Thank you

"You don't need to thank me, it's the least I could do. I know that you would do the same for me." Benjamin said as he cleared his throat, composing himself. He had not expected her to be so happy about this.

To be honest, he had not even expected her to feel well so soon, however, he was happy that she was, he knew that she was a very strong person.

"Of course I do, you're so kind and so thoughtful and you saved me countless hours trying to retrace my steps." said Lulu as she laughed and she sat down.

"What are friends for?" he shrugged as Lulu's eyes lit up.

"You're right, what are friends for?" she replied.

"I am loving this new Ben, he's the best, should I be worried that this niceness is only a one time thing?" Lulu playfully asked causing Benjamin to scoff.

"I want to make up for all the countless times that I should have been nicer to you." he said as Lulu drank her coffee.

"That's nice, I do hope it lasts though." she said as she laughed. After that there was a prolonged silence between them.

Benjamin could see that Lulu wanted to ask him something, but she did not.

"You have something you want to say." he said as Lulu looked at him.

"Well yes, but I'm not sure you will want to answer it." she replied.

"I'll answer anything you ask." he said.

"Really?" Lulu asked in surprise.

"Yes." he replied honestly.

"Alright, well I'm just wondering, why did you decide to take me to the beach yesterday?" she asked.

"Because I thought that the bowling alley would be too noisy and far from calming." he replied honestly.

"You actually thought about the bowling alley?" she asked again still very surprised.

"Yes, you like going there and that's where we first went together." said Benjamin as he nodded.

"Oh Ben, you're so sweet, too sweet, to think that you actually did care all this while." said Lulu as she laughed.

"Of course I care Louise, I'm human after all." he said with a shrug.

"Thank you for taking me to the beach, I hadn't been there in a long while, and I have to admit, it was peaceful and relaxing when you forgot about the real world for a while." said Lulu as she smiled.

"Don't mention it, I missed going there as well." said Benjamin.

"You used to go there often?" she asked.

"Yes Louise, I used to, with my uncle." said Benjamin sadly.

"Yes... I know, and I'm so sorry..." she said.

"Don't be." he replied as she could tell that the subject of his uncle was really touchy for him and she could not blame him.

Lulu sighed internally, why did she have to bring up the beach? Now Benjamin was sad and he was extremely silent.

"You know what I just realized?" she asked in an attempt to lighten the mood.

"What?" he asked.

"You called me Louise!!" she declared joyously as she giggled. Benjamin shook his head and sighed.

"You've done so severally now." she said as she giggled.

"It's not a big deal Louise." he replied simply, not wanting her to gloat in her victory.

"But of course it is! You literally swore to never call my name, okay you didn't swear physically, but mentally I'm sure that you did." she said as Benjamin shook his head.

"Hehe, I am always victorious hehe, even though I would prefer that you call me Lulu, Louise is perfectly fine." said Lulu as she smiled.

"Whatever." said Benjamin as he scoffed and Lulu continued to giggle.

...

Dom had just ended his struggle to get Joy to fall asleep. He could not help but remember that it used to be so easy for her to fall asleep when she was younger, but nowadays, she always had one excuse or another not to go to bed early.

He shook his head as he walked down the stairs and he saw Natasha drinking tea in the living room.

Initially, he did not want to disturb her, but then he remembered that he had to thank her.

"Joy's finally asleep, it took way longer this time." He said as he walked into the living room and sighed.

"She was very excited this evening, and I don't know why." Natasha chuckled as Dom sat down.

"Well nowadays she's converting that excitement of hers into energy." he said with a tired sigh.

"I guess we just have to reduce her screen time. The tv has to be off one hour before she goes to bed, maybe that would make her tired." said Natasha.

"Maybe..." Dom replied as there was a prolonged awkward silence between them, or maybe it was only Dom that felt like it was awkward because he had something else to say.

"*Ahem* Natasha." Dom called as he cleared his throat, there was not point making this any harder than it needed to be.

"Mhmm?" Natasha replied as she sipped her tea.

"The press conference was held today." he said.

"I know, Michael told me during lunch." she replied, she just thought that he wanted her to know the information since she was the strongest member of the board.

"I see... well it went well." he said.

"I know." she replied.

"I want to say thank you for your advice, without it I wouldn't have done something that should have been done a long time ago." he said as Natasha looked at him.

"You don't need to thank me, I really didn't say anything terrific, I'm sure that your PR department would have suggested it to you sooner or later." she said.

"They might have, but they didn't, you were the first to bring to my attention a very serious issue within the company, so thank you for that." said Dom as he could not lie, Natasha always gave the best advice... that was one of the reasons why they had been such good friends.

"Well whatever you say." she replied uninterestingly.

"Is there any more tea left?" he asked as Natasha instantly shot him a burning gaze.

"No." she declared vehemently.

"You're lying." he said in amusement.

"I'm not lying, I only made tea for myself, I had a feeling that you would want some!" she said as Dom laughed.

"I don't get why you suddenly developed a taste for tea?" she asked.

"What can I say, you're right, it's very calming." said Dom.

"As true as that may be, I'm not sharing with you, gosh, at this rate you will finish all my tea, go get your own." she declared angrily as Dom was just amused that she was this protective of her tea.

"Alright, alright, I get it, I will get my own." he replied as he chuckled.

"Good." said Natasha in relief as she had thought that was the end of the matter.

"What brand of tea do you buy?" he asked as Natasha turned to look at him and narrowed her eyes at him.

"I'm not telling you, go find your own brand." she replied.

"Oh come on Natasha, you can't be so overprotective over something as simple as tea." he said.

"I can and I am, tea is my thing, not yours." she said as Dom laughed.

"I'm being serious, stop laughing, you wouldn't like it if I started drinking all your coffee just like that." she replied.

"Actually I would, I don't really care that much." he replied.

"But I do. Just go buy your own tea." she said in a tone of finality.

"Alright, alright." he replied as he stood up.

"Where are you going?" she asked, thinking that maybe he was on his way to the kitchen to steal her tea.

"To to find Lulu." he replied.

"You better stay put, it's not even 10pm yet." said Natasha as he looked at her.

"I want to know what's she doing and what exactly makes hanging out with Benjamin so fun, what do they even talk about?" Dom asked in a mix of confusion and concern.

"They talk about young people things." Natasha replied.

"Oh really? Like what?" Dom asked.

"I don't know, maybe about food, life, sleeping, but whatever it is, Lulu has every right to be friends with whoever she wants, and Benjamin's a good guy, he even saved the both of them, I don't get why you don't trust him." Natasha replied with a scoff.

"It's a brother's intuition, I can't just overlook things like this." he said.

"Oh just sit down, don't you have any better things to do than truly smother your sister?" asked Natasha.

"I just want to check on her that's all." Dom said as Natasha scoffed.

"How do you expect her to be happy if you keep on going on and on about the same thing?" asked Natasha.

"I don't know about you, but if I were Lulu, I would run away from you." she said.

"You're right..." said Dom in defeat as he sat back down and sighed.

"Glad you agree, goodnight." said Natasha as she stood up and was on her way to bed, but not before going to the kitchen to hide her tea.

"Goodnight..." Dom replied as he switched on the tv sadly.