2019-08-27 - Boardwalk Chit Chat

It's a warm night on the boardwalk. Justin has on a pair of comfortable board shorts in a dark blue with a pale yellow t-shirt and sandals on as they wander along. Caleb, the new puppy that Stefano named, is at home for now, being puppy-sat by the daughter of one of the cleaners that comes every other week to clean the house. He strolls along with Dahlia, offering her a bite of the large soft pretzel he picked up from a street vendor as they walk.

Dahlia needs a night out with her best friend after all the shit she had to put up with the last couple days. So she was more than happy to hang out on the Boardwalk tonight. She does take a bite of the pretzel with a satisfied 'Mm', before offering him some of her funnel cake if he wanted any. "It's so nice out tonight. Despite the heat." She chuckled. Her hair is tied up in a ponytail and she's wearing a bikini top with a pair of white shorts. "I'm glad we came out! Hopefully Caleb isn't missing you too much." She chuckled.

Justin reaches over and tears off a corner of the funnel cake and takes a bite of that. It is an all junkfood dinner, no nutritional value desired. "It's better now that the sun's gone down with a bit of a breeze off the water." He grins over at her and says, "I'm sure that he is, but he has a friend to play with until we get back. Then I'll give him lots of scritches to make up for it." That he is smitten with the little pup is without question. That dog has him wrapped around his very large paws. Caleb is going to grow up to be one bruiser of a dog at some point. "So," he says, as they walk along, "What would you think about Stefano moving in to one of the other guest rooms in the house? He'd be paying rent, too, since I can't seem to convince either of you that it's not necessary."

Nutrition has no place in tonight's dinner! Or anywhere on the Boardwalk really. "He is a cute little guy." Dahlia laughed softly. "He's going to be the perfect couch buddy. I mean, he's already doing a good job, but when he's bigger..." Dog Pillow! She grinned again. She's never really been an animal person, but Caleb was worming his way in pretty easily. "Sure. I wouldn't mind him moving in. More eye candy." She teases. "But seriously, it's your house and he's a cool guy. So I think he'll be a fine roommate."

"He's going to get huge and then still think he's a lap dog is what's going to happen. You're going to have to convince him he's a pillow dog instead," Justin laughs as they wander along, leisurely strolling along the boardwalk. He takes care of Caleb entirely, and usually keeps the pup with him, and is working on obedience training with him, so Caleb doesn't go into Dahlia's room or bother her at all, sticking close to Justin most of the time anyway. He chuckles "That's what I told him. He told me to talk to you about it, and if I still wanted to make the offer, to make it again in a few days. I told him you'd just enjoy watching him wander around without his shirt on, to which he replied that he liked wandering around in as little as possible." Justin grins, "And.. we figured it'd let us figure out whether we still get along living in proximity."

"Got that right. He can walk around naked and I'll be happy. Hell, you both can." Dahlia teased Justin with a nudge. "I'm going to bring Declan over soon, so maybe after Stefano's moved in. We officially decided we're going to try the dating thing. So it's about time I bring him around." She mused with a grin. "I can see it now. Three good looking guys all walking around with little to no clothing. Dahlia's dream home." Giggling again as she tore off a piece of funnel cake to eat it. "Guess things are getting kinda serious with you and Stefano then? If you wanna see how living under the same roof works."

"Admit it, you've just always wanted to see me naked," Justin teases right back, giving her a nudge with his shoulder in return and grinning. "Oh yeah? Congratulations on officially trying out this dating thing. I look forward to meeting this guy so I can give him the protective best friend face." Justin tries to make a very serious and stern expression, but fails utterly, tearing off a bit of pretzel and popping it into his mouth. When she says things are getting serious, though, his expression becomes a little more thoughtful, "I'm .. not sure?" He takes in a breath and lets it out. "He's staying month to month somewhere, and we have room, and it's only been a few months but.. I like him. I like the thought of him being around. And like he said.. we can see if we get along living under the same roof, or if we're just.. having fun." He quickly adds, "Which is fine.. if that's all that it is."

"You caught me. I mean, it's only fair! You've already seen me naked - probably numerous times." Dahlia gave him a devilish grin, but he can tell at the end of the day she is just joking around with him. "Well when dinner crashed and burned with the cop," And the way she says the cop sounds like there's some venom behind it, "I decided I need to stop trying to hold on to the past you know? And Declan really is just a great guy. I like him a lot. I think you will too." Laughing a bit at his terribad serious face. "I think it's good." Dahlia nodded about Justin and Stefano testing the water. "Even if you're just trying to figure things out. It sounds like a step in the right direction of doing just that."

"Well, that much is true," Justin admits with a chuckle. "I guess I do have an unfair advantage there. But only because I've never done porn." He tears off another bit of pretzel and offers it over to her. He winces though at the venom in the cop and says, "That bad, huh? I noticed you had sealed yourself up in the fortress of solitude when I got home." He had let her be, though, giving her some space. "I'm glad Declan's a good guy. I'm sure we'll get along just fine," despite hs earlier teasing about best-friend-disapproval-face. He nods about Stefano and studies the boards ahead of them as they walk, "We were talking about travel. I offered to take him to Palermo, Italy, where his family is from. He mentioned the best time to go was in the spring.. and I started talking about making plans to go.. and he mentioned that was assuming we'd still be seeing each other nine months from now." He smiles faintly, "And it dawned on me.. that I was being pretty presumptuous, to assume that we'd still be seeing each other then, or that he'd want to. I mean, considering my track record.. it's not likely. So I don't know why I even started planning anything that far out. I just.. liked the idea of going to Italy and seeing it with him."

"He's such a stubborn asshole. And I still love him. And I wish I didn't. I told Declan it was going to take time for me to get over him...ugh." Dahlia waves her hand. She doesn't want to talk about it. She's much happier to listen to Justin talk about his inner turmoils. A small frown fleeting over her features as he continued. Shifting her plate into her other hand so she could wrap her arm around his waist and give him a squeeze. "You're an amazing guy Justin. People are complicated, relationships are messy...I know I'm the last person that should be giving relationship advice but...well if he can't see how amazing you are and snatch you up - then that's his loss." She kept her arm around him for now. "I don't think it's silly you started planning something. It's natural to start thinking ahead about things when you really like someone."

"Love's a funny thing sometimes," Justin says. "It doesn't just turn off like you want it to sometimes when people are assholes." But he doesn't push her to talk about it any more. He shifts his pretzel to the other hand and he wraps an arm around her shoulders, leaning over to kiss her temple briefly. "And then there are the people you love who are awesome all the time and never let you down." He clearly means her. Then he nods, "I just.. I'm not the sort to rush things, and I don't want to weird him out by being too.." he waves the pretzel a bit, "By getting ahead of myself."

Dahlia kissed his cheek in return to the temple kiss, giving him a smile. "That's very accurate. They're few and far between." She gives him another squeeze- indicating she returns the feeling. "Not rushing is a good thing. And you know I'll tell you if I think you're diving in too deep too fast. If he hasn't run off yet - there might be some hope still. I mean. He doesn't mind the idea of being under the same roof at least. So that's a little something. Even if it's just as roomies with...benefits?" Trying out the term to see if it sounded right.

Justin chuckles and says, "I will trust that you will elbow me if I seem to be doing something stupid." He shakes his head, "No, not yet. And he did say he liked the idea of being around me more. So, things see alright thus far." He chuckles at the term a little bit and says, "Something like that, I guess? I'm not labeling it at this point. I'm just looking forward to having him around and seeing where things go." He then says, "Oh, and we need to sit down with those scripts my mom sent over soon."

"No labels do make things less complicated sometimes. Probably for the best." Dahlia chuckled, then lit up a bit. "We do! Have you looked at them yet? Does it seem like it might be interesting?" Looking curious. That would definitely be something nice to work on and channel any lingering energies into.

"I looked at one and it looks like a little indy piece, but interesting. I want you to read them first before I talk about it too much, though, so you can form your own unbiased opinions." It seems that he's at least a little bit interested at whatever it was that his mom's agent had sent over.

If Justin was interested, that was a good sign! It had her curious. "I'll try and remind you when we get back. I can skim it some before going to bed.Then we can link up and go over it together." She grinned. "As much as I'm enjoying the dancing and the bartending, I do miss acting some." She released him in order to finish off her last few little pieces of funnel cake. "If you're a tiny bit interested at least, I'm hoping it's a good read."