A bit of a short chapter but next one will be longer. Hope ya'll enjoy it!

Annabeth's POV

The morning after that wild night I went to my parents and picked Diana up, well after I stopped by my place and showered and changed. I thanked them profusely and took Diana out for breakfast. As we were sitting at the table in the restaurant Diana asked me if we could invite Percy for dinner tonight again. I sighed, while I did not want to, I felt bad for leaving her at my parents all night, so I told her yes and said she'll have to ask him though. I got my phone and handed it to Diana as it started ringing. She held it in her little hands and put it against her ear.

"Hi Percy it's me Diana." She said, she then giggled at something he had said. "My mommy said you can come for dinner tonight."

I mouthed at her "No! Ask can you come over for dinner." She ignored me and just giggled "yay" and handed me the phone.

"Hello? Percy?" I said, into the phone.

"Hey, I told Diana that I would love to come over. I just needed to know the time so I guess she handed me to you." He said, I could hear the smile on his face through the phone. I couldn't help myself but smile a little too.

"Dinner will be at seven, I will text you the address and don't worry about bringing anything over it's okay.

" I responded.

"Okay sounds good. Thank you for the invite." He said back.

"You're welcome, we'll see you tonight. Bye!" I said, feeling a little awkward about the goodbye for some reason. He said bye back and hung up the phone, our food then came so Diana and I enjoyed the rest of our breakfast.

As I got off work I drove by the store to get a bottle of wine. If Percy was going to come over tonight I would need at least one to make sure I was able to keep my cool. After getting a bottle I picked up Diana and we headed home. It was almost 5:30 by the time we got home so I had little time to shower before having to get dinner prepped and ready. By around 6:45 dinner was almost ready and Diana had started asking where Percy was. I kept reminding her I told him dinner was at 7:00 so he will likely be coming closer to that time. Right as it hit 6:59 the doorbell rang and I walked over to open the door. Percy was standing there, rather awkwardly and had a bottle of wine in his hand.

"I know you said not to worry about bringing anything but I figured a bottle of wine would be okay." He sheepishly said.

"Yes, that is." I said, smiling a little at his awkwardness. I took the bottle, looking down at it and seeing that it had Dionysius's Dream: Organic Strawberry Wine written on it with a picture of Mr. D's face on it sipping a jeweled goblet.
"Is this…?" I started, staring up at Percy as he walked in.
"Yes, it is. He can now only have one tasting sip a month to make sure it is made to his standards." Percy said, smiling at my shocked look on my face. I couldn't believe that Mr. D was finally able to have at least a taste of alcohol, maybe he was a bit more joyous now.

Diana ran to the door excited to see Percy, she looked around him and asked if he brought any sharks with him. He laughed and explained he had to leave the sharks at the aquarium today. She huffed and then asked if he wanted to see her sharks before taking his hand and leading him towards the living room to show him her toy sharks and other sea animals. I smiled at how good with her he was and walked back to the kitchen to open the bottle of wine. I looked back up to see him playing with her some and he looked up at me and smiled. I let out a little chuckle before feeling a sudden wave of dread and heartbreak as I realized that this would've been my life if Percy hadn't cheated on me. The words that Lucas had said last night also entered my mind and I turned away to pour myself a glass of wine and downed it before pouring myself another.

"Dinner is ready Diana! Do you mind showing Percy over to the table?" I yelled out, grabbing the bowl of spaghetti I had made and placing it down at the table. I walked back to get Percy a bottle of wine as well and placed it down on the table as well.

Diana and Percy made their way over and Diana climbed up onto her chair as Percy went to sit next to her. I sat across from Percy and started portioning out some spaghetti for Diana, Percy and then myself. Over the course of dinner Diana would ask Percy about working at the aquarium and talk about how her day at daycare was. Percy would smile or laugh at some of the little kid drama she would have at daycare and how expressive she could be when talking about it. I kept drinking the wine and did my best to not show anything but happiness.

"So Annabeth, how was your day at work?" Percy asked, looking up from explaining to Diana how he had swam with a whale shark over the summer.

"Oh. Um it was good, just boring architecture stuff you know. Someone wants a building built here but they don't like the one we designed for them even though we made it to their thinly laid out specifications." I said, clearly a bit tipsy but also annoyed as it was something that was actually happening at work at the moment.

"Oh, that sucks. Have you helped design any of the buildings here?" He asked, sounding very genuine. Diana now seemed bored with the conversation and was actually eating.

"No, I've had a hand in designing some rooms in some buildings or even a whole floor plan but no, nothing as exciting as an entire building." I said, looking down at my empty plate.

"You know, Malcolm works for your mother and I'm sure if you reached out he would hire you on the spot. They get pretty big projects sometimes and -" I cut him off before he could say anything more.

"Thank you, but I like my job at my current firm." I said, smiling but clearly not happy.

I looked over and saw Diana had finished eating and was looking tired. It was now almost 8:30 so a bit past her bedtime. I excused myself and picked Diana up and whisked her off upstairs to help her brush her teeth and get her into bed. After laying her down and closing her door I made my way back downstairs. Percy was not at the table anymore and neither were the dishes. I looked over and saw that he was in the kitchen washing the dishes. I went and grabbed my glass of wine on the table and went over to sit at the kitchen bar.
"You don't have to clean my dishes Percy." I said, leaning back and watching him.

"Well it's the least I could do, your spaghetti was delicious by the way thank you." He said, looking up at me as he grabbed another plate.
"So,...my mother has an architecture firm and Malcolm is in charge?" I asked, swishing the wine around in my glass and looking down at it.

"Yep, well technically your mom is in charge but Malcolm is more so the day to day operations and figurehead to the mortals…so yeah he's pretty much in charge actually." He said, cracking a smile.

"Hmm. She never told me, well to be fair she hasn't talked to me in the past five years." I said, rolling my eyes and downing the rest of the wine before pouring the last bit of the bottle into my glass.

"I'm sorry." He said, looking down still at the dishes.

"Haven't talked to her or anyone from that side of my life since I left you." I said, with an annoyed infliction in my voice. "So what was it that you wanted to tell me yesterday about you cheating on me with Lily and Bailey and throwing away everything we had built?"

"Um…well I just wanted to say I'm sorry for not listening to you about Lily, it cost me you and I'm sorry. I also wanted to let you know though that…well that Bailey lied to everyone about who she was and she manipulated us, specifically you, into breaking us up. I know it sounds crazy but it's true, I swear on the River Styx I never cheated on you with anyone and I am telling you the truth about us being manipulated into breaking up." He said, stopping the work on the dishes and looking right at me.

"Why? Why us?" I simply asked, I was on guard and still not entirely sure if I believed him.

"She was jealous, she was a daughter of Athena and had started going to camp when we were in Tartarus. She had spent most of her life being the smartest and best at things in her school and when she found out she was the daughter of Athena she thought that she would be favored. Then she found out about you and how much Athena seemed to favor you, especially after the war, and when she heard we were going to New Rome she did everything she could to get there too and then lied about being a daughter of Venus to seem less suspicious to you. That was something I even still don't get but yeah, she spent her entire friendship with you trying to sow seeds of distrust and manipulate you into breaking up with me believing that if you did she would be the top of your class and would finally get the admiration of your mother, while you would crumble and fail." He explained, looking like retelling everything was making him feel upset.

"So what then? You think me knowing this now fixes everything and we are going to get back together and live happily ever after?" I asked, confused and upset. I felt like everything I knew was a lie, which it was but still it made me wonder why he had decided to tell me now.

"No, I just…I just wanted you to know the truth and for us to try and be friends again. I've missed you Annabeth and I would like for us to be a part of each other's lives again." He said, walking around from the sink and up to me.

I could tell he was sincere and truly meant it but I was filled with wine and was not about to let five years of silence go out the window.

"Then why wait, Perseus? Why not tell me after you found this all out?" I spitefully asked him, placing my wine glass down and getting in his face.

"There…there were some complications and roadblocks." He hesitantly said, clearly hiding something.

"Hmm. Convincing." I drunkenly smirked and sat back down. "What were these complications and roadblocks?"

"Well, um that's a bit more complicated." He said, stepping back and looking like he was trying to think.

"Well, while you think of that. I am going to go upstairs and think of the wonderfully orgasmic and raw sex I had with a very handsome stranger last night. You can let yourself out after you finish those last few dishes and I'll see you on Friday. Hopefully by then you'll have something for why you waited." I slowly said, smirking at him as he started to look more uncomfortable with every word. I walked past him to go upstairs and gave him a little peck on the cheek. "Oh and any possibility of us being friends will be dependent on your reasoning to why you waited."