort, Tom.”

He frowns at his friend insinuating that he doesn’t have anything else going on, so much so that he resorts to activities that 70-something-year olds will play at a home for recreation hour. Although, it’s not so much insinuating as it is pointing it out, because the truth is that Declan is right. “I do have something interesting going on in my life, but my friend is being a real drag right now and doesn’t want to participate anymore.” He pauses. “Do you… want to go out or something?”