If You Miss It

20. meet the parents (again)

CHAPTER TWENTY

MEET THE PARENTS (AGAIN)

—

Dmitri was eating a slice of cake when his entire day took a turn.

The cake was good, definitely not his favourite, that was lemon. This was a plain chocolate cake that Trinh had forced him to eat when she was supposedly told by Eden that he hadn't eaten any breakfast before coming to work that morning.

So, after getting his head chewed off by Trinh for "not eating enough", and being "so fucking annoying", he was eating cake.

And typically, he would have liked it, or at least, he wouldn't have hated it. Now, however? It was poison on his tongue.

Because Tariq's parents were in the coffee shop, seated at one of the tables ahead of him.

They looked exactly the same as they always did, aside from the fact that the number of grey hairs on Tariq's dad's head had increased, and the wrinkles on his mom's forehead had become more prominent.

Still, they were the same. The same warm laughs that he could hear from all the way over at his table, the same smile lines on Tariq's mom's cheeks, the same polite nods that his father gave everyone who passed by him.

And the same comfort that they radiated, the one that reminded Dmitri of all the times he had stayed over at Tariq's place and they had cooked him lunch.

Of Tariq's dad telling him that his grades didn't matter as much as he thought they did, that he always failed his classes and now, he was a successful businessman.

Of when Tariq's mom had comforted him on a particularly bad day with his parents, even though she didn't know that the reason for his tears was because his parents had called him a sin.

God, Dmitri wanted to go up to them and talk to them, because holy fuck, he missed them so much. They were so easy to talk to, always treated Dmitri like their own, even when they had probably just assumed that Tariq was his best friend and nothing else.

I can't. I can't talk to them.

There was no telling what Tariq had told them, and he wasn't sure if he wanted to find out.

"Dmitri," Trinh called from her side of the table they were seated at, kicking him under it, or at least trying to. "You've had that piece of cake on your fork for five minutes now. I might just eat it," she threatened, shovelling her cake into her mouth.

Exhaling deeply, he nodded, forking the cake into his mouth, his eyes still focused on Tariq's parents, their own eyes constantly flitting towards the steps, most probably waiting for Tariq to come down.

"Just— turn around. Subtly," he muttered.

Of course, Trinh whipped her head around, before letting out the loudest fucking gasp that she could let out.

Eyes still wide, she smiled at Dmitri, her entire demeanor changing, more enthusiastic now. He couldn't even blame her, Tariq's parents were definitely something to be excited about.

Still grinning, she said, "It's Tariq's parents! I've only met them like— once, but they were so nice to me. They had stayed for the week, so I had to explain that I was genderfluid to them, and they were so nice about it. I mean, they were confused, but they always tried their best with my pronouns and everything. I know that that's the bare minimum, but the fact that they tried meant so much to me. They're so sweet." Sighing, she sat back in her chair, forking the last of her cake into her mouth. "God, I fucking love them. I should go say hello."