When Will I Learn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DR2r4JtSjo

Dinah and Nick were out together looking like they were on a date. Nothing could still be farther from the truth, as they would always just be friends, but they still look good together and had a chemistry befitting their mood. Dinah was her normal strong but easy going self and Nick was his normal neurotic self.

It was like old times meeting up at Kung Fu Necktie, but this was nicer and at a restaurant. As they talk for the first time since last year, she tells him about the promotion at her job, and how happy she was with her new lover she met on Tinder of all places.

"I thought I was just out for a date, maybe I'd get laid, you know?" Nick nods, "But we hit it off, like gangbusters. On New Year's Eve we made it official that we were a couple and then the quarantine began and before I knew it, we moved in together." Nick's enthusiasm for his friend's happiness. "Wait, what? You? Did she move in with you?" He asked.

"No. Believe it or not, her room mate was moving out the same month my lease was up."

Nick was really into the story, "What amazing synchronicity. So you moved in, with her? Wow! That is so not like you. You are so cautious with your heart, what was it that made you throw caution to the wind like this?"

"Heh, it was two things." Dinah sips her wine with a smile, then continues, "First and foremost. She made me feel comfortable, and special. It was like this amazing whirlwind romance that swept me off my feet. She's so charming and funny, and it's not dark humor like us. She's three years older than me, but she seems, so innocent, and she's letting me corrupt her, just a little bit, so she's not annoying." They laugh hard, together. "OK, and what's the second thing? Is she rich? Beautiful? Owns a Bentley?" She scoffs at him. "Shut up. We are talking about Michelle. OK, cause this one is almost as important as the first one, and I'm gonna sound like you when I say it." Nick chuckles. As she continues, she blushes. "She tastes like Mimosas." Nick blushes with Dinah.

"Stop! No way?'" Nick's jaw drops.

"May Thor strike me dead with thunder and lightning in this very chair if I'm lying!" Dinah says seriously and looks him dead in his face as she does it. Nick and her laugh again.

"Wow, how did you get so lucky? Can I ..." he jokes, and she knows where it's going and hits Nick's arm, yelling playfully, "No you may not, Sir.... and fuck you for asking." They chuckle again, as the waiter comes over.

"How is everything?" The waiter asks.

Dinah says, "This is delicious."

"Can I get you anything else to drink? More wine, perhaps?" the waiter suggests.

Nick, without missing a beat, "My friend and I have been celebrating our reconnecting since before the pandemic. Would you be kind enough to get us a couple Mimosas?" Dinah, the play hits him again, while saying. "No you didn't. Oh. My. God. You are a terrible person."

The waiter steps away. "So you said you had something to tell me about, like this big story. You heard mine, so I can listen to yours. But you're buying dinner after that mimosa bull-shit." Dinah demands.

"Of course, I didn't expect you to put up with me for free after how we last saw each other."

"Yeah man, that wasn't fun. So what happened, you find a porn star you love and knock her up?" Nick did not like the sound of that, especially now with this tale to tell.

"Horrible, but not like that." He admits.

"Well, go on, what happened?" She says and takes a bite of her meal. He hardly touches his meal as he gets it all of his chest. When Nick finishes, she just looks at him, wondering if there is any more to the story.

"So, you did to her, what your wife did to you? Did you do that on purpose? Hurting her like that?" Dinah was going savage on him. "Didn't I tell you something like this would happen?"

Nick closes his eyes for a moment and lets her continue. This was the exact speech he came here for, Dinah's "I fucking told you so" speech, but that's not exactly what he got.

"Nick, you and Steve really hurt that poor girl. How could you not talk to her first?"

"She came to me, after I told her about what Steve said, the internet said, about her."

"That was a sentence?" Dinah pokes fun at him as the waiter returns with the mimosas. Dinah rolls her eyes at Nick, and says to the waiter, "He should be flagged, I'll drink that."

She steals Nick's mimosa and drinks it down fast. "Snooze you loose." while holding on to the other glass. The waiter laughs. "Duly noted." While taking away the empty glass.

Dinah leans back and sips her own glass of mimosa, teasing Nick, she licks the glass for a drop running down the side, and she does it sexy, like she was with Michelle. She wants to rub it in that she was having a great life because she was being honorable and he was being an ass, so he gets nothing.

"That's just how life goes sometimes." Dinah says, feeling the first mimosa hit her blood stream.

"You really hurt that girl, Nick!" She throws her fork down on her plate, making a loud clanging noise. She thinks about leaving.

"You let Steve post online to the world, that you cheated on her? And you think because she seemed mature and told you to break her heart, that it was OK? What the fuck is wrong with you? Penelope really fucked you up, Nick. That's not OK, what you did, it's as bad as what Penelope did to you! Is that why you took it out on this little girl?"

The look on Nick's face was one of sorrow. He was hurting and she was making it worse, a lot worse. So she started to let up on him, a little.

"She gave me permission and it still all crashed and burned." He insisted.

"Dude, I don't care. If she doesn't bring the other woman into your bed, and say, 'Fuck us both.' you don't partake. That was a test from this young miss and you failed. 'Do what you want.' Never means 'Do what you want.' you've been married before Nick. You, of all people! You knew better, but you didn't do better. How fucking shitty is that?!" Dinah finishes.

"When will I learn?" Nick said.

"At this rate, never, you can forget the Good Place, mother fucker. Enjoy your demons, prick!" Dinah, stands up to leave.

"Please? I'm sorry. I was wrong, I know that now. Please, don't go?" Nick's pleading sways her. She sits back down, reluctantly.

"I'm not the one you need to apologize to." Nick knew, Dinah was right. On that note, Nick's phone rings...