Dinner

The night I was dreading to arrive was finally here. The thought of faking being sick so that we wouldn't come here passed my mind but that would have been digging a hole and burying myself alive. I knew my mother would have insisted on coming over to check up on me, take one look and immediately know there was nothing wrong with me. That trick didn't even work at all when I was a teenager because her being a nurse didn't work in my favour sometimes.

“Why are you so nervous?”, Nathan chuckled walking besides me towards the door of my parents house, already feeling my insides turning in agony. I was really freaking out to be honest.

“You don't know my parents”, I drew a breath. “They are very good at getting the truth out of people just by a simple look, especially my Dad”

“You and I are just friends”, he emphasized on the last two words. “I think I got it”

“You think?”, I whisper shouted, stopping mid-action on pressing the doorbell

“Relax Bella. We got this”, he laughed before pressing the doorbell himself as in seconds later, the door was pulled open and my mother seemed pleased to see us and give us both a welcoming hug. Nathan gave her the flowers he bought her and the smile on her face brightened, she was definitely impressed.

“You're so sweet Nathaniel, you honestly shouldn't have”

“It's a token of appreciation for welcoming me into your lovely home, Mrs Davis”

“Well, thank you for coming and please call me Elizabeth, everyone does around here”, she smiled before leading the way to the kitchen, only to find my Dad helping himself on some biscuits my mother kept in the cookie jar

“Arthur!”, she scowled, and he paused eating since he was caught red-handed with the biscuit in his mouth

“I just took one”, he held out both his hands. “I promise”

My mother huffed out a sigh before walking towards the sink to put the flowers in water

“Nice to see you again, Sir”, Nathan straightened out his posture when my father approached us

“It's nice to see you too, McCarthy”, my father extended his hand out, and they exchanged a firm manly handshake before he pulled Nathan to the side. I decided to followed them because I already knew the drill of what would happen to Nathan if he was left alone with my Dad.

My father noticed me creeping up behind them and turned to push me back into the kitchen

“Your mother needs help in the here, Pumpkin”

“No she doesn't”, I chuckled nervously before clearing my throat. “Otherwise she would have said so”

“Just stay in here. Nathaniel and I need to have a talk. Man to man”, he spoke firmly, and I didn't like the sound of that, at all.

“He's not my boyfriend Dad, there's absolutely no need for this”, I retorted whispering so that he was the only one that heard me, and he placed his hands on my shoulder before leaning to whisper into my ear

“There's absolutely no need to make this difficult, stay here”, he ordered, turning on his feet and I watched them ascend up the stairs, Nathan turned to look at me before they disappeared from sight and judging from the look on his face, he was definitely anxious. I felt my mother wrap her arms around my shoulders.

“I'm sure your father won't be as hard on him as he would have if Nathaniel was your boyfriend”

“You know how he is, Mom. He's probably going to dissect Nathan in there with questions, private questions that are none of his business”

“It's not everyday you bring a boy home to have dinner with us, your father is just taking some precautions, that's all”

“I didn't invite Nathan to dinner, your husband did”, I pointed in the direction of my father's study, where he's probably grilling the poor guy with endless questions about what his intentions are about me

“Nathan is going to be okay, relax”, she laughed before turning me around so that I looked at her

“Help me set the table?”, she cupped my face into her hands and I nodded my head

“Okay”, I sighed heavily, and she started interrogating me with her regular, motherly questions as we set the table

After a couple of minutes, what seemed like an hour the two men came back downstairs, laughing so hard I was sure they would crack a rib or something. My mother and I exchanged looks, watching as both of them approach the table.

“What's so funny?”, I questioned curiously and Nate gave me a mischievous look before sitting down next to me

“It's sports related, so you wouldn't understand, Pumpkin”, my father interjected as he sat down. I wasn't a sport person so that answer would possibly shut me up.

“I told you we've got this”, Nathan whispered against my ear before entwining our fingers together under the table, with me finding comfort with having his hand covering mine

“For real though, what happened up there?”, I leaned to whisper in his ear and he turned to look at me

“He told me that if I hurt you in any way, I'll end up with a bullet lodged in my skull, even if we're just friends”, he whispered back still plastering a smile on his face and I snickered a laugh at how ridiculous he looked, calm on the outside, but I could tell he was totally panicking on the inside. My dad definitely got to him and it showed.

“And you're okay with that?”

“I stopped breathing for like two whole minutes in there, do you see how pale I look?”, he whispered dramatically, and I laughed, covering my mouth with my hand

“You didn't crack under pressure, right?”

“Give me some credit”, he sighed dramatically “I'm tougher than I look, you know?”

“I know”, I gave a nod of approval. “Did you promise to meet out all the conditions he set for you?”

“I promised him that nothing bad will happen to you on my watch and I intend on keeping that promise”

“For real?”

“I'm being for real, my life literally hangs in the balance here”, he clearly made sure I dictate the humor in his voice and I smiled at him, then realized he reciprocated my smile, his as twice as bright as it usually is before raising our entwined hands to his lips to quickly place a kiss on the back of my hand without my parents noticing

“I'm a man of my word, Bella. You just need to trust me”

“Dude, what's with the cut on the side of your face?”, Kevin's eyebrows rose, bringing his face closer to mine

“It's nothing man, I cut myself while shaving”, I trailed my fingers on the cut before plastering a bandage over it, and it didn't hurt meaning that it's healing now, so it wasn't that bad anymore

“Are you sure?”, he seemed concerned. “It looks rather deep”

“Just let it go Kev, okay?”, I stood to my feet. “Like I said, it's nothing”

He sat there for like a minute, just looking at me with his arms folded before pulling out a file from his bag while shaking his head, I knew he wasn't convinced

“Okay so, these were the recipes I was telling you about”, he started paging through a file while walking towards me. “I think we should add more dishes to the menu-”

The sound of his voice started to disorient further away even through he was standing next to me. My mind started to drift back to the night Mellisa and I had this huge fight.

>

“Tristan?”, the sound of Kevin's voice constantly calling my name pulled me back to the hard hitting reality. I turned to look at him with my eyebrow raised.

“What?”

“Did you hear any word I said?”

“Of course I did”, I cleared my throat awkwardly. “I'm with you on whatever dishes you decide to add to the menu. One hundred percent”

He looked at me, tilting his head to the side, seeming to study my every move like somehow he would get the answers to his questions

“Are you sure you're okay man?”

A message notification popped up on my phone and I tapped to open it, turns out it was from Mellisa

Please come back home so that we can talk? I miss you 🥺💔

I turned to look at Kevin again. “I've never been better”.