The Sun and The Stars (BoyxBoy)

Chapter 18

"Nuh-uh," I say in a stern tone, tightening my grip on Kai's arm and pulling him back when a car comes whizzing past at a much faster rate than the posted speed limit. I look down at Kai to see him looking a bit nervous. "what do we do when we come to a road?"

"Look both ways," he says in a quiet voice.

I nod my head before loosening my grip on Kai's hand and escorting him across the street when it was clear of all cars. After a few minutes of us continuing to walk, he seems to have calmed down from what just happened and starts bouncing next to me with excitement. I smile down at him, running my thumb over the back of his hand. "You excited?"

He looks up at me with an eager nod. "I am! Will Mena be cooking?"

"Well, she'll have some help back in the kitchen, but yeah, she will be," I tell him. We were currently on our way to the restaurant that Ximena worked at since the menu was completely redone in the past month and she wanted us to come to see it. She had one dish on it that she completely created and I was super excited to try it since Ximena was such a great cook. It would be my parents, Kadri, Aria, Kai, and I all coming since Ximena really wanted my boyfriend to be there. Over the past few weeks, we've learned that he's a bit of a snob when it came to food, so she really wants to impress him.

It was cute though because I knew that whenever he picked the food, we would only get the best. He had narrowed down his takeout places to restaurants that he trusted. And oh my god, when Ximena heard that, she demanded to see his list of the good places. Apparently, both of them agreed on those things and even went out together one night to try a new restaurant in town. I love that one of my best friends and my boyfriend were becoming friends. It made me really happy.

Unfortunately, it was a very busy day today since it was Saturday on one of the warmest days we would have this month, so everyone seemed to be outside. We had to park, like, a mile and a half away because I absolutely suck at parallel parking, so we had to walk a bit until we got to the restaurant. Aria offered to drive me, but I wanted to spend some time with Kai this morning, so I said we could just meet at the restaurant.

"Hey, Daddy?" Kai asks, moving a bit closer to me when he saw a group coming towards us.

"Yeah?" I ask him, glancing down to see him biting nervously on his fingers. I reach down and take his hand out of his mouth before shaking my head to silently tell him that that wasn't okay. I didn't want him to get into that habit because 23 years later, I still have that habit and it wasn't the best.

"Are you gonna marry Air-ia?" He asks, looking a bit nervous while he asks the question. I look down with shock clear in my face because I totally didn't expect for him to ask that. Sure, I knew that sometime in the future we would have to have that conversation, but right now? I didn't expect for Kai to be the one to bring it up either. I didn't even know that he had any idea what marriage was because we definitely didn't teach him that. It never came up or anything.

"What?" I ask, clearly confused. I look up to see that there were a ton of people coming our way and even more were coming towards us. I look to my left to see an alleyway that didn't look too dirty, so I grab Kai's hand and pull him into it so we could have some privacy. When we get in there, I realize that it's a bit dark, so I pull him even further into it where some sunlight was streaming in. I don't think anyone would be able to see us from out there unless they watched us come in, so I felt comfortable. I kneel in front of him, waiting for him to speak.

"Uh, well, Gia's mom married her boyfriend," he tells me, talking about one of his friends at daycare. I clear my throat, definitely unprepared for this conversation. I reach over and grip his hand in mine for giving him a soft smile.