except, there is.
isla wasn't expecting the onslaught of emotions that overwhelmed her after running into owen at the grocery store. ironically, she was more concerned by his own possible emotions than her own, but that was typical for the blonde. she hated that they ran into each other there with their children attached to them, and not under better circumstances. if she had known he was around, they could have scheduled a meet up, one that wouldn't have caught them both off guard and turned them into awkward, stuttering fools. she cried in her car that day because out of all the things she planned to say to him, not one of them came out. she never got to recite her planned speeches for him, try to explain what happened and why all those years ago.
and then ollie showed up and any cordial conversation she tried having with the hot-headed archer went out the fucking window. it was hard to prepare an ex-lover for what she told him. the scarier conversation to have with him was the one about slade, but she was more concerned about getting him settled in this new life, the one where two souls shared one body. dinah tried to walk him through how it worked, but naturally things got off topic and he hit her with a whammy, telling her that her life was a mistake.
looking back on it, she could have reacted better, sure. she could have given him the benefit of the doubt in that he had just awoken five years after her other half had divorced his only to turn around and marry oliver's former rival years later. it was surely a bitter pill to swallow, but how could he tell her that she was living a mistake? when she had a home, a husband, happieness, and a child? the things she and him couldn't find together. isla understood the jealousy and was concerned by it, wanting to approach it differently, but dinah was as hot-headed as him and wanted to fight. all she wanted to do was fight. it took a lot of coaxing to calm her down, because the more she thought about it, the angrier she got. how could he say that, when he was the one that wasn't around? it wasn't that she expected him to show up at any time and sweep her off her feet in the early years, but jesus christ. was he expecting her to wait on her porch like an old spinster, waiting for her husband to come back from war? in your dreams, queen. never gonna happen.
she laid into him, telling him he had no right to be upset or jealous, that he wasn't around and owen had left. they did the right thing divorcing, because at that time she was sick and needed help that he could not have given her, but none of those words made it any softer, she knew. still, not matter how hard or uncomfortable it got, she realized that she still had a passion for this man that would never die. there was something about his stubborness and ego that had always drawn her to him. even though she may not still be in love with him and loved him in a very different way, she still wanted that man in her life. first, she needed him to understand that he couldn't just show up and tell her she was living a mistake, as if she were leading some fake life without him. dinah and isla were both happy, something he would eventually need to come to terms with. perhaps she couldn't stand him now, but she hoped in the future they could work it out. neither dinah nor isla could regret a single thing, even if she wanted to punch him directly in the teeth.