Demi was only an hour into cooking, or attempting to cook, and she was already regretting her decision to cook instead of cater. Catering was her MO. She knew all of the good companies, and once they arrived at the house they did all of the work for her. But no. She just had to tell Jesse that she wanted to handle all of the cooking for the little party that he was having for some basketball game that was coming on. After moving into this brand new beautiful house that felt like it was custom built just for them, Demi wanted to use every part of the house including the kitchen. She had spent hours on Pinterest trying to find some good recipes to cook before settling on some very simple items that seemed impossible to mess up: a burger bar, an assortment of flavored wings, and some little appetizers like chips and dip. How could she possibly mess this up?
The doorbell rang and Demi released a silent groan because why was someone interrupting her right now? Not a lot of people knew where she lived now and Demi actually liked it like that. Not even her parents knew where she lived. Maddie did, but that was it. And Maddie was old enough not to pick sides in this little squabble that they had so Demi was sure that she wouldn't tell their parents her location. When Demi was ready to talk to them, she would.
"Coming!" Demi called out, though she was sure that whoever was at the door couldn't hear her.
The house was humongous. Four kitchens, three laundry rooms, a home gym, and a master suite that was basically its own apartment. Jesse had amazing taste and it felt like their personal resort; a place where nothing and no one could bother them.
Demi pulled the door open then took a step back as though she had been pushed. Because standing on the other side of the glass paned door was Wilmer Valderrama. She hadn't seen him in at least a year, and she hadn't spoken to him in that long either. When she was redoing her instagram, she had come across their breakup note and visibly cringed. They promised to always be friends and support each other but that was easier said than done. Demi didn't have anything nice to say about him, so she had tried not to say anything at all.
"What are you doing here?" Demi wanted to ask how he knew where she lived but that was kind of irrelevant at the moment. She was busy. She didn't have time for whatever this visit was.
"I came to see you. I haven't seen you in forever, nena." A year ago, her heart would've fluttered at the sound of her old nickname leaving his lips in that suave accent of his, but it was June 2020 and Demi remained unaffected.
"Yeah, there's a reason for that," she spat, folding her arms across her chest.
"Can I come inside?"
"No."
Usually Demi was much nicer but her and Jesse had literally just moved into this space and it was so sacred to her. She didn't want anyone's bad energy affecting their space, especially not her ex boyfriend's.
"Why are you treating me like you don't even know me?"
"Why are you here, Wilmer?"
"I came to see how you're doing. I've been keeping up with you in the press..."
"And on instagram."
Her fans were so weird. One of them had dmed her a screenshot of Wilmer liking some old post of hers where she had encouraged everyone to go watch one of his TV shows. It had thrown her off a bit but then Jesse had whisked her away to the beach and she forgot all about it.
"Yeah...I miss you."
"Wilmer...let's not do this. You're getting married," she glanced at the ring on his finger before continuing. "It's not like we ended on good terms."
"Demi-"
"No, and I wanted you. I wanted us again, especially after everything that happened...and you were there. Then you weren't. You got my hopes up, you strung me along, and then next thing I know you're engaged. We literally have nothing to talk about," Demi argued as she folded her arms across her chest.
