Open Case File [COMPLETED]

An Important Dinner (Yvette)

A moment that I felt needed to be written and therefore read, hopefully by you.

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Yvette adjusted her dress and pressed down the skirt of it, despite the fact that it had no wrinkles on it.

"You seem more nervous than I do," Mason said.

Yvette looked at him. As usual, his appearance was immaculate: suit perfectly tailored and hair carelessly styled. He lounged back in his chair as if he were the owner of the restaurant. The word 'nervous' never would have entered her mind looking at him.

But five months of dating and Yvette knew that Mason held everything close to the chest and rarely betrayed what he thought or felt. On the rare occasions when he opened up a little to her, Yvette savored the moment, feeling all the courage it took for him to let her into his life a tiny piece more.

"You're not nervous," she stated.

Mason shrugged and sipped some water. "No, but I wanted to make you feel more at ease. It's only a dinner after all."

A dinner with her parents. But maybe in the face of years of meeting the most important politicians from all over the world, Mason didn't see a reason to be nervous in meeting her parents.

Yvette flicked away the feeling of disappointment that thought brought up. She'd learned early on that what Mason felt about a situation wasn't something she could always understand and learned not to make assumptions.

After all, he'd meet the most important politicians, he would know how to keep his nerves hidden. She wouldn't attach an emotion to an assumption.

Yvette leaned back in her chair and surveyed the restaurant, needing to look anywhere but at the utterly calm presence of her boyfriend. She'd dated before and all those times where easy, she might not have instantly understood her previous boyfriends at first but it only took a few interactions for her to understand them.

But with Mason it was like complex math. There was always an answer but it took time, effort, and a mass amount of determination to get to it. Still, once the answer was found she felt accomplished and saw how it chipped away at his wall.

The door to the restaurant opened and even over the hum of conversations and classical music, Yvette heard it as if her ears were tuned to sound. Her parents entered, a well put together but unassuming couple. As they approached the table, both Yvette and Mason rose. The second her parents saw Mason, they hesitated.

Yvette clasped her hands and gripped them. One aspect of her relationship with Mason she hadn't shared was that he wasn't Just Mason, but Mason Douglas, Former First Son.

Mason smiled at them. "Mr. and Mrs. Rojas. It's a pleasure to meet you."

He moved casually forward and shook both their hands, not at all bothered by their stunned expressions. In fact, he acted like he didn't notice their blatant staring at all. The handshakes snapped her parents out of their daze and as her father shook Mason's hand for a second time, this time aware of what he was doing, Yvette's mother stepped over to Yvette.

"When you said you were dating a white boy named Mason, you forgot to mention that he was the First Son, mija," her father said.

"I know," Yvette said, lowering her voice as well. "I didn't want you to freak out about it."

"You could have at least introduced us sooner."

"I would have if I didn't think Mason would have broken up with me over the idea. He's very private and honestly, I think five months is early for him."