Of course it would be Tas and Claire that interrupted the nice moment Dom was having with Nattie, it was always those two.
"Happy Birthday to ya Mi'Nizzle!" Claire called to Nat in a thick Irish brogue with a flourished bow, swinging her top hat in front of her before popping it back on top of her head; laughing slightly. "Mi'Broizzle!" Claire chuckled as she hugged Dom. He pulled her in tight for a decent bear hug. Claire was one of Dominic’s closest friends within their little family. She was his little sister as far as he was concerned. ”Hey sis, you look dorky. Cute but still dorky. Then again, your Irish so you’re gonna love tonight”
Dom smiled lightly to the little firecracker before he raised his head to the doorway and saw Natasha standing there; she looked gorgeous. He glanced his eyes over to Nattie and let out a quick sigh, he had to be careful today, this was her day. ”You look beautiful, Tasha”
"Okay, before anything happens, let's go!" Nat pipped in and grabbed Tas by the hand quickly leading her out of the apartment and down to the car. Claire looked over at Dom and laughed as he simply shrugged it off with a little grin. As he and Claire were left behind the two other girls, she laced her arm in her brothers. "Listen, I know you can't stand Tas, but do me a fav, talk to your bro Sam. For Tas's sake. I'll owe you," she said now that they were alone. She didn't wait for an answer before she tore off after the girls, leaving Dom to lock up.
Of course Claire was right. Tas and Sam were made for each other but Dom really didn’t want to meddle. He quickly turned off all the lights and set the security code before closing the door and hurting to follow them into the car.
As he climbed into the passenger seat, his phone chimed as did the girls as he heard it. Pulling it out of his jacket, the message was from another bestie of his;
From Lucie Not Chris Keller:
Guess who's back?!!?
Dom hadn’t been the only member of their group to have been gone from San Fran for a while. Lucie too had gone for a competition. They had a very unique understanding of each other Dom and Lucie, they shared many interests and specifically both had goals for the Olympics. She understood more than most his loss, even if she doesn’t know the real reason why he quit hockey; only Nat and one other person knew that.
To Lucie Not Chris Keller:
”Glad your back” Just like in life, Dom’s text said very little but they said what they needed to say.
Ask any guy and he would say he would be happy to ride in a car with three amazingly hot girls. Ask Dom and he’d usually be saying the same but only if the three girls he was with weren’t commonly known as the Toxic Trio. He rested his head back against his seat and closed his eyes, trying to tune out the gossip and the bitchiness. He needed subtitles to understand half of the stuff they were saying they were speaking so fast. If it were up to him, in that moment he would’ve gladly stayed on the mountain another month.
Just as the car pulled up at the party, Dom’s phone alerted again for another text.
From: Kip Night Shamalan
Looking forward to it. Welcome home. Will see you then.
Good. He was glad that Kip was willing to hear him out about his idea. It was a crazy notion, one he had never really considered before. If he could get it to work, then my God it would be good.
Heading into the party with the girls, Dom smiled to see the booze was ready and waiting, thank God. ”I’ll go get the drinks” Kissing Nat quickly on the lips, Dominic took mere moments to gather drinks for himself and the trip. Working behind the bar in the HUB for so long had given the Minnesota man the almost superhuman ability to know exactly what a person was going to order….and by superhuman of course that just meant the same people come in every night and order the same thing but pretending he instantly knows your booze of choice is a cool super power too!
After placing the drinks down on the table, Dom suddenly felt short of breath. Why was his chest heavy? Acclimatisation, it had to be. He hadn’t taken enough time to get used to the thicker air since coming off the mountain, of course that was it. What else could it be? Delayed reactions were common he thought. Taking a seat down next to Nat, she tried to shake it off, not allowing the Toxic Trio to see his struggle.