Dinner with Friends ¦ Kate x Yelena

Chapter 11: Jack Duquesne

It's been a little while now since Kate and Yelena started dating. Weirdly enough, she's not quite sure what they are to each other exactly. She knows they're romantically involved, she's not that dense anymore, and neither is Yelena. But it's difficult to guess just how official they are. Not much has changed after all: they still hang out at her apartment and at local food places, only now they hold hands and kiss and it is the best.

Yelena's blessing upon her life had been a massive surprise that she has been processing for the last couple of weeks. When she finally thought she had managed to get used to all that, another figure walked right into her life, and it was the last person she could have even thought of.

One Sunday evening, she received a phone call from her mom's fiancé, Jack Duquesne. At first, she had thought it a mistake but when she picked up and got invited to have breakfast together the next morning, she agreed.

Meeting him after all that time was incredibly awkward at first. She wasn't sure why he even bothered meeting up with her and he told her he wasn't sure himself. But he had been in contact with Eleanor and had decided to give their engagement another shot, despite her betraying him and literally still being in prison. At that, Kate wanted to leave because she didn't want her mother to control her through someone else. But he assured her that he had called of his own volition, thinking Kate might appreciate having a father figure to rely on.

She decided not to tell him that she already had such a figure in her life and instead accepted the situation. They'd both been left in the dark, if not worse, by her mother and she figured they could bond over that.

She told him he could stay at the penthouse whenever he wanted and when he found out she hadn't been there for about as long as him, he told her he would love to have her over for dinner.

Dinner between Jack and Kate would have quite sufficed but when he told her that "if you're seeing someone, you can bring them along, of course," she blurted out she was in fact seeing someone, instantly regretting saying that. She wasn't sure how the words rolled off her tongue so easily as they did.

'What's the lucky man's name?' He asked.

Kate chuckled at that. 'Her name is Yelena. You may have met her last year.'

Looking back, Jack was the first person she had properly told she was seeing Yelena. She hadn't seen Clint since his trip back home and she's been too focused on her honeymoon phase to hang out with her LARPer friends. Telling someone, especially in such a casual way, felt really good.

Jack looked a bit surprised but then his expression turned into one of delight. 'Well, let me know if your little girlfriend has any food allergies. I think I will try to cook Italian.'

Her cheeks flushed at him calling Yelena her girlfriend, especially with her uncertainty if they were even together like that. 'Maybeeee don't call her that.'

That's how Yelena came to be sitting at the dinner table with her Kate's stepdad at her old home. And naturally, she had been ecstatic at the invitation, way more than Kate herself had been.

'Sir, this pasta is delicious!' Yelena says after her second bite. 'You have to give me the recipe!'

Wrinkles deepen around his eyes as he smiles in gratitude at her. 'Believe me, pasta is as far as my cooking magic goes. And please, just call me Jack.'

'Okay, Jack,' Yelena winks at him. Kate finds it amusing she is so quick to call him by his first name yet she remains "Kate Bishop". Not that she minds. Actually, she finds that little detail of hers quite adorable.

'So, where did you two meet?'

Before Yelena can open her mouth, Kate replies: 'We both know Clint. We met through him.' She smiles awkwardly, softly nudging Yelena to hint she shouldn't add any more details to that.