After a couple of hours of driving, the trio made it to a hotel near the park and checked in.
The sun was gone before they'd even got to their room--which fortunately had two beds---and Neo had fallen asleep during the car ride there.
"You wanna go out for dinner?" Ashton asks, running his hands through his hair while staring back at himself in the bathroom.
It's clean in there, with sparkling tiles and cute little bars of hand soap stacked up by the faucet.
"You mean, like, all of us?" Mellony's voice is just barely made out from inside the bathroom. Ashton opens the door, shaking his head at himself with a smile.
"Yeah, definitely. I wasn't asking you out, or anything." He says, furrowing his brows at his reflection, then turning off the light and exiting the bathroom.
He's barely dealing with the fact that he's actually in a hotel room with a beautiful girl and her son, he wouldn't be able to properly mack until he got over the culture shock.
When he steps into the main room, he sees Mellony sitting on the desk and slightly swinging her legs back and forth.
"Okay then," She looks towards Neo's sleeping body, curled up on one of the beds. "We can let him sleep a little longer while we get ready."
Ashton nods, sizing her up as he goes to his suitcase. "I don't think I've ever seen you, y'know, all dolled up."
Mellony cracks a smile, rolling her eyes and sliding off of the desk.
"That's because I don't usually get dolled up," She pops her brows at the boy, lifting her own suitcase from the hotel floor. "But I guess, since this is somewhat of a special occasion, I'll try."
Ashton grins, glancing at her on her way to the bathroom, until he does a double take and realizes that she's probably going to be a while in there.
"Aw, Mel, wait--"
"You asked for it!" Mellony chirps, closing the door behind her.
Ashton snickers, pulling a button up and a pair of black jeans from his luggage. He isn't sure where exactly they're going to eat, but if Mellony is putting in extra effort to look nice, then he'd like to look presentable, too.
"Ashton?" Neo croaks from behind him, and Ashton turns around to see the little boy rubbing at his eyes.
"Yeah, bud?" Ashton lays his clothes on his bed and sits on the edge of Mellony and Neo's.
"Where's mommy?"
Ashton decides to joke around with him to help wake him up, like he used to do with his younger siblings.
"Oh, she's gone," Ashton nods his head, keeping his smile at bay when he sees Neo's face fall. "Yeah, she grew these huge bird wings and just flew away." He mimes something taking off with his hands.
Neo giggles then, shaking his head and sitting up. "No, she didn't."
"Yes, Nemo, she did." Ashton fails to keep a straight face, chuckling when Neo gives him a slap on the hand.
"Mommy! Ashton says you're a bird!" Neo shouts, shrieking as Ashton scoops him up and gently puts his hand over Neo's mouth.
"Mel, I never said you were a bird!" Ashton yells, tilting his head towards the bathroom. He feels something wet glide across his palm and yanks his hand away.
Neo laughs, pointing at Ashton and laying his head on his knee.
"What is going on out here?" Mellony's honeyed tone floats throughout the room.
Ashton looks up at her, fumbling for Neo when the boy climbs off of his lap and onto the carpet. Ashton and Mellony catch each other's stare as Neo crashes into his mother's legs and hugs them.
She's barely wearing any makeup from what Ashton can tell, but she's glowing, and to top it off, she's changed into a short and tight outfit that is giving Ashton way too many thoughts.
"Uh-How did you get dressed so quickly?" He avoids immediately telling her how good she looks in order to keep from saying something mildly inappropriate in front of Neo.
Mellony bashfully smiles, patting her son on the back. "When you're a mom you learn that you gotta do things fast," She says, bending down and picking her boy up.
Zero innuendos pop up in Ashton's head. Yup. None at all.
"Because the longer you leave these guys unattended, the more likely they are to get themselves into trouble." Mellony finishes, poking Neo in the side.
Ashton smiles, watching Mellony sit Neo on their bed and pick up his bag.
He remains silent while he stares at Mellony getting her son ready, amused by their short exchanges while she pulls on his clothes.
She spots him looking from the corner of her eye and turns to him, simpering as she buttons Neo's jeans. "What?"
Ashton shakes his head, standing and grabbing his outfit from his bed.
"Nothing. I'm gonna get dressed, then we can go." He says, nodding and receiving a nod from the other two in the room.
♡
"I never learned parallel parking, okay?" Ashton defends himself, chuckling and putting his car keys in his pocket.
There was a perfect space by the entrance of the restaurant, but the only problem was that it was in between two very expensive looking cars that Ashton could not afford to damage.
Mellony giggles, taking Neo's hand. Neo grins and wraps his little fingers around Ashton's palm and swings their arms. Ashton's gaze slides down to his hand in Neo's, then he moves his eyes to see Mellony's hand in the same situation and feels his brain brownout at the idea of what they look like waltzing in hand in hand.
He snaps out of his momentary haze and opens the door, expecting Neo to let go of his hand while he walks inside, but being almost pleasantly surprised when he gets dragged in behind him.
They find a booth towards the back of the place and slide in. Mellony and Neo on one side of the U-shaped booth—though Neo's really happily kicking his legs in the middle of them, instead of being tucked under his mom on her side—and Ashton on the other end.
Ashton's gaze accidentally intercepts Mellony's while she's looking around at the other tables and they both chuckle like school kids.
Deciding that he should actually make conversation and stop over thinking things, Ashton speaks as he slides his menu up to his chest.
"So, this is like an Italian place?" He holds back the frustrated reflex of squeezing his eyes closed and forces himself to look at Mellony, while he waits for her to answer his stupid question.
She gives a short chuckle, eyeing him weirdly as she glances at her own menu. "Um, yeah, I think." Mellony teases, lifting the menu and pointing at the cursive Italian Cuisine on it with her fingernail.
Ashton chortles, grinning when she drops her arm and reveals her own smiling face.
There's so many things that Ashton has come to like about Mellony.
Her deep brown eyes. Her curly dark hair. Her out-of-this-world cooking skills. Playful demeanor, amazing parenting, fit body, and too many other things.
The best thing, though, his favorite thing about Mellony is her smile.
He loves to see it while she's joking around with Neo, or when a song she really likes comes on the radio, and he especially likes to see it when she's doing it because of something he does.
A waiter, a rather short guy, approaches their table with a notepad in his hand.
"Good evening, my name is Trevor and I'll be your waiter tonight," He introduces himself, breezing through the practiced line. "Have you looked over our meal selection?"
"Someone couldn't even look over the front cover." Mellony mumbles, lightly poking fun at Ashton as she pretends to be scanning the food dishes. She peeks up at Ashton who is visibly processing her words.
The waiter had heard what she said, and politely chuckles. Ashton's mouth opens in shock, though he's smiling, and he gently kicks the girl under the table.
"Would you like more time to think?" Trevor asks, bowing away from the three of them incase they say yes.
Ashton keeps his eyes on Mellony as he shakes his head, then clears his throat and picks up the menu.
"Um, I'll just have the spaghetti." Ashton says, smirking Mellony's way. He likes this bumped up, kittenish version of her and almost wishes Neo wasn't here so he could draw more of it out. Almost, he reminds himself when he sees Neo trying to stack his silverware on top of his tented menu.
The little boy grins and waves a fork at Ashton, then uses the same fork to comb through his hair. Ashton chuckles, quickly reaching and grabbing the utensil.
"I'll have the same. Neo, baby, what do you want?" Mellony looks over at her son at the same time Ashton carefully pulls his fork from his curls and furrows her brows. Ashton places the fork in its original place, briefly looking at Mellony as he smooths Neo's fringe down.
"I was like Ariel, mommy." Neo tells his mother, not seeing the sanitary issues with putting something you eat with in your hair. Mellony fondly rolls her eyes at her son and gives up on asking him what he'd like.
She tells Trevor that they're all having the spaghetti and Trevor nods with a smile, seeming charmed by the three of them.
"I was like Ariel right? With the dinglehopper." Neo pretends to be combing a long mane and giggles when Ashton grins down at him.
"Yeah, Nemo, you were just like Ariel." Ashton humors him, already expecting the soft pat on the hand that he gets in response. Mellony lets off a little laugh at them and Ashton turns to her, mirroring her happy expression.
The two lock eyes and Ashton isn't sure why this keeps happening to him. He'll be looking at her and be able to turn away when necessary without problem, but when her eyes fall onto his, it's much harder to bring his attention to something else.
Mellony keeps her stare with his and momentarily worries her lower lip. "What?"
Ashton shakes his head, still caught up in gazing at the beautiful girl in front of him. He finally breaks the eye contact and scans over the other booths.
"Nothing."
♡
Ashton remembers asking for three mini vanilla cakes. He remembers, he just ordered them, he knows he said three. And yet, four are sat before them. Well, three, since Neo snatched up his plate the second it touched the tabletop.
They'd gotten their pasta, had goofy conversation while they ate, and when Neo started pleading for dessert once they were finished, Ashton wasn't going to tell him no. Mostly because he wanted something sweet to eat, himself.
Trevor probably wanted to throw in a little something something on the house, and in any other case Ashton would have gladly eaten more than one cake, but in this case, he isn't sure who should get it.
Mellony doesn't seem to notice the small, not-really-a-dilemma dilemma, picking the cake in the middle of the remaining three and slicing into it with her spoon. She does, however, notice Ashton's hesitancy to start eating his dessert.
She nudges his leg under the table with the toe of her shoe. "Ash, what's wrong?"
Ashton raises a shoulder, scratching the back of his neck with his opposite hand. He knows he's making too big of a deal out of this, but he wants to look like somewhat of a gentleman and offer her the treat.
"Nah, I just," He points with the hand that he was using to scratch with at the two cakes. "There's more than one left."
Mellony chews through her bite of cake and looks down at the other ones. She slowly nods, giving Ashton a small smile and pushing the plate closer to his side with her wrist.
"You can have it." She says, but Ashton's already scooting the plate the other way.
"No, Mel, you have it." He tries, glaring at the cake as Mellony copies him and moves it again. Ashton's pride is ridiculous at times and, at this time, he refuses to take this whole cake. He's maybe thinking of not even eating his cake until she accepts the extra one.
"Do Lady and the Tramp." Neo pipes, licking frosting off of his fork.
Mellony feels her cheeks start to burn and she attempts to hide her face behind her hair as she puts her spoon down. "Neo—"
"No, wait," Ashton interrupts, simpering as he leans forward to see Mellony around her tresses. "We can just share it." He suggests, raising his brows. Ashton's good with the idea of simultaneously biting the cake until his and Mellony's lips meet in the middle, but, of course he can't do that, so he'll settle for splitting it with her.
Ashton searches Mellony's face—which holds a pinkish hue around her cheeks—for any sign of opposition, and finds none.
"Okay, fine." She gives in, picking her spoon back up. Ashton's smile widens, but he tames it and coolly nods at her to come over to his side. She pushes herself up from her seat and swings her body around to be next to Ashton.
Neo's chubby cheeks are pushed up as he watches them while he scoots closer to Ashton's other side. Ashton pulls the free cake towards them and gestures for Mellony to take the first piece. She rolls her eyes and pretends to be bothered by his manners and digs her spoon into a corner of the small cake.
He laughs, or really just exhales louder than normal, and takes off a chunk from the other side. They go back and forth, eating their own cakes and the one that they're sharing, as Neo nods off on Ashton's arm and they make talk about random things.
Ashton's just letting out his last chuckles at a story Mellony had told him about her younger years, when he thinks back on the first night he'd spent at her apartment. They'd had practically the same meal, spaghetti and then cupcakes, and Ashton is feeling an unfair amount of nostalgia, considering that happened not even three days ago.
"Yours was better," He says, kind of out of nowhere, judging by the puzzled look on Mellony's face. "Your spaghetti, I mean." Ashton clarifies, gently pushing her. It takes a second, but Mellony beams and softly knocks her shoulder against his.
"Boy, stop it." Mellony bashfully slides a few strands of her hair behind her ear, putting her silverware on her plate.
Ashton chuckles, doing the same with his fork, then puts his arm around Neo's sleeping body. "No, I'm serious." He tells her, sincerely smiling down at the girl. She presses her lips together on her own smile and avoids Ashton's eyes.
Raising both of his eyebrows, Ashton waits for a reply. Instead of words, Ashton gets the fleeting, light weight of Mellony's head resting on his shoulder. Ashton wishes she would have leaned on him for a little longer, but finds it cute that she thought she had to do it quickly, as if he'd have a problem with it.
"Well," Ashton says, after a beat of silence. "We better get back to the hotel." He retrieves his wallet from his back pocket without disturbing Neo and takes a few bills out to pay for the food.
Mellony nods, but he can practically hear her wanting to ask to help with the check. She stands and shuffles to the other side of the booth and scoops up her son, slightly rocking him in her arms to lull him back to sleep.
The three of them make their way out of the restaurant and in the direction of Ashton's car, and when they're all buckled up and ready to go in the car, Mellony's soft voice cuts through the silence.
"Thanks, Ash."
Ashton's sure that his face is going to be tired from all of this smiling, but he does anyway, glancing at the girl through the rear view mirror.
"You're welcome."
A/N: oh my gossshhhhhh literally this is the longest chapter i've ever written for any of my fics
wait okay that's a lie but over 2600 words????/ why???? i'm honestly so done with myself anyway i hope you enjoyed all of this fluffy nonsense that's going on and if you did do me a solid and vote and let me know in the comments how you're feelin
love youuuu xoxo