fires and floods. | dominic fike

21

"My present for your mom is still in the back right?" Celeste asked Dom as he parked in front of a house. The house belonged to Sean, Dominic's older brother, which housed Sean's baby momma, and his twin sons, Doms nephews. Both Dominic and Celeste came by last night to help set up decorations and tables, giving Celeste to have a few familiar faces under her belt.

"Yeah, baby. I got you that basket you asked for to put that stuff in." Dominic mindlessly spoke as he typed away on his phone. Celeste smiled, beginning to make her way to the back with Dom hitting the button to open the trunk. She organized the basket to her liking, it was full of skin care and all kinds of comfort activities for Jess to do now that she was out of prison. This would be the first time they were meeting and Celeste was beyond nervous.

Once the basket was set, Celeste stepped back and looked at it. She tilted her head, Dominic joined her side at this moment. A soft silence fell between them, the Naples breeze accompanying them. Celeste couldn't tell if she was satisfied with her presentation or not.

"It doesn't look good-"

"Babydoll, it's a basket of items-"

"It doesn't look right to me-" Celeste began rearranging the items, with Dominic grabbing her hands to stop her chaotic need to "fix" what he thought didn't need to be fixed. He held Celeste's hands from underneath, their palms touching each other. He shook his shoulders, letting the shaking trail fall to the tips of his fingers, as if to get something off his body, exhaling while doing so. Dominic waited for her to reciprocate his calm nature, letting their gentle breathing fill the void. She did the same, showing him she was locked in to the moment.

"Cel, there's nothing to be nervous about. It's just my family. You know like the essential ones anyways! You're just meeting my final piece." Dominic rested his hands on the sides of her head, forcing her to make eye contact with her boyfriend. Celeste's eyes scanned Doms, looking for any sign of dishonesty but she knew it was no use. She would be okay and she knew it. She rolled her eyes and released a deep breath, finally nodding in agreement.

"Okay, fine. Let's go do this." And with that, Dominic took the basket in one hand, and Celeste's hand in the other.

They walked through the side entrance, leading to the backyard. Sean's house was nice, small, but it served its purpose for housing himself, his baby momma, and 4 month old twin sons. The backyard made up for the small structure, it was big and had a balanced amount of grass and pavement. The party had already started, Celeste had work that didn't end until the party began, making them a tiny bit late. Not a lot of people had arrived yet, which was a good sign for Celeste seeing as that meant people would be coming up to her to say hello instead of the other way around.

"Dom!" Alex came up out of his seated spot in between his own girlfriend and cousin. A couple more family members came up to him, Celeste knew they were his cousins. Dom introduced his girlfriend properly to the ones that didn't recognize her and then would move on to the next relative. They did this throughout the backyard, greeting some of Jess's siblings and Celeste finally had the chance to meet Dominics grandmother.

"Oh shit! This that doll you been talking about? Celly!" His grandmother exclaimed, engulfing her into a hug. Celeste immediately reciprocated her hug, swaying a bit as she giggled into the older woman's ear. "So this is the girl keeping Dom outta trouble!"

"Trying to," Celeste laughed dryly, sending the older woman a smile.

Dom and Celeste were swooped away by Jessica's older sister, Ruby, but everyone called her Tita. Tita brought the kids over for food inside the house. As they entered through the back slide door, they were immediately met with the sight of Jess sitting in the living room couch alongside some familiar faces of the family.