by Anna Martin
He was as wholesome as apple pie and twice as sweet, and even after months of this back-and-forth, not quite flirting, testing out the edges of each other, Cooper wasn’t sure if he was actually interested. Cooper had his favorite server at Starbucks, the guy who knew how to make his order just right. His hottie could feel the same about Cooper.
In his fantasies, Mr. Tall, Blond, and Beautiful made love to Cooper on soft white sheets, the doors to their beachside villa open to the paradise outside. He could picture it vividly—late afternoon sun warm on their faces, the smell of sea air and man-sweat, blond hair and gray eyes, the soft, husky whisper as Cooper writhed underneath him….
The fantasy ended as it often did, with sticky underwear and a sense of deep well-being.
With that particular itch scratched, Cooper drifted in and out of lazy almost-sleep for an hour, until his alarm beeped to tell him to haul his ass to work. Again.
Pulling double-shifts had sucked at first, though after the first month, he’d adapted pretty well. He’d been in LA for a year now, and he’d always thought it would be a stopping point on his way to San Francisco. He was supposed to find work for a couple months, do the LA things he wanted to do, then take the money he saved and head on up the coast. Cooper had made the trip a few times, for weekends away with friends, a minivacation or two, but had never made the move permanent. For now, this life suited him just fine.
He took a shower, needing it after his itch-scratching, and changed into black jeans and a black T-shirt with the bar’s logo on the back. He had different shoes for this job—checkered Vans, because he was cool like that. Back home in San Diego, in high school, Cooper had been attractive. He was fairly tall, slim and toned, and he did that thing with his hair, styling it back to make him look just a little James Dean.
In LA Cooper was dogshit.
He was one of the ugliest trolls who had ever existed.
In LA, people had assistants and maids and cleaners more attractive than Cooper.
Context was everything.
It was a good thing he wasn’t vain, or the injustice of it all would have wounded him.
Twirling his car keys around his finger, Cooper headed out of his apartment. The afternoon had started to cool, enough that Cooper wasn’t immediately sweating once outside.
His second job was even less glamorous than the first, which was saying something. It was a proper dive bar, fulfilling every cliché the owner could possibly cram into one building. It was Friday, which meant it was twenty-five-cent wing night, and Cooper would go home smelling like barbeque sauce and chicken and grease on top of the sticky-sweetness of spilled beer that had to be showered off before bed.
Jim’s Bar might once have been Irish themed; Cooper wasn’t sure. They certainly went all out for Saint Patrick’s Day and had Guinness on tap, though that wasn’t exactly conclusive. The regulars tipped well, and Cooper didn’t mind taking part in karaoke from time to time, and even though his colleagues weren’t nearly as nice as Alana at the Dreamy Creamery, he got on with them all just fine.
Cooper rolled his shoulders, pushed his aviators down onto his nose, and headed off for round two.
By three the following afternoon, Cooper was starting to run out of energy. Three days in a row of double-shifts took its toll, and though he’d never admit it, Cooper’s back ached.
“Your hottie came in the other day when you weren’t working,” Alana said as she cleaned off her waffle maker.
Cooper rolled his eyes. “Of course he did. Because fuck my life. What did he order?”
“Coffee and Cinnamon.”
“Gross,” Cooper muttered under his breath. It wasn’t like he was keeping track or anything, and of course his hottie could be served by anyone here. It wasn’t like it mattered.
Except it did, because Cooper always served him, and everyone else who worked at the Dreamy Creamery knew it, and it was ridiculous to feel jealous of someone else doing their goddamn job and scooping ice cream, for fuck’s sake. He was prepared to be in a pissy mood for the rest of his shift, because that was his goddamn right as an American citizen, when Alana elbowed him in the ribs—hard, because she was a bitch like that.
“What?” Cooper snapped.
She gave a pointed look toward the window. Where the hottie was smiling sheepishly, giving Cooper a little wave.
“Oh, fuck my life,” Cooper said, aloud this time, and plastered a grin on his face as he slid open the window. “Welcome to the Dreamy Creamery. What can I get for you today?”
“Hi, Cooper.”
“Hi.”
“I came by on Tuesday, but you weren’t here.”
“No.” Cooper wasn’t blushing. He wasn’t; he wasn’t. “I, uh, had to run a few errands. Alana mentioned that you stopped by.”
“I thought I should make sure you’re okay.”
Not blushing. No.
“I’m good, thank you. Do you want a sundae?”
Hottie huffed a cute little laugh, dimples forming in his cheeks. Motherfucking dimples. Cooper was going to die.
“I probably shouldn’t. Can I get you one?”
Cooper pressed his lips together. “I’m actually….” He cleared his throat. “I’m lactose intolerant.”
Hottie paused for a moment, then burst out laughing. “You work here and you’re lactose intolerant?”
“Laugh it up, buddy,” Cooper said. “It works out for the best. There’s no chance of me getting fat on the product.”
“There is that,” Hottie agreed. “Not that I think you’re fat,” he said, backtracking quickly. “I mean, uh, you’re good. As you are. Great, in fact.”
Cooper leaned his elbows on the window, letting his chin fall in his hands. “Is that so.”
“Uh, yeah.”
“What’s your name?”
“Sorry?”
“You always call me Cooper. But I don’t know your name.”
“Oh. Sorry. It’s Drew.”
“Drew.”
“Yeah.”
“If you don’t want a sundae, is there anything else I can get you?”
This was full-blown, all-out, Cooper Reed flirting charm. If this didn’t work, then he was going to quit, for good this time.
The hottie—Drew—was blinking like someone had just slapped him in the face and he wasn’t sure what to do about it.
“Drew,” Cooper said in a stage whisper. “I’m flirting with you. It’s okay. If you like it, you could try flirting back.”
“Oh.” He blinked again. “I’m not very good at this, am I?”
“Not particularly. It’s fine, though. I am.”
“You are.” He took a deep breath, then leaned forward and batted his eyelashes a little. “Could I get your phone number?”
“Smooth,” Cooper said with a bright laugh. “Sure, hotshot.”
He grabbed a napkin and a marker from his apron and scrawled his number. No hearts, no kisses, nothing to scare Drew off. He carefully folded it and handed it out; Drew took it and tucked it into the pocket of his shorts.
“Thanks. I think I changed my mind, though.”
Cooper’s heart sank. His stomach churned.
“Could I get a Lemon and Pistachio double scoop sundae?”
“No problem.”
“Cooper?”
“Yeah?”
“With rainbow sprinkles.”
Chapter Two
Sunday dawned slow and easy, a warm glow and a promise of a hot day to come later. Drew stretched, feeling delightfully relaxed and at peace with the world. He had two days off work before he was due back for his next shift at the Happiest Place on Earth, and he planned to use those days wisely doing nothing. Nothing at all.
He shifted, settled, and sighed.
Okay, he was going to clean up his room, because it was a mess, and do some laundry, and get to the gym at least once, and call his mother before she called him and chewed him out for not calling her first. And if he was feeling especially brave, Drew thought
he might call Cooper.
The napkin had been on his dresser since Friday, carefully out of the way of anything that might let it get lost or damaged. He hadn’t had the intention to wait so long before giving Cooper a call, but he’d been working extra shifts recently, and Fridays and Saturdays were always busy. He’d gotten home late, showered, and collapsed onto his couch, not wanting to talk to anyone at all.
Of course Cinderella had turned up with all her princess friends and interrupted Drew’s plans for a Breaking Bad marathon, and he’d taken himself upstairs and hidden in his room instead.
It was a little after nine in the morning, so he hadn’t slept ridiculously late. He decided to save his workout for later, and make it a run on the beach with his buddy’s Labrador instead of lifting weights in an air-conditioned gym.
Drew wasn’t a particularly messy guy, but working extra hours had cut into his spare time, and the state of his personal space was usually the first thing to slip. He had traumatic memories of his teenage years and his mother threatening to burn all his worldly possessions if he didn’t pick them up off the floor of his room.
It turned out he’d grown up a lot in the ten years or so since that incident. The laundry and cleaning got done within a couple of hours, he ran a rag and some bleach around the kitchen to count toward his “good housemate” points, and took a long shower since he was apparently the only one home today.
Clean, dressed, and feeling good about getting his chores done, Drew stared at his dresser and the napkin with Cooper’s number on it. If he put it off much longer, the chances were Cooper would get the wrong idea. Taking a deep breath for courage, he surged across the room, grabbed the scrap of paper, and punched the number into his phone.
It rang four times, and Drew was about to hang up, then go throw up, when a scratchy voice answered.
“Hello?”
“Hi, Cooper?”
“Yeah.”
“This is Drew. Um, Andrew Tanner. You gave me your number at work?”
“Hey, Drew.”
“Did I wake you up?”
Drew flopped back onto his bed and stared at his ceiling. There was a crack in the plaster running almost the whole width of the room.
“Yeah, but don’t worry about it. I should have been up hours ago.”
“Late night?”
“Working, yeah,” Cooper said with a laugh. “I think I remember the concept of a social life? I pick up a few shifts in a bar a couple of times a week.”
“Ah.”
“Anyway, it’s good to hear from you.”
“Sorry I didn’t call before. I’ve been working a lot too.”
“Don’t worry about it. You free today?”
Drew thought about his plans, then forgot them all. “Nothing I can’t rearrange.”
“No is an acceptable answer,” Cooper laughed.
“I was going to take my friend’s dog for a walk on the beach later. He won’t mind if we do it another day.”
“Wanna do something?”
“Sure. Can you be ready in an hour? I can pick you up.”
“I’ve got a car.”
“Yeah, but I want to take you somewhere.”
Cooper chuckled softly. “Okay. I can be ready in an hour. You got a pen?” He rattled off an address, said he was going to make himself beautiful, and hung up before Drew could say he always thought Cooper looked beautiful, even when he was wearing a candy pink-and-white striped shirt at work.
It wasn’t like Drew had the best work uniform of all time.
His GPS said Cooper lived thirty minutes away, so Drew made that forty for traffic and grabbed his wallet, deciding to leave now and get a coffee on the way.
Drew lived in a nice enough neighborhood in Anaheim, in a family-sized home he shared with four of his colleagues. It made for one busy house at times and for some slightly epic house parties. Most of the time, it felt like they should install a revolving door in place of their front door. Apart from the wee hours of the morning, it was rare all of them were home at the same time.
When he reached the apartment block Cooper had directed him to, Cooper was waiting on the sidewalk, nervously turning his phone in his hands. His shoulders visibly slumped with relief when Drew pulled up, which was strangely reassuring—Drew wasn’t the only nervous one here.
“Hey,” Drew said, winding down the passenger side window. “Hop in.”
“Hi.” Cooper slid into the car and leaned over to press a quick kiss to Drew’s cheek. Well, that was unexpected. And nice. And one way to break the ice.
Drew forced himself to quickly recover and put the car back into Drive.
“Where are we going?” Cooper asked as Drew indicated and pulled into the flow of traffic.
“It’s a surprise.”
“Okay.” Cooper chuckled.
It was a warm, breezy day, and Cooper had dressed in shorts and a denim shirt open over his T-shirt. His hair was still slightly damp and styled back from his face, showing off his bright blue eyes.
“Are you from California?” Cooper asked as Drew expertly navigated traffic. Driving in LA was a skill all of its own.
“Nope. Moved here two years ago from Portland.”
“Huh,” Cooper said, and Drew wasn’t entirely sure how to interpret that, but Cooper sounded impressed. “Are you taking me to work? I already told you, I can’t eat ice cream.”
Drew laughed. “No, though I’ve been craving coconut ice cream all week.”
“I’m trying to think how you’d make that disgusting. But coconut goes with a lot of stuff.”
“I genuinely like those sundaes, you know.”
“Uh-huh.”
Drew tore his eyes away from the road for one moment, to chance a look at Cooper’s expression. He was smirking. Drew wasn’t sure how to process that information.
They drove on for a few more minutes in companionable silence, passing the Dreamy Creamery. Then as they passed another sign, Cooper turned and slugged him in the arm.
“Are we going to Disneyland?”
“So, confession time,” Drew said, fighting a smile. “I work there.”
“You don’t.”
“I do, I swear.”
Cooper grinned and shook his head. “Man, I haven’t been there since I was a little kid.” He cocked his head at Drew’s questioning expression. “I grew up in San Diego. We didn’t have a whole lot of money, but my parents took us twice, I think.”
“But now you live so close!”
“And I’m twenty-four.”
“You’re never too old for Disneyland,” Drew said earnestly, and Cooper broke into delighted laughter.
“Are you for real? I don’t think you’re for real. But I like you anyway.”
“Good. I, uh, I get comp tickets, by the way. I didn’t want you to think I was gonna drop a few hundred on a first date.”
“So you’re not gonna be my sugar daddy?”
“Afraid not.”
“Ah, well. I’ll survive, I’m sure.”
There was a parking lot for employees, and Drew’s car had the right badge so he could use it even when he wasn’t on shift. Well, not officially, but no one ever checked. It took a few minutes to walk around to the main entrance to the park, and Drew took them to a specific gate so he could get Cooper a guest pass.
“This is actually a pretty good time to get here,” Drew said as they got through the gates that opened out into the color and music and smell of Main Street. Ahead of them, Sleeping Beauty’s castle loomed, pink and blue, miniature princesses twirling in front and posing for pictures. “A lot of people take their kids out for lunch and then get them to take a nap midafternoon, then bring them back for the parade and show later tonight.”
“Jesus. I feel like a kid again.”
“That’s the magic of the place,” Drew said, hip checking him gently as they strolled down the store-lined street. To their left, Minnie Mouse was signing autographs, and Cooper craned his neck to see. “What do you w
ant to do? We can just walk around—it’s a nice day—or we can hit some of the rides if you like.”
“Do they still have—” Cooper waved his arm around demonstratively. “—Pirates of the Caribbean?”
“Of course.”
“Okay. I wanna do that.”
Drew put his hand on Cooper’s lower back, gently guiding him through the crowds of people. He knew the park like the back of his hand; it was split into eight themed “lands,” each distinct in both style and the rides contained within. Fantasyland was bright and fun, geared toward smaller kids who wanted to hop on a magical pirate ship and sail over Peter Pan’s Never Never Land. Tomorrowland had once been Walt Disney’s own vision of the future. Now it housed Space Mountain and, most recently, Star Wars-themed rides and activities.
Drew instinctively cut through the tiki-themed Adventureland to get to Pirates of the Caribbean. Cooper was quiet, but Drew wasn’t concerned. Cooper had a familiar look of wide-eyed, childlike glee on his face as he looked up and around, soaking it all in. Drew could empathize. He got the same feeling most days.
“See over there?” Drew said, tugging Cooper over to the barrier in front of the Rivers of America and pointing just beyond the Mark Twain Riverboat.
“Yeah?”
“That’s where they started work on the new Star Wars land.”
“There’s going to be a Star Wars land?” Cooper exclaimed.
“Yeah,” Drew said with a laugh. “I’ve seen some of the concept art. It looks pretty cool. It won’t open for a while yet, though.”
Cooper made a face, and Drew grinned at him. His concerns about bringing Cooper here were apparently unfounded.
“Pirates?”
“Hell yeah.”
They rode Pirates of the Caribbean and Big Thunder Mountain, skipping the line when one of Drew’s friends waved them through to the front. Drew always felt a little guilty when they did that. After, he bought them a couple of bottles of water, and they wandered slowly through the park, taking the big loop through to Tomorrowland.
“Is it weird, being here and not working?” Cooper asked.
“A little. Not really. When I work an early shift, I sometimes get changed and come back through in my regular clothes. It’s been a while since I’ve been on any of the rides, though.”