William strolled up to the front door of Victor's house and rang the doorbell. It was Saturday, and he was picking up Nate from his sleepover with Jenny. Edgar, Victor's mate, answered the door. Edgar was a trim, tan alpha who always seemed to be wearing cargo shorts, a t-shirt, and an LA Dodgers hat.

"Hey, how's it going, William?" Edgar said, giving him a hug. "Come on in. The kids are hiding, as usual."

Nate and Jenny always liked to hide from the parents when William came to pick Nate up. William and Victor would pretend to not know where they were, even though the kids always hid in the exact same spot every time and it was hard to miss their loud giggling.

Victor emerged from the kitchen, holding a Bloody Mary cocktail in one hand. "Hey, William," he said, giving him a hug. "I was just making myself a drink. You want one? You could hang out for a little while, let the kids play some more."

"I'd better not," William said. "I can't stick around for too long. We're meeting my brother and his mate this evening for dinner. But I'd love to chat for a bit."

"I wouldn't mind a drink," Edgar said.

"You can make one yourself," Victor said to Edgar. "You want a coke, William? Water? Iced tea?"

Edgar feigned a look of offense, and William laughed and patted his shoulder. "No, I'm good, Victor.”

"Okay. C'mon, let's go sit outside."

William followed him out to the back patio, and the two of them sat down in two white plastic lawn chairs that faced a dried up and browning yard. It’d been a rainless year, and ordinances had been put in place to restrict the watering of lawns.

"Guess who I ran into last night?" William said.

"Tell me."

"That guy from Send Noods. The owner." Of course William remembered Dakota's name, but he didn't want Victor to know that.

"Dakota Cloud? Really! Where did this happen?"

"Wait, his last name is Cloud?" William asked. "Seriously?"

Victor shrugged and ate one of the olives from his Bloody Mary. "That's what he told me."

"That's an interesting last name," William said. "He was at the grocery store on Douglas Avenue. By the school."

Victor was giving him a look. "And?"

"What? And we ran into each other. Just thought you'd be interested, seeing as how you're one of his best customers and all."

"He's single, you know," he said, grinning over the brim of his glass.

"Okay, Victor. Thank you for that piece of information."

Victor's grin widened. "Whaaat? Don't tell me you don't think he's hot."

"Never said that," said William, unable to stop himself from catching Victor's infectiously devious smile. Victor laughed and lightly punched William's arm.

"Ahh! See, I knew it. I knew you'd be into him."

"Dammit, Victor. Is that why you wanted to go eat at his restaurant?"

"No," Victor said. "I legitimately wanted to try the early special. I'm serious! Don't look at me like that. But I did know you'd think he was hot."

William sighed. "Yeah. And that's exactly the problem."

"What? That you're attracted to him?"

"Yeah."

His track record, and all. He was attracted to Dakota, and not just because he was an objectively good-looking guy. There was something about him that had drawn him in immediately, and William had at least become aware of himself enough to recognize that red flag. It felt shitty to think that way, because Dakota seemed to be a nice guy. He was a little soft spoken, a bit intense, and super focused on his work. But William knew that appearances were often deceiving. A soft spoken, kind-seeming man could be completely different when you got to know him. When he revealed his true self.

"You think Dakota is a bad guy?" Victor asked. "Really? He seems so nice."

"Well, I'm not saying I know for sure. Just that I always seem to fall for alphas who end up not being so wonderful."

"I think you're being superstitious," said Victor. He took the stick of celery out of his drink, ate it, and then swallowed down half the glass. "But that's just me. You know yourself, you've gotta do what's best for yourself. Fuck, I love Bloody Marys."

"Dad!" The patio door flung open and Nate and Jenny ran outside. "You didn't come looking for us!"

"Hey, buddy," William said, hugging his son.

"What are you doing?" Jenny asked Victor.

"Oh, we're just talking. We thought we'd give you two a bit more time to play."

"Yaaay!" they both shouted, hopping up and down.

"Nope, nope," said William. "Now that you're out here, it's time we headed out."

"Whaaat?" Nate groaned. "Daaaddd..."

"We've got dinner with Uncle Parker and Uncle Kell tonight. Don't you want to see your little baby cousin Lianne, too?"

"Ooh. Yeah, I do."

"Well then, we gotta get home. Say goodbye."

Victor and Jenny walked them to the front door. "See you at school on Monday," Jenny said to Nate.

"Hey," Victor said to William. "Don't write him off completely, huh?"

William laughed. "It's not like he asked me out. I just ran into him, that's all."

Victor shrugged. "Talk to you later. I'll text you."

He and Nate walked to the car, hand in hand. "Who was he talking about, Dad?" Nate asked, clipping in his seat buckle.

"Nobody, bud," William replied, starting the car.

"Nuh-uh. You said 'it's not like he asked me out'. Who didn't ask you out?"

William sighed. His son was old enough now to not be so easily diverted from a topic he wanted to know about, and the topic of alpha dads was something he was always keen to know about. In fact, Nate seemed to be as obsessed with his father's singledom as Victor was. He knew his son wanted an alpha dad. But it just came down to one simple fact: William was afraid of dating. He was afraid to bring a negative force into their lives again. He just didn't trust alphas. Rather, he just didn't trust himself to choose a good alpha.

"This guy who I met yesterday. Well, 'met' is kind of a strong word to use. He owns a restaurant that Victor—I mean, Mr. McCann—eats at a lot. So he and Mr. McCann are on a first name basis, and he introduced him to me when we ate at the restaurant yesterday."

"What's his name?" Nate asked.

"Dakota. Dakota Cloud." He put an emphasis on Dakota's unusual last name.

"Whoa, that's a cool name. He sounds like a superhero, or something."

William laughed. "I guess so, huh?"

"What did you mean when you said you just ran into him?"

"Oh. Well, I saw him at the supermarket yesterday night. That's all."

"Hmmmm?"

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"I don't know."

William eyed his son. "What is it?"

"Do you liiiike him?" He dragged the word out, in the way that kids did when talking about crushes and other icky things. William laughed again.

"I don't even know him," he said. "I just met him that one time."

Nate looked thoughtful. "What's the name of his restaurant?"

"Send Noods," said William, after a second of hesitation.

"What does that mean?"

"I don't know, bud," he said, not in the mood to explain. "Something in Japanese, I guess."

Back at home, William corralled Nate into the shower and got the place tidied up for when Parker, Kell, and Lianne arrived. They had reservations at Down the Hatch, a popular bistro a few neighborhoods over. In LA time, that meant a thirty-minute drive with traffic, so they needed to leave early. As he cleaned, he found himself thinking about the run-in with Dakota at the supermarket. It'd been so brief and sudden, but to his surprise, shockingly exciting. He could never have expected the reaction he'd had to seeing and talking with Dakota. His heart had surged and raced in his chest. He couldn't take his eyes off him. And when he'd turned down the pasta aisle and seen him at the other end, he'd felt butterflies in his stomach. Actual goddamn butterflies! When was the last time he'd felt that?

All bad signs. All red flags telling him that he needed to ignore Dakota, to forget about him. A man that gorgeous and single? He had to be a heartbreaker.

William really hated thinking that way about Dakota, because he did seem to be a nice guy. But he had to trust himself, right? That was the problem. He'd already made too many mistakes before, trusted too many scumbags who seemed to be nice guys at first. The best thing he could do would be to simply never see Dakota again. And it was easy, thankfully. It wasn't like they were friends, or even mutual friends. Dakota was just the owner of a restaurant that Victor went to. All William had to do was not eat there again. Simple.

When Parker and family pulled up in his minivan, Nate flung open the front door and sprinted out to meet him. His uncle had been like a surrogate alpha father to him. The three of them had lived together, and Parker had helped raise him for almost three years of his life.

"Uncle Parker!" Nate cried, latching onto his leg.

"Hey, kid," Parker said, ruffling his hair. He looked toward the condo and spotted William standing in the front door and waved at him. William smiled and waved back. Kell got out of the van and detached little Lianne's car seat, while Parker went around to the back and pulled out a folding stroller.

"We went to the museum for a field trip last week," Nate said, gesticulating excitedly with his hands. "There was a full T-rex skeleton there. It was like, that big." He jumped in the air and stretched up with his hand.

"No way."

"Yeah! Hi, Uncle Kell!"

"Hi, Nate," Kell said, hugging him, and the three of them walked up to the condo with Lianne in her seat.

"Hey, guys," William said, giving them quick hugs. "C'mon in."

Nate was still chattering excitedly to Parker, and he ran off to his room and came back with a brochure from the museum to show him.

"You want anything to drink?" William asked Kell, who was taking Lianne out from her seat.

"God, I wish I could have a beer," Kell said as he bounced Lianne, who had woken up and was starting to fuss. "I'm good, though. Thanks. Parker will probably take up the offer, though."

"No, nothing for me. I'll get something at the restaurant. We should head out soon, right?"

"Probably would be a good idea," William said. "Nate! Are you ready? Get your shoes on."

"I'm showing Uncle Parker the T-rex!"

"You can show him in the car. Come on, get your shoes on. I'm not going to tell you again."

"I need to pee," said Kell. "Parker, hold Lianne?"

"You should've left her in her seat," Parker said. "We're leaving soon, anyway."

"Well, I didn't. Take her?"

"Yeah." Parker took Lianne and rocked her gently. "Check the traffic, William?"

"Right," said William, getting out his cell phone. Sometimes he didn't know how Kell and Parker could manage everything. He saw them every weekday at the office, and the amount of work they had to handle—speaking to clients, working out designs, and creating artwork—all on top of their parenting responsibilities when they got home. They were on non-stop. Sometimes, when it seemed like they were getting on each other's nerves and their tone of voice got heated, William would expect a shouting match to break out, but it never would reach that point. Instead, they'd start telling each other "I love you."

"You always think you're so fucking right, don't you?"

"Well, that's because I am."

"You're a goddamn asshole."

"You know it. So, are you going take my suggestion and do it my way?"

"Yes. I love you."

"Great. I love you too."

It was bizarre. But they always seemed to be in sync, and it showed in the work they did. Their design firm was only a few years old, but it'd quickly risen to become one of the most respected in the city.

William pulled up the maps app on his phone and punched Down the Hatch into the search bar. The route plotted on his screen, and he frowned. It was completely red. Traffic everywhere.

"Um... This can't be right."

"What does it say?" Parker asked. Nate finished putting on his shoes and stood between them, looking up curiously at William.

"It says that there's four hours of traffic to get there. The freeway is completely backed up."

"Let me see," he said, and William turned the phone to him. "Jesus."

With bad traffic it might've taken an hour to get there at the most. Something had to be wrong. William went and turned on the TV and flipped to the local news.

"Just look it up on your phone," said Nate. "The TV is too slow."

William searched for traffic information, and a bunch of articles popped up. He groaned. "A semi-truck overturned on the freeway. It says that it was carrying a load of live chickens, and now there are apparently a flood of birds running amuck on the middle of the interstate. Traffic is stopped."

Nate laughed. "That's so hilarious!"

"No way," said Parker. "Are you serious?"

"That's what it says here," William said.

"What's happening?" Kell asked, coming back from the bathroom.

"There's chickens on the road!" Nate exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air.

"Huh?"

"A semi overturned," Parker explained. "Apparently it was carrying chickens."

"Are they okay?" Kell asked.

"They're wreaking havoc on the 405."

"So that means we can't go to Down the Hatch?"

"Doesn't look like it," said Parker. "Sorry, Kell. I know you were looking forward to going there."

"I guess we have to keep it local," William said. "Where should we eat?"

They looked at each other. "We could just stay here," Kell offered.

"No, no," said William. "We all got ready to go out, so we should go out."

"Send Noods!" Nate said.

Parker raised an eyebrow, and then started to laugh. "Oh, man. The restaurant. I was going to question what Nate's been learning at school."

"Uh... I dunno," William protested. "I just—"

"Oh, yeah!” Kell said. “Man. That place brings back some good memories. I haven't eaten there since we used to live in Forest Glenn. Let's go there!"

William winced. And so, it was decided.