Higgs gave the waitress a soft thanks as she put the drinks down in front of them., also somewhat glad for the distraction before Lydia declined his offer. In return, Higgs nodded. Apart from stating that that was up to her, which was rather stating the obvious, there wasn't much he could say. And then Lydia carried on to note that she didn't really have any sort of relationship with Alicia and that was also fair. He hadn't really thought they did, past the fact that they lived next door to each other, which still struck him as quite an odd thing.
"Things are fine," Higgs replied. Things were always fine when you asked him about majority of things. "A bumpy ride," he offered. "But I hope that, yes, still the right direction," Higgs added truthfully. It wasn't easy but then, he had never expected it to be. That probably made it easier, actually. The fact that he didn't expect it to be. "It's partially why I wanted to see you," Higgs admitted since they were close enough to the topic that he felt he might as well bridge the gap. "But not the only reason," he added in case she might mistake his statement. "I do like meeting up with you," Higgs assured her with a smile since it was very much the truth.
He took a sip of his beer, before continuing with the thought. "Alicia and George want to be friends, as I'm sure you know," Higgs said, consciously reminding himself to actually use Weasley's name. He also did presume that Lydia knew. The way Weasley had spoken of her during their brief exchange on Higgs' journal had very much indicated to him a man that would have told his girlfriend, so Higgs didn't feel uncomfortable bringing it up. "How do you feel about it?" He asked instead of offering his feelings on the matter. Mostly because currently Higgs really was more interested in Lydia's opinion than anything he might think himself.