The bell rang.
"I'll get it," Alana offered, since she just finished setting the table, and Anastasia was helping their mom in the kitchen.
"Thanks," said Anastasia.
Alana went to answer the door, knowing full well who would be on the other side.
"Did I get the wrong house? You don't look like my girlfriend or her parents."
"Funny. People always tell us that Ana and I look alike. Some even ask if we're twins."
"Trust me, I can see the differences," he eyed her briefly.
Before Alana could think too much about that response, she invited Dylan inside. He took his shoes off and walked toward the kitchen. Anastasia met him out in the hallway with a quick kiss on the lips.
"Hi," he mumbled with a small smile.
"Hi, yourself."
Alana quickly noped out of there and joined her mom in the kitchen to see if she needed any more assistance.
A few minutes later, Anastasia and Dylan came into the kitchen. The latter had a bottle of wine that he handed to the girls' mom.
"Ma, this is Dylan. Dylan, this is my mom, Aspen."
"Nice to meet you." Dylan offered his hand.
Aspen shook it and said, "It's nice to meet you, too." She then mouthed, "He's cute," to Ana, making the couple blush.
Alana put a hand over her mouth to suppress her laughter. Dylan saw this and rolled his eyes, but he didn't actually seem annoyed. Alana thought he may have even looked amused. Huh.
"Okay, you can go sit. I'm just about done in here."
Dylan followed Ana to the dining room table and sat in the chair next to her.
"You can join them, Lana."
"Are you sure?"
"Well, if you're offering, you can bring the pasta out to the table while I finish washing some dishes."
Alana nodded and picked up the big bowl. "Pasta's coming through!" She announced out of habit. Sometimes they have extended family over for dinner. They aren't usually sitting still at the table when the meal comes out, so whoever brings it has to warn the rest to be careful. No one wants to lose the freshly-made food.
She placed the bowl in the middle of the table just as the front door opened and closed. There was a bit of rustling in the entryway before a "Hey, honey" and a brief kiss could be heard.
"Hey," Aspen greeted. "Perfect timing. We were just about to start."
She and her husband, Isaac, moved to the dining room to join the others.
Dylan stood up and walked over to Isaac. "Nice to meet you, sir."
Huh, Alana thought, who knew he was capable of manners?
"You, too." They shook hands.
Alana moved to stand next to her chair and grabbed the serving spoon once everyone was seated. She held her hand out toward her dad, silently asking for his plate. She added pasta to his dish before doing the same for Dylan, then Anastasia and her mom, and finally for herself. Some habits were just ingrained in her.
"So," Aspen started a few minutes after they began eating. "You met at school?"
"Yeah, we met in a journalism class last semester."
"Oh, are you a journalism major, too?"
Dylan nodded.
"That's nice. Are you in your second year as well?"
"Yes."
"You play any sports or join any clubs?" Isaac piped in.
"Uh, no." Dylan rubbed his hand on the back of his neck. "I've been pretty busy with classes and assignments. I don't know if I'd be able to find the time."
"You into photography at all as a journalism major?"
Alana mentally facepalmed. She knew where this conversation was heading.
"Uh, yeah. I guess so. I take pictures sometimes. I don't have a fancy camera or anything but," he shrugged.
"You know, Alana is part of the photography club."
"Dad," she said in a warning tone.
"What? Is that a secret or something? I figure if there's an interest, he can talk to you about it."
"We meet once a week," she deadpanned, trying to get away from the subject. She wasn't embarrassed, but she didn't think Dylan would have much of an interest, especially since she's a part of it. They see each other enough when he comes over and in passing on campus. He's not going to join a club that she's in when he already said he doesn't have time for that sort of thing. "Wednesdays from one to two. Anyone is welcome to join. You don't need a "fancy camera" or anything. It's pretty chill."
Dylan nodded. "Good to know." He glanced at Alana's dad. "I'll think about it."
Clearly, he understood that it was easier to just yes the man, instead of explaining that it wasn't going to happen. What he doesn't know won't hurt him.
"Good," Isaac said with a tone of finality.
They switched conversation as they finished up with the pasta. Alana kind of zoned out when Isaac, Dylan, and Anastasia started talking about some news article.
Alana and her mom got up to clean up. Alana brought the emptier pasta bowl to the kitchen, while Aspen took away the dirty pasta dishes that sat atop the flat plates.
The dirty dishes went into the sink, and Alana moved the rest of the macaroni into a smaller bowl before adding the original one to the pile in the sink.
She began washing said dishes, and Aspen went to the stove to finish cooking the meat.
"So, what do you think of Dylan?" Aspen asked her daughter quietly. With her low voice and the sink on, the others wouldn't hear them.
She looked at her mom. "You want the opinion of him as a person or him as Ana's boyfriend?"
This got Aspen to look at Alana. "There's a difference?"
"Well," Alana and her mom were quite close, so Alana usually didn't have a problem being honest with her. Aspen turned the burner off. She moved closer to Alana both to hear her better and to move the meat from the pan to a plate. "We sorta met last semester before they were dating. We had a class together and got paired up for an assignment. He was kind of an asshole throughout the whole thing, so he didn't leave a great impression on me. Fast forward to now, she introduces us, and I remembered him from back then. And we just, I don't know. We don't exactly get along. But for Ana's sake, I tolerate him. And he seems nice enough with Ana. He seems to treat her fine. So maybe I just have a chip on my shoulder, but I don't know."
Aspen hummed. "So you don't like each other, but you put up with one another because of your sister."
"Yeah, pretty much."
"Interesting."
"What?"
"What?" Her mom echoed.
"What's interesting? Why is that interesting? What are you thinking?"
"No, nothing. It's nothing, Lana."
"That's some bullshit, ma."
Aspen laughed and said lightheartedly, "Language. I just think that if you put aside whatever happened during that assignment, you two could get along well."
"Not you, too." Alana groaned.
"Who else told you that?"
"Daisy."
"Ah," Aspen replied, immediately understanding.
"Except her way of saying it was much more rom-com and enemies to lovers-" she cut herself off and quickly added, "Don't tell Anastasia about that."
Aspen chuckled. "No, of course not, honey. But I am kind of intrigued by Daisy's thinking."
"Ma, no," she pleaded.
"Oh, c'mon. I could totally see it."
"Ma," Alana hissed and lowered her voice more. "He is dating your other daughter. Isn't that like...pretty messed up to be agreeing with Daisy?"
Her mom shrugged. "To be fair, they don't seem to act very couple-y."
"Well," she tried to reason and play devil's advocate, "maybe they think it would be awkward to act like that around parents."
"Even when he came in, they didn't do much. If I was in Ana's place, I would've dropped what I was doing to answer the door. And the greeting would've been a bit more than hi and a quick kiss."
"That was literally how you and dad greeted each other when he came home an hour ago."
"Oh, that's different, and you know it. And besides, they weren't even holding hands or anything."
"Maybe they just don't like PDA," Alana kept trying to convince her mom...and maybe herself.
"It's not really public when they're at home. Look, I think they're cute and get along well. But I'm telling you now, I don't think they'll last long."
"Wow, how optimistic of you."
"I'm just calling it like I see it. And when they break up and someone asks why, they'll say, 'we realized we were better off as friends.'"
"Are you and Daisy secretly talking?"
"Did she say the same?"
"She said they would come to realize that they have better chemistry with other people."
"People like...you?"
"You are talking to her behind my back!"
Aspen laughed. "I promise I'm not, but maybe this is a sign."
"A sign that you guys are right?" Alana questioned.
"Yes."
Alana shook her head. "I can't believe my mom and best friend are ganging up on me like this."
"Like I said, maybe it's a sign."
Alana took the plate full of meat in red sauce and brought it out to the table, effectively ending the conversation.
"There's gonna be an 'I told you so,' Lana, and it'll be from me to you," Aspen claimed as she joined the rest of them at the table once again.
Alana sighed and sat back down in her chair. "We're done with this conversation, ma."
Aspen just smiled cheekily in response.
Dylan gave Alana a questioning look, but she just shook her head minutely as if to say, "Don't ask."
The rest of dinner went by smoothly. After she helped clear the table, Alana went up to her room to text Daisy. She sent a message in all caps about the conversation she had with her mom between courses.
Daisy, in turn, sent back a voice message of her laughing hysterically and ended it with, "This is just another reason why I love your mom."
She couldn't help but laugh a little at her crackhead best friend.