Better Than Me
ex-wife!dina woodward x fem!reader
summary: your date goes to shit, and you can only think of one person to call.
content/warnings: r and dina are newly divorced and have a daughter (sorry jj ily), she lives with reader primarily, r is kinda mean maybe? (not really) dina is a sweetheart, they still love each other a whole lot, fluffy ending.
word count: ± 1700
a/n: idk man.
gif not mine, all credits to original creator.
You never would've expected your life to turn out the way it did, but you wouldn't change a thing about it. You had a nice house in a good neighborhood and an income steady enough for both you and your daughter to live comfortably. Speaking of; your daughter was without a doubt the biggest blessing in your life, even if she was constantly keeping you on your toes.
When people would talk about their toddlers being mouthy or hyperactive, you'd always just assume they were being a bit dramatic, but after experiencing the wrath of a once three-year-old yourself, you could confidently say that they were in fact not being dramatic at all.
Yes, she was a handful, but you loved her more than anything. Your house reflected that easily; every corner and wall littered with photos of her in every stage in her life. Recently, a few extras were hung to replace the wedding photos that were once also proudly on display.
Looking back, it might've been a bit petty of you, but you were hurting at the time, and it wasn't like Dina had photos of you hanging around in her apartment. Not that you knew of, anyway. You've made it a point to distance yourself from her and her life, only really interacting with her when it came to your daughter. You haven't seen the inside of her apartment— only getting as far as the view of her living area when she'd open the door when you dropped Maya off for the weekend.
Like tonight, as you stood in front of Dina's apartment with Maya in hand while the other held onto her bag stuffed with clothes and various toys. Dina opened the door, clothed in an old t-shirt she always slept in and a pair of cotton shorts. Somehow, she still managed to look as pretty as ever, but you quickly shook that thought from your brain as you handed Dina the heavy bag.
"Her medication is packed in the front with her toys. She's got a bit of a cold," you said tapping the front of the bag to show her where they were. She nodded, giving you a small smile which you returned before kneeling down to Maya's level. "I'm gonna miss you sooo much," you said wrapping your arms around her small body before planting a few kisses on her cheeks, each one sticky with the last traces of lip-gloss you had applied before leaving the house. "You gonna be good for momma, right?" you asked, and she gave you a nod. You stood back to your height, smoothing down her wild hair.
"Are you gonna eat dinner with us?" Maya's small voice asked, looking up at you with a pout she knew you could never resist. "I made enough food for one more," Dina added with a smile. You sighed softly before looking down at your daughter. "Maybe next time, baby. I have somewhere to be tonight," you answered. You hated the pout on her face, which only seemed to worsen at your answer.
"Why don't you go take out your toys, I'll be there soon then we can play a bit before dinner," Dina interjected. At the prospect of playtime, Maya's mood increased significantly and soon she disappeared into the apartment with her bag. Now it was just you and Dina standing in the poorly lit hallway of the complex. "Y'look beautiful," she said breaking the silence before it had time to become awkward. You looked down at your outfit, the shiny material of your dress sparkling in the faint light and the heels that were already starting to hurt your feet. "Thank you. I have a date tonight," you said shyly. You didn't know why you felt the need to tell her that, but for some reason it also didn't feel right to not tell her, even if the two of you weren't together.
Her eyebrows raised a bit at your words, but she tried her best to not show how surprised she really was. "Yeah?" she said, sparing you another small smile. "That's nice, bubs. I hope you have fun," she added. You nodded, looking down at your feet as they shifted your weight from one foot to the other. "Thanks, D. I'll see you soon, okay?" you said before making your way down the hall, turning around once again before you got very far. "And if anything's wrong—"
"I'll call you. I promise," she finished for you. You gave her a smile before you were off to your date with a newfound confidence. It was your first date in a while, after all.
˚๑ˎ˚。⋆
You were just about to give up and cancel the call completely, when Dina's voice broke through the monotone ringing. "Hello?" she asked, voice raspy from sleep. You hadn't even realized how late it was. "I'm sorry, were you already asleep?" you asked, even though you knew the answer. "Yeah, but that doesn't matter. Are you okay?" she asked. "Yeah," you lied, "what about Maya? She okay?"
"Yeah, she's asleep right next to me," she whispered, staring down at Maya's sleeping form as she clung to one of her favorite stuffies; the one Dina had gotten her last Christmas. "Are you sure you're okay? You sound like you've been crying," she added after a short pause. You sighed tiredly, rubbing at your sore eyes. "I got stood up," you said with a humorless laugh, "I waited for 2 hours, Dina. God, I feel so embarrassed."
Before you could even stop them, the tears were once again falling down your cheeks. You rubbed at your eyes for what felt like the hundredth time tonight, trying to stop the unnecessary tears. You felt so stupid crying over someone you barely knew, and now crying about it to your ex-wife of all people. "I'm so sorry, bubs," Dina said softly. You wanted to rip your hair out at how genuinely sad she sounded. You've basically treated her like a stranger these last few months and she still managed to be so sweet to you? You felt like an asshole. "Where are you now? Have you been drinking?" she asked.
"No," you answered with a sniff, "I'm at home, got here a while ago." "Okay," she answered with a relieved sigh, "Can you come over?"
˚๑ˎ˚。⋆
"Oh, bubs, I'm so sorry."
You wanted to crawl under a rock and hide there forever. There you stood at Dina's door, in a pair of old seats with eyes puffy and bloodshot from crying and rubbing at them.
When Dina saw the state you were in, she wasted no time wrapping her arms around you tightly, engulfing you in her warmth. Your first thought had been to deny her affection, but everything about it just felt so right. You couldn't help but melt into her warm embrace. You hadn't even noticed how much you've missed this; everything about her. From her laugh to her warmth and the feeling of being in her arms. Even her scent—the same scent that used to stick to her pillows and clothes and the same scent you now savored as your head lay on her shoulder.
If Dina noticed the way your grip on her shirt tightened, she didn't say anything.
Soon the two of you were sitting on her small living room couch, each with a cup of tea in hand as her TV played softly, filling the silence. "I'm sorry for calling so late," you said quietly, looking down into the still-steaming cup of tea. "It's okay," her voice spoke softly, before the room once again fell into a calm silence. "Can I tell you something?" Dina asked after a short while, and you nodded. "This'll probably sound bad, but I was hoping you didn't go on that date and stay for dinner with us."
"Dina..."
"I know, I shouldn't be saying something like that, but I," she scoffed lightly before continuing. "I really miss you. I miss us, what we had," she said with a sad smile. You couldn't help the smile that stretched across your face as well. You missed her too. Of course you did, you had shared so many special memories with her, you've built a life with her for goodness sake.
"How hypocritical would it be if I told you I missed you too?" you asked with a small laugh. Dina laughed too, and soon the two of you were giggling like a bunch schoolgirls. The whole thing seemed so absurd actually, but right now you couldn't find it in you to care. Not when you were where you've wanted to be all along, with Dina and your daughter, all together. Not when you were once again hearing her laugh after what felt like a lifetime. Not when you were happier than you've been this past year.
"Mommy?" The small voice caused the both of you to turn around to the dark hallway, where Maya stood rubbing the sleep from her eyes while the other still held onto her stuffie. She made her way to where the two of you sat, wiggling her way between the two of you on the small couch. You placed your cup of tea by your feet before giving her a big hug, which she eagerly returned. "Did we wake you, sweetheart?" you asked softly. She shook her head, before turning towards Dina, who was smoothing down her bedhead, and then back to you.
"Are you gonna stay for breakfast tomorrow? Please?" she asked after a few moments. You looked at Dina, who only shrugged from behind her, giving you a look that said only if you want to. "I'd love to," you said. Maya squealed with joy, wrapping her arms around you once again and causing her stuffie to fall from the couch, which Dina picked up quietly and placed in her lap. You gave her a look over Maya's shoulder, only to find her already looking at you. She looked at the two of you like you hung the stars yourselves, and you had no doubt that the look you were giving her was conveying the same message.
You hadn't expected the night to turn out the way it did, but you definitely wouldn't change a thing.
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I really don’t owe my Trump-supporting friends an apology. I’ve been critical of Trump these last several years, and am still exhausted from the experience.
But to be fair, Trump wasn’t that bad…………..other than when:
1. he incited an insurrection against the government,
2. mismanaged a pandemic that killed a million Americans,
3. separated children from their families, lost those children in the bureaucracy,
4. tear-gassed peaceful protesters on Lafayette Square so he could hold a photo op holding a Bible in front of a church,
5. tried to block all Muslims from entering the country,
6. got impeached,
7. got impeached again,
8. had the worst jobs record of any president in modern history,
9. pressured Ukraine to dig dirt on Joe Biden,
10. fired the FBI director for investigating his ties to Russia,
11. bragged about firing the FBI director on TV,
12. took Vladimir Putin’s word over the US intelligence community,
13. diverted military funding to build his wall,
14. caused the longest government shutdown in US history,
15. called Black Lives Matter a “symbol of hate,”
16. lied nearly 30,000 times,
17. banned transgender people from serving in the military,
18. ejected reporters from the White House briefing room who asked tough questions,
19. vetoed the defense funding bill because it renamed military bases named for Confederate soldiers,
20. refused to release his tax returns,
21. increased the national debt by nearly $8 trillion,
22. had three of the highest annual trade deficits in U.S. history,
23. called veterans and soldiers who died in combat losers and suckers,
24. coddled the leader of Saudi Arabia after he ordered the execution and dismembering of a US-based journalist,
25. refused to concede the 2020 election,
26. hired his unqualified daughter and son-in-law to work in the White House,
27. walked out of an interview with Lesley Stahl,
28. called neo-Nazis “very fine people,”
29. suggested that people should inject bleach into their bodies to fight COVID,
30. abandoned our allies the Kurds to Turkey,
31. pushed through massive tax cuts for the wealthiest but balked at helping working Americans,
32. incited anti-lockdown protestors in several states at the height of the pandemic,
33. withdrew the US from the Paris climate accords,
34. withdrew the US from the Iranian nuclear deal,
35. withdrew the US from the Trans Pacific Partnership which was designed to block China’s advances,
36. insulted his own Cabinet members on Twitter,
37. pushed the leader of Montenegro out of the way during a photo op,
38. failed to reiterate US commitment to defending NATO allies,
39. called Haiti and African nations “shithole” countries,
40. called the city of Baltimore the “worst in the nation,”
41. claimed that he single handedly brought back the phrase “Merry Christmas” even though it hadn’t gone anywhere,
42. forced his Cabinet members to praise him publicly like some cult leader,
43. believed he should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize,
44. berated and belittled his hand-picked Attorney General when he recused himself from the Russia probe,
45. suggested the US should buy Greenland,
46. colluded with Mitch McConnell to push through federal judges and two Supreme Court justices after supporting efforts to prevent his predecessor from appointing judges,
47. repeatedly called the media “enemies of the people,”
48. claimed that if we tested fewer people for COVID we’d have fewer cases,
49. violated the emoluments clause,
50. thought that Nambia was a country,
51. told Bob Woodward in private that the coronavirus was a big deal but then downplayed it in public,
52. called his exceedingly faithful vice president a “p---y” for following the Constitution,
53. nearly got us into a war with Iran after threatening them by tweet,
54. nominated a corrupt head of the EPA,
55. nominated a corrupt head of HHS,
56. nominated a corrupt head of the Interior Department,
57. nominated a corrupt head of the USDA,
58. praised dictators and authoritarians around the world while criticizing allies,
59. refused to allow the presidential transition to begin,
60. insulted war hero John McCain – even after his death,
61. spent an obscene amount of time playing golf after criticizing Barack Obama for playing (far less) golf while president,
62. falsely claimed that he won the 2016 popular vote,
63. called the Muslim mayor of London a “stone cold loser,”
64. falsely claimed that he turned down being Time’s Man of the Year,
65. considered firing special counsel Robert Mueller on several occasions,
66. mocked wearing face masks to guard against transmitting COVID,
67. locked Congress out of its constitutional duty to confirm Cabinet officials by hiring acting ones,
68. used a racist dog whistle by calling COVID the “China virus,”
69. hired and associated with numerous shady figures that were eventually convicted of federal offenses including his campaign manager and national security adviser,
70. pardoned several of his shady associates,
71. gave the Presidential Medal of Freedom to two congressmen who amplified his batshit crazy conspiracy theories,
72. got into telephone fight with the leader of Australia(!),
73. had a Secretary of State who called him a moron,
74. forced his press secretary to claim without merit that his was the largest inauguration crowd in history,
75. botched the COVID vaccine rollout,
76. tweeted so much dangerous propaganda that Twitter eventually banned him,
77. charged the Secret Service jacked-up rates at his properties,
78. constantly interrupted Joe Biden in their first presidential debate,
79. claimed that COVID would “magically” disappear,
80. called a U.S. Senator “Pocahontas,”
81. used his Twitter account to blast Nordstrom when it stopped selling Ivanka’s merchandise,
82. opened up millions of pristine federal lands to development and drilling,
83. got into a losing tariff war with China that forced US taxpayers to bail out farmers,
84. claimed that his losing tariff war was a win for the US,
85. ignored or didn’t even take part in daily intelligence briefings,
86. blew off honoring American war dead in France because it was raining,
87. redesigned Air Force One to look like the Trump Shuttle,
88. got played by Kim Jung Un and his “love letters,”
89. threatened to go after social media companies in clear violation of the Constitution,
90. botched the response to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico,
91. threw paper towels at Puerto Ricans when he finally visited them,
92. pressured the governor and secretary of state of Georgia to “find” him votes,
93. thought that the Virgin islands had a President,
94. drew on a map with a Sharpie to justify his inaccurate tweet that Alabama was threatened by a hurricane,
95. allowed White House staff to use personal email accounts for official businesses after blasting Hillary Clinton for doing the same thing,
96. rolled back regulations that protected the public from mercury and asbestos,
97. pushed regulators to waste time studying snake-oil remedies for COVID,
98. rolled back regulations that stopped coal companies from dumping waste into rivers,
99. held blatant campaign rallies at the White House,
100. tried to take away millions of Americans’ health insurance because the law was named for a Black man,
101. refused to attend his successors’ inauguration,
102. nominated the worst Education Secretary in history,
103. threatened judges who didn’t do what he wanted,
104. attacked Dr. Anthony Fauci,
105. promised that Mexico would pay for the wall (it didn’t),
106. allowed political hacks to overrule government scientists on major reports on climate change and other issues,
107. struggled navigating a ramp after claiming his opponent was feeble,
108. called an African-American Congresswoman “low IQ,”
109. threatened to withhold federal aid from states and cities with Democratic leaders,
110. went ahead with rallies filled with maskless supporters in the middle of a pandemic,
111. claimed that legitimate investigations of his wrongdoing were “witch hunts,”
112. seemed to demonstrate a belief that there were airports during the American Revolution,
113. demanded “total loyalty” from the FBI director,
114. praised a conspiracy theory that Democrats are Satanic pedophiles,
115. completely gutted the Voice of America,
116. placed a political hack in charge of the Postal Service,
117. claimed without evidence that the Obama administration bugged Trump Tower,
118. suggested that the US should allow more people from places like Norway into the country,
119. suggested that COVID wasn’t that bad because he recovered with the help of top government doctors and treatments not available to the public,
120. overturned energy conservation standards that even industry supported,
121. reduced the number of refugees the US accepts,
122. insulted various members of Congress and the media with infantile nicknames,
123. gave Rush Limbaugh a Presidential medal of Freedom at the State of the Union address,
124. named as head of federal personnel a 29-year old who’d previously been fired from the White House for allegations of financial improprieties,
125. eliminated the White House office of pandemic response,
126. used soldiers as campaign props,
127. fired any advisor who made the mistake of disagreeing with him,
128. demanded the Pentagon throw him a Soviet-style military parade,
129. hired a shit ton of white nationalists,
130. politicized the civil service,
131. did absolutely nothing after Russia hacked the U.S. government,
132. falsely said the Boy Scouts called him to say his bizarre Jamboree speech was the best speech ever given to the Scouts,
133. claimed that Black people would overrun the suburbs if Biden won,
134. insulted reporters of color,
135. insulted women reporters,
136. insulted women reporters of color,
137. suggested he was fine with China’s oppression of the Uighurs,
138. attacked the Supreme Court when it ruled against him,
139. summoned Pennsylvania state legislative leaders to the White House to pressure them to overturn the election,
140. spent countless hours every day watching Fox News,
141. refused to allow his administration to comply with Congressional subpoenas,
142. hired Rudy Giuliani as his lawyer,
143. tried to punish Amazon because the Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post wrote negative stories about him,
144. acted as if the Attorney General of the United States was his personal attorney,
145. attempted to get the federal government to defend him in a libel lawsuit from a prominent lady who accused him of sexual assault,
146. held private meetings with Vladimir Putin without staff present,
147. didn’t disclose his private meetings with Vladimir Putin so that the US had to find out via Russian media,
148. stopped holding press briefings for months at a time,
149. “ordered” US companies to leave China even though he has no such power,
150. led a political party that couldn’t even be bothered to draft a policy platform,
151. claimed preposterously that Article II of the Constitution gave him absolute powers,
152. tried to pressure the U.K. to hold the British Open at his golf course,
153. suggested that the government nuke hurricanes,
154. suggested that wind turbines cause cancer,
155. said that he had a special aptitude for science,
156. fired the head of election cyber security after he said that the 2020 election was secure,
157. blurted out classified information to Russian officials,
158. tried to force the G7 to hold their meeting at his failing golf resort in Florida,
159. fired the acting attorney general when she refused to go along with his unconstitutional Muslim travel ban,
160. hired notorious racist Stephen Miller,
161. openly discussed national security issues in the dining room at Mar-a-Lago where everyone could hear them,
162. interfered with plans to relocate the FBI because a new development there might compete with his hotel,
163. abandoned Iraqi refugees who’d helped the U.S. during the war,
164. tried to get Russia back into the G7,
165. held a COVID super spreader event in the Rose Garden,
166. seemed to believe that Frederick Douglass is still alive,
167. lost 60 election fraud cases in court including before judges he had nominated,
168. falsely claimed that factories were reopening when they weren’t,
169. shamelessly exploited terror attacks in Europe to justify his anti-immigrant policies,
170. still hasn’t come up with a healthcare plan,
171. still hasn’t come up with an infrastructure plan despite repeated “Infrastructure Weeks,”
172. forced Secret Service agents to drive him around Walter Reed while contagious with COVID,
173. told the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by,”
174. fucked up the Census,
175. withdrew the U.S. from the World Health Organization in the middle of a pandemic,
176. did so few of his duties that his press staff were forced to state on his daily schedule “President Trump will work from early in the morning until late in the evening. He will make many calls and have many meetings,”
177. allowed his staff to repeatedly violate the Hatch Act,
178. seemed not to know that Abraham Lincoln was a Republican,
179. stood before sacred CIA wall of heroes and bragged about his election win,
180. constantly claimed he was treated worse than any president which presumably includes four that were assassinated and his predecessor whose legitimacy and birthplace were challenged by a racist reality TV show star named Donald Trump,
181. claimed Andrew Jackson could’ve stopped the Civil War even though he died 16 years before it happened,
182. said that any opinion poll showing him behind was fake,
183. claimed that other countries laughed at us before he became president when several world leaders were literally laughing at him,
184. claimed that the military was out of ammunition before he became President,
185. created a commission to whitewash American history,
186. retweeted anti-Islam videos from one of the most racist people in Britain,
187. claimed ludicrously that the Pulse nightclub shooting wouldn’t have happened if someone there had a gun even though there was an armed security guard there,
188. hired a senior staffer who cited the non-existent Bowling Green Massacre as a reason to ban Muslims,
189. had a press secretary who claimed that Nazi Germany never used chemical weapons even though every sane human being knows they used gas to kill millions of Jews and others,
190. bilked the Secret Service for higher than market rates when they had to stay at Trump properties,
191. apparently sold pardons on his way out of the White House,
192. stripped protective status from 59,000 Haitians,
193. falsely claimed Biden wanted to defund the police,
194. said that the head of the CDC didn’t know what he was talking about,
195. tried to rescind protection from DREAMers,
196. gave himself an A+ for his handling of the pandemic,
197. tried to start a boycott of Goodyear tires due to an Internet hoax,
198. said U.S. rates of COVID would be lower if you didn’t count blue states,
199. deported U.S. veterans who served their country but were undocumented,
200. claimed he did more for African Americans than any president since Lincoln,
201. touted a “super-duper” secret “hydrosonic” missile which may or may not be a new “hypersonic” missile or may not exist at all,
202. retweeted a gif calling Biden a pedophile,
203. forced through security clearances for his family,
204. suggested that police officers should rough up suspects,
205. suggested that Biden was on performance-enhancing drugs,
206. tried to stop transgender students from being able to use school bathrooms in line with their gender,
207. suggested the US not accept COVID patients from a cruise ship because it would make US numbers look higher,
208. nominated a climate change sceptic to chair the committee advising the White House on environmental policy,
209. retweeted a video doctored to look like Biden
210. had played a song called “Fuck tha Police” at a campaign event,
211. hugged a disturbingly large number of U.S. flags,
212. accused Democrats of “treason” for not applauding his State of the Union address,
213. claimed that the FBI failed to capture the Parkland school shooter because they were “spending too much time” on Russia,
214. mocked the testimony of Dr Christine Blasey Ford when she accused Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault,
215. obsessed over low-flow toilets,
216. ordered the rerelease of more COVID vaccines when there weren’t any to release,
217. called for the construction of a bizarre garden of heroes with statutes of famous dead Americans as well as at least one Canadian (Alex Trebek),
218. hijacked Washington’s July 4th celebrations to give a partisan speech,
219. took advice from the MyPillow guy,
220. claimed that migrants seeking a better life in the US were dangerous caravans of drug dealers and rapists,
221. said nothing when Vladimir Putin poisoned a leading opposition figure,
222. never seemed to heed the advice of his wife’s “Be Best” campaign,
223. falsely claimed that mail-in voting is fraudulent,
224. announced a precipitous withdrawal of troops from Syria which not only handed Russia and ISIS a win but also prompted his defense secretary to resign in protest,
225. insulted the leader of Canada,
226. insulted the leader of France,
227. insulted the leader of Britain,
228. insulted the leader of Germany,
229. insulted the leader of Sweden (Sweden!!),
230. falsely claimed credit for getting NATO members to increase their share of dues,
231. blew off two Asia summits even though they were held virtually,
232. continued lying about spending lots of time at Ground Zero with 9/11 responders,
233. said that the Japanese would sit back and watch their “Sony televisions” if the US were ever attacked,
234. left a NATO summit early in a huff,
235. stared directly into an eclipse even though everyone over the age of 5 knows not to do that,
236. called himself a very stable genius despite significant evidence to the contrary,
237. refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power and kept his promise.
238. Don’t forget that he took many classified & top secret documents with him when he left the White House, many of which have not been recovered & may have been compromised.
I’m sure there are a whole bunch of other things I can’t remember at the moment.
Plz copy and paste. Whoever wrote this deserves credit but I don't know who it is.
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