Sextus sat down at the table and Zac looked up at him with a grin.
"Hey," he said. "Glad you could join me. Have any trouble finding the place?"
Sextus shook his head.
"Nope," he replied.
There was a bit of an awkward silence between the two while each tried to figure out what to say to the other.
"So there's a menu. I've already ordered a drink."
"Oh, right."
More silence. Zac wondered if this was such a good idea after all. After Tru... after Tru died, and Airlia too for that matter, Zac felt like he didn't know either of them as well as he should have. They were his daughters after all. The fact that they had grown up quickly - far too quickly for him to witness most of the 'landmark' memory occasions - was hardly the point. No, it was the point. Saku Zac knew better, but Sextus? If Sextus died today, Zac didn't think he'd particularly miss him, and that bothered him. It seemed like a cold, even callous, appraisal of his relationship with his own son, and he wanted to change that.
Zac looked at Sextus while he gave his order to the waitress when she returned to the table. There could be no denying their relationship. Sextus looked so much like him it was uncanny. Outsiders would probably look at them and think they were brothers - now there was a disconcerting thought.
"So, ahh... how's the station?"
"Oh it's good," Sextus nodded. "Yeah, I can totally see why you recommended that as a good place to immerse myself in, uhh... our culture."
"Uhh yeah."
Zac felt a little guilty. While it was true that the station was a good place for that, Zac's original intention had been well, he didn't really want a relationship with Sextus at the time. Hell, he didn't even remember sleeping with his mother (not, he supposed, that that was entirely unusual). More silence followed.
"So, umm, how things? How's my umm... step mother?" Sextus asked, remembering that Zac had gotten married.
"Step mother," Zac mused to himself, well, technically, he supposed that was what Kate was to his kids.
"Kate's good. We're... we're expecting," Zac replied.
"Oh, congratulations then."
"Thanks."
Silence.
"So... what hobbies you got?"
"Oh I play saxophone."
Zac's face lit up.
"You're a musician?"
Sextus nodded.
"Yeah," he replied cheerfully. "It's awesome fun. And I got involved with this jazz band on the station -"
"You're in a band?"
The ice broken in this common bond, there was no further uncomfortable silences.