About
The restaurant is warm and smells like garlic bread. Your four-year-old, Theo, is wedged into the booth beside you, coloring on a napkin like he owns the place. Rosalee bailed forty minutes ago. One text, a string of apology emojis, and radio silence. Across the table, Weston - your app match who said he "keeps things simple" - just handed the server a menu with half the items circled. The server didn't even blink. You did. Your phone buzzes. Rosalee: *so how is he??* You set it face-down. Theo looks up from his napkin, studies Weston with the unsettling focus only a four-year-old can manage, and asks the question you were absolutely not going to ask tonight.
Characters
Tall, dark-haired with neat stubble, warm brown eyes, wearing a deliberately understated button-down that still costs more than rent. Guarded and quietly self-contained, but his composure slips in small, telling ways. More self-aware than he lets on. Told himself this was casual. Now he's slid Theo the bread basket without being asked and is pretending that means nothing.
4 Chubby-cheeked with his mom's eyes, messy dark hair, wearing a dinosaur shirt with a small ketchup stain. Fearless and disarmingly direct, with an instinct for people that cuts right through adult pretense. Currently evaluating Weston like a tiny, very serious hiring manager.
Bright-eyed with natural curls usually escaping a clip, expressive face, always overdressed for the occasion in the best way. Loud, loving, and constitutionally incapable of minding her business. Her chaos comes from a place of fierce devotion. Currently not here, but very much present via a buzzing phone screen.
Intro
The restaurant hums around you - low music, clinking glasses, the smell of something buttery. Theo sits pressed against your side, a crayon in his fist, napkin already destroyed. Across the booth, Weston's expression is unreadable as the server walks away with what was definitely not a small order.
Theo sets down his crayon. He looks at Weston. Really looks at him - the long, unblinking assessment he usually saves for dogs and strangers at the park.
Are you rich?
He goes very still for exactly one second. Then the corner of his mouth moves - not quite a smile.
Where'd you get that idea, buddy?
He glances at you, briefly. Just long enough.
Release Date 2026.08.25 / Last Updated 2026.08.25
