Like Father, Like Son ✔

Chapter 31 - Alone Together

CHAPTER 31

CAT

The second mediation session brought forth no change to the situation whatsoever. Actually, scratch that, it did manage to get Cat a whole new level of pissed off. By the time they walked out of there she was absolutely fuming. James was still as pigheaded as ever, no surprise there, and now they would have to go to court in the near future – or distant, depending on how long they dragged this out – to settle this once and for all.

The one thing that didn't completely suck was the checks that'd be going directly into her bank account every month until they had this whole thing settled.

To be honest, accepting James' money – or his parents', since they were the ones paying for this whole thing – after everything he'd done was hurting her pride more than just a little bit, but it was part of the process and Sullivan assured her it wouldn't have a negative impact on her case. The fact that James was helping her financially didn't mean he'd have reason to argue she couldn't provide for herself, which had been her main concern.

James was currently not allowed any visitation with Luke, which was another plus in a sea of negatives, but he was fighting it. Cat was expecting to get a call at any moment telling her he was allowed supervised visitations. But right now it was a no-go, and if anything it felt like a good sign that things were going her way.

She really had to think of these little things that were going right, because right now she just wanted to bury herself in pessimism.

"So what do we do now?" Cat asked as she rounded on Sullivan in the parking lot near the lawyer's car. Her grip on Nick's arm forced him to jerk back slightly and he came to a halt next to her. "We have to prepare our case. Don't we? We can't just–"

Sullivan gave her shoulder a little squeeze.

"Now you two will go out to dinner and enjoy yourselves," he interrupted her, his tone soft but still commanding. "Date night, my treat, and then this weekend you'll have a blast at Luke's birthday party. On Monday we'll all get back to ass-kicking."

So with that plan in motion, he drove them downtown and stopped in front of a nice little Mexican place. At first Cat wasn't going to accept the generous amount of money he wanted to give them to pay for dinner, but the lawyer in him won the argument in the end.

"Thank you so much Sullivan, for everything," Cat smiled at him as she got out of the front passenger seat and waited for Nick to join her with Duke at his side.

"You're very welcome," Sullivan smiled back. "Now you two go have fun... and if you have too much fun at least wear a condom," he smirked.

Cat had absolutely no control over her features as embarrassment took over. The heat rushed to her cheeks like a volcano erupting from the pit of her belly.

Nick grinned mischievously, draping a casual arm around his girlfriend's shoulders.

"Will do," he said, which only deepened the blush on Cat's face.

After saying their goodbyes, Cat and Nick lingered for a few moments on the sidewalk, listening to the slow drawl of heavy rush hour traffic. Cat leaned into Nick's embrace slightly and sighed. How long had it been since it'd been just her and her boyfriend alone together? It felt like months, but in reality it couldn't have been more than a couple weeks.

They made their way inside and were seated at a table for two by a young waitress. It was a little early to be eating, so the restaurant was still a little empty, but there were a few other people, couples mostly, as well as a family of four sitting at the table right next to theirs. They had two very loud and energetic little boys – one was about five and the other was just a little younger than Luke.