Chapter Text
“Hi, welcome to Dot’s . My name is Dot, what can I get for you today?”
Dot grins when she gets the desired result of her spiel —a bubbly laugh from the little boy on one side of the booth, and an affectionate eye-roll from the woman across from him— and she readies her notebook and pen for their orders.
“You don’t have to greet us like that every time we come here, Dottie. Lord knows you’re probably too busy to even be out here actin’ like the waitress you were in high school.”
This time, Dot is the one rolling her eyes. “Hey, it’s my restaurant, if I wanna give you the VIP treatment, I will.”
“Yeah, Mama. Auntie Dot is the owner . She gets’ta do whatever she wants!” Dot laughs, because she’s definitely the one who has been teaching this kid to have such an attitude, and the glare she receives from his mother indicates that the blonde knows that, too.
“A’right, a’right,” Shelby raises her hands in defeat. “What do you want to eat, Gil?”
The little brunet to Dot’s left stares down at his kids’ menu, clearly deep in thought, though Dot is certain he will order a grilled cheese sandwich with a side of french fries, like always.
After a few more moments of contemplation, Gil looks up with his usual bright grin. “Grilled cheese and fries! Please!”
Dot chuckles, writing down the order as if she hasn’t heard it a hundred times. “And for you?” She turns to Shelby.
“Just a salad for me tonight, thanks Dottie.”
Dot jots that down, too. But she knows that Shelby only orders salad for dinner when she’s especially stressed, so she lingers by the table for an extra moment. “How about some milkshakes, while you wait? On the house.”
“Yes!” Gil agrees instantly, too quick for Shelby to come up with a reason to say no.
“Chocolate or vanilla today, G?” Dot knows the answer to this question, too.
“Mama wants vanilla, but I want chocolate!” Gil announces as if it is the biggest piece of news Dot will hear all day.
“Coming right up!” Dot leaves them with one more big smile, more genuine than she usually is with customers. But then again, Shelby and Gil are not just random customers. Shelby has been Dot’s best friend for years. They played soccer together as kids (Dot's dad was their coach) and remained friends throughout school, though they mostly ran in different social circles. Dot was literally in the delivery room when Gil was born, so honestly as far as she is concerned, these two are family .
Dot passes off the order slip to one of the cooks, Jeanette, who is a couple years older than Dot herself, and has been working at the diner since both she and Dot were in high school, back when Dot’s dad was the owner and manager of the restaurant. Over the years, Jeanette has gone from part-time waitress to full-time cook, and also has become a good friend to Dot.
While she’s behind the front counter making the two milkshakes, she spots a few other familiar faces tucked away in one of the corner booths, and decides to stop by that table before heading back to her office.
“Here y’all are,” Dot deposits the milkshakes at Shelby and Gil’s table.
“Thanks Auntie Dot!” Gil eagerly slurps at his frozen treat.
“Thank you, Dottie,” Shelby smiles that overworked, exhausted smile that Dot sees on her face all too often these days.
“My pleasure,” Dot says. “Shelbs, give me a ring this weekend, yeah? We gotta catch up.”
Shelby nods. “Definitely.”
Dot smiles at them again, and then departs, heading across the diner. “Got some celebrities among us tonight I see.”
“Hardly!” One of the table’s occupants lets out a loud laugh. “These two haven’t turned a single head with their presence.”
“You’re such a bitch, Fatin,” the girl across from her pouts. “Even if nobody here knows who we are, at least our attractiveness must have gotten some attention.”
“Only thing the people here are looking at is the menu, sorry Toni,” Fatin laughs again. “And maybe if anyone spares a second glance over here, it’s at me . Or Leah, if they have a death wish.”
“Lee, your woman is out of control!” Toni whines, slipping low in her seat.
“Don’t be a baby, Shalifoe!” The woman next to Toni teases. “Fatin is just yanking your chain because you’re so easy to rile up. That blonde chick over there has been making eyes at you since we walked in.”
“Thank you, Rachel,” Toni smirks. After a pause, she perks up a second time. “What blonde?”
The whole table laughs at the eagerness in the brunette’s voice.
Rachel discreetly points towards a booth by the front window. The rest of the girls, some less obviously than others, dare to sneak a peek.
Dot chokes back her gut-reaction —some sort of mix between a snort and a scoff— because the blonde in question is Shelby of all people. And Dot wouldn’t put it past the other woman to have her eyes wander to the table in the corner with four very hot, very not-straight women, but she’s impressed that Rachel would be the one to notice.
“Sorry to burst your bubble, but I’m pretty sure she’s been looking over here at Dot, not Toni,” Leah speaks up.
And that’s more like it, Dot thinks. Leah is usually the most observant and aware of her surroundings, especially the other people in her vicinity.
“I know her,” Dot offers with a shrug.
“Got a new flame, Dorothy?” Fatin wiggles her eyebrows suggestively. “What happened to Mateo?”
“Nothing,” Dot rolls her eyes. “Everything between Mateo and I is great. That’s my friend Shelby. Known her since we were kids.”
“Boo!” Fatin groans. “I was hoping for some saucy drama.”
“Sorry to disappoint, Fatin,” Dot is actually not sorry at all. “Don’t you get enough drama between these two lady-killers, though?” she eyes Toni and Rachel, both of whom do not look apologetic or embarrassed by the insinuation of Dot’s words.
“Don’t even get her started on them,” Leah pleads. “I’m pretty sure she’s more invested in their hookups than she is in our two-year long relationship.”
“Aw, baby,” Fatin coos, pressing a sloppy kiss to Leah’s cheek, which instantly reddens. “You know I’m super invested in you. I just can’t resist watching the trainwreck that is Rachel and Toni trying to date a woman for longer than thirty-six hours.”
“Fuck you, bitch,” Rachel grumbles.
“You wish,” Fatin blows her a kiss.
“I could have a girl for longer than a day and a half, if I wanted to,” Toni frowns.
“I’d pay money to see you manage that,” Leah chuckles.
“Too bad I don’t want to!” Toni shoots back.
Rachel laughs, offering a hand for a high five, which Toni happily smacks with her own palm.
“One day I’mma sell you two out to the tabloids,” Dot threatens with her own laugh. “I’ll make bank on all the shit y’all say. At the very least, your dedicated Twitter groupies will have some words for ya.”
“Yeah, words like, ‘congratulations’ maybe,” Toni smirks.
“You’re the absolute worst,” Dot informs her friend lightheartedly.
“I can assure you, I’ve never gotten a bad review.”
That starts a new round of laughter, and Dot stays for a few moments after it fades, to bid her friends goodbye. She has billing to go over that will keep her here all night if she doesn’t get back to it soon.
A half-hour or so later, there’s a trio of soft knocks on Dot’s office door.
“Come in!” she calls out, knowing someone would only be bothering her if it was important.
“Hey Auntie Dot,” It’s little Gil, who shuffles into the room quickly, closing the door behind himself and plopping onto the couch along the far wall. “Mama had to go to the bathroom and told me to wait in here.”
“I’m grateful for the distraction, dude,” Dot drops her pen. “How’s your mama doing?”
“Tired,” Gil answers. “She complains on the phone about her boss a lot. Says some words I’m not ‘sposed to repeat.”
Dot would laugh, if she hadn’t heard many horror stories about Shelby’s boss before. Anything that gets Shelby to swear is certainly just as extreme as it seems.
“Auntie Bec has been picking me up from summer camp because Mama is so busy,” Gil continues.
“What camp are you going to this summer?” Dot wonders.
“Basketball camp,” Gil boasts with a grin. “I joined a team last winter, and my coach recommended this program for me. My instructors say I’m really good!”
“I didn’t know you were into basketball,” Dots says. “Do you like to watch it on TV?”
“Yes!” Gil bobs his head excitedly. “I wanna play in the NBA when I’m big!”
“Have you ever heard of the W NBA?” Dot asks.
“That’s where the girls who are really good play, right? Mama puts it on for me sometimes if there’s no boys games on. She says when she has time off we’ll go to a game with my friend MJ, because his aunt plays for one of the teams.”
“Our local team is the Dallas Wings. And I happen to know of a few players that are out in the restaurant right now,” Dot tells him, watching his big, bright green eyes grow wider. “Want me to introduce you?”
“Yes, yes, yes!” Gil jumps to his feet. “Please, Auntie Dot!”
“Alright, let’s head out there. Hold my hand so you don’t wander off,” Dot stands up and reaches an arm out for him to latch onto.
She hadn’t thought twice about introducing her favorite kid to some of her favorite customers. She’d feel a little bad to be pimping out her friends like this, but she knows Toni and Rachel are always happy to chat with anybody, young or old, about their sport.
“Dorothy, you came back to us!”
“And you brought a friend,” Rachel adds. “Who’s this?”
“This is Gil, he’s a big fan of basketball and I thought he’d love the chance to meet the Wings’ star players,” Dot strokes their egos a bit to smooth over any displeasure at their evening being interrupted. “Gil, these are my friends Fatin, Leah, Toni, and Rachel. Toni and Rachel play for the Dallas Wings, in the WNBA.”
“Hi,” Gil pipes up, not at all fazed by the four strangers sitting in front of him.
“Hi, Gil,” Rachel greets. “Do you play basketball, too?”
“Yep,” Gil grins. “Coach makes us all play every position, but I like being point guard the best.”
“Toni here is our starting point guard,” Rachel tells him.
Gil’s eyes grow impossibly wider, and he shuffles closer to the table. “That means you're the best on your team, right?”
Toni finally cracks a smile, and Rachel pouts.
“Let me tell you something, kid,” Toni says. “It’s not always about being the best on the team, but rather being your best, so you can help your team be the best. Does that make sense?”
Gil nods quickly. “Mama tells me all the time that all I gotta do is my best and the rest will fall into place.”
Toni thinks that is maybe a bit too optimistic of an outlook, but she’s really trying to be nice to this kid and not traumatize him away from the whole sport at, what, seven or eight years old? “Your mom sounds like a smart woman,” Toni says instead of being her usual pessimistic self. She catches Fatin rolling her eyes and Leah’s you-are-so-full-of-shit facial expression, and for some reason, their doubt of her is more annoying than usual.
“She is,” Gil agrees. “She told me we’d go to one of your games one day.”
“Well, when you pick which game, have your mom give your Aunt Dot a call, and I’ll make sure all three of you get tickets to it, how about that?” And really, Toni has no idea why she offers this. Maybe because she’s a little charmed that this kid would rather go to a WNBA game than an NBA game, or maybe because she knows that this is the kid that was sitting with that very, very attractive blonde woman earlier. Maybe she just wants to support the dreams of a scrawny kid who loves basketball, like she wished someone would've done for her in her youth.
Gil stares at her like she’s the greatest thing he’s ever seen, and it’s a new type of glory for Toni to bask in. Most men she interacts with —though they’re decades older than Gil— think women are inferior to men on the court. She hopes this kid grows up to be less of a shit-bag than the male basketball players that Toni knows.
“There y’all are!” A panicked voice calls out.
The pretty blonde from earlier scurries over, resting both hands on Gil’s shoulders in relief.
“I was worried when you guys weren’t in the office.”
“Sorry Shelby,” Dot cringes. “Gil and I were talking about basketball, and I knew some of my friends who play were grabbing dinner, so I thought I’d introduce him to them.”
Shelby finally seems to notice that they’re standing in front of a table. Her eyes are drawn instantly to Toni and Rachel’s side of the table. “Y’all play for the Wings, right? I thought you looked familiar walking in earlier.”
“Good eye,” Rachel praises, though as she noticed earlier, Shelby’s eyes are glued to Toni and Toni only.
“Toni says she can get us tickets to one of their games,” Gil leans backwards into his mother, tilting his head up to look at her in the eyes.
“Well, it was gonna be a surprise, but we have tickets to a game already, sweetheart. It’s a Friday night game in July. We’ll be going with Martha and MJ,” Shelby tells him.
“Martha Blackburn?” Toni asks, almost afraid of the answer for some reason.
“Yes,” Shelby gives her a quizzical look, eyes clearly asking how this woman she’s never met knows her closest friend from work.
“Marty’s my sister,” Toni explains. “Well, sort of. It’s complicated.”
“You’re MJ’s aunt?” Gil questions. “He talks about you all the time! He says you’re the best basketball player ever!”
Toni can’t help but smile softly. Martha’s son has been her biggest fan from the day he was born, nabbing what had previously been his mom’s spot at number one fan. Some dots connect in her head over who this woman and this kid are. Martha has talked about a coworker she’d grown close with who has a son that is MJ’s new best friend. “Small world,” Toni muses quietly.
Her cell phone rings then, shrill and disruptive of this calm little bubble. Back to real life then, Toni sighs, fishing in the pocket of her shorts for the stupid little device. She almost chucks it across the diner when she sees that the caller is a recent hookup that she’s been trying to ghost for literal weeks. She declines the call.
“We should be headin’ home now, huh, sweetheart?” Shelby speaks solely to her son.
“Mama, nooooo,” Gil whines.
“You’ll see your new friends again soon, but now it’s time to say good-bye and thank them for their time this evening.”
Pouting, Gil turns once again to the table. “Bye Toni! Bye Rachel! Bye Fatin! Bye Leah! It was nice to meet y’all.”
“It was an absolute delight to meet you as well, Gil,” Fatin gives a big, friendly smile that she perfected after years of meeting her little brothers’ friends.
“Looking forward to seeing you cheering in the crowd at one of our games,” Rachel says. “We’ll try to give you a good show.”
Gil beams at them all as Shelby guides him away from the table. He gives an enthusiastic wave before turning to face where he’s going, clutching his mom’s hand tightly and beginning to rant and rave about how much fun he had tonight meeting actual real-life basketball stars .
“Thanks for humoring him, y’all,” Dot says to her friends after she watches Shelby and Gil exit the restaurant. “Sorry to interrupt your night.”
“Don’t be,” Toni surprises them all by being the one to speak up. “It was nice meeting a kid who hasn’t yet been tainted by toxic masculinity.”
“And his mom is totally a MILF,” Rachel nudges Toni with a smirk. “I saw you two eyeing each other.”
“Don’t call her a MILF !” Dot scolds. “That’s my childhood best friend you’re talkin’ ‘bout.”
“Sorry, Dot,” Rachel doesn’t sound very apologetic.
“Is she married?” Toni wonders. She hadn’t seen a wedding ring on Shelby’s finger, but these days, you never know.
“No,” Dot rolls her eyes. “But I would greatly appreciate if you didn’t try to have sex with her. Either of you.”
“Funny,” Toni doesn’t laugh. “Marty told me the same thing for if I ever met her coworker bestie. Guess you guys know how much I can’t resist a pretty blonde.”
“ Toni !” Dot warns. “I’m serious. Don’t fuck around with her.”
Toni raises her hands in surrender. “Chill, Dot. I’m not in the market to settle down with a wife and kid, I’ll keep my hands to myself if I ever talk to her again.”
And even as she’s speaking the almost-promise, Toni feels like it might not exactly be all that true.
Across town, in their cozy little house, Shelby can’t get a certain brunette off her mind, even as she tucks Gil into bed. Probably especially in that moment, actually, as Gil is in fact still going on and on about their time at the diner, even hours later.
“Gil, sweetheart, it’s getting late and you have gotta settle down and get some sleep if you’re gonna be awake bright and early for camp,” Shelby reminds him for what feels like the thousandth time.
“I can’t wait to see MJ at camp tomorrow so I can tell him I met his aunt!” Gil sinks into his pillow as Shelby pulls his sheets up to his chin. “When’s the game we’re gonna go to?”
“In a couple weeks, on the twenty-fourth.”
“You’re the best mama ever,” Gil tells her. “I’m so excited for it!”
Shelby smiles, leaning down to press a kiss to Gil’s forehead. “I love you.”
“I love you too, Mama. G’night.”
“Goodnight, sweetheart. Sleep well,” Shelby crosses the room, lingering by the door for a moment before switching off the light. She takes a moment to glance up at the glow-in-the-dark stars that light up Gil’s ceiling.
Shelby can almost feel the anticipation in the air, as if the universe knows something she doesn’t about what’s coming. As if this is about to be a major turning point in her quiet little life. God help her if it has anything to do with the short basketball-star brunette that she met just a few hours ago.
God help her indeed.