by Alexa Land
“Thank you so much, River.”
A cloud passed over his features, and I said, “Uh oh. Did I do something wrong?”
He shook his head and was quiet for a moment before saying, “When I told you about my cars, I left out one detail. The Hot Wheels actually belonged to my dad first. They were his favorite toys when he was a kid, and then he gave them to me when I was about six. After he died and Mom decided to move in with Gram…this is a terrible thing to admit, but I was so angry. I know that’s completely unfair. He didn’t leave us on purpose. He got killed by a drunk driver, it wasn’t his fault. But I was angry anyway, angry at him for dying, and angry because I had to leave my home, my friends, my school. I was only twelve, and so messed up inside that I blamed him somehow. Maybe I did that because it was easier to cope with anger than all that grief. Anyway, I didn’t want to keep the cars when we were packing to move because they reminded me of him, so I threw them in the donation box, and my mom took them to the Goodwill. It was such a stupid thing to do.”
“Oh God. I totally screwed up.”
Cole looked up at me and rested his hand on a little Corvette Stingray as he said, “No you didn’t. You just gave me back a piece of my dad. I regretted getting rid of those cars a million times over the years, and some of these are exactly what I used to have, like that orange hot rod and the yellow ambulance. You know what? They could literally be the same ones. I know the chances of that are a million to one, but maybe these are actually the cars I gave away. Maybe they bounced around from thrift shop to thrift shop and ended up in San Francisco, so you could find them and give them back to me, and fix the mistake I made all those years ago.”
“You’re right. They could absolutely be the same cars.”
He grinned a little and said, “Way to buy into my delusion.”
I reached across the tabletop and rested my hand on his, and after a moment I said, “Maybe we should order a pizza.”
“Why?”
“Because there was a theme for tonight, and given how clueless I was with that gift…well, I don’t want to upset you, Cole.”
“I’m alright. Please go with whatever you had planned.”
“Okay. In that case, wait here. Everything’s ready to go, I just need five minutes in the kitchen to plate it up.”
He smiled at me and said, “I’m looking forward to it.”
I hurried to the kitchen and called over the tall, stainless steel pass-through, “I really hope you like this. But if you don’t, I won’t be offended, I promise. We really can order a pizza. There’s a place right down the street, it could be here in twenty minutes.”
“I’m sure I’ll love it.”
A few minutes later, I returned to the dining room carrying two plates covered in elaborate, silver cloches. I put them on the table and said, “Okay, here goes nothing.”
When I removed the coverings, Cole’s eyes went wide, and then he started laughing. “Oh my God! You made all my favorite foods from when I was a kid! How did you know?”
“I called your Gram this afternoon and asked what you used to like, and she gave me her recipe for macaroni and cheese a la Grandma. She said to tell you she’s glad we’re getting back together, and also that she’s mad at you because you forgot to call her and your mom on Sunday.”
“Oh crap, I totally did forget!”
“I told her you’d been at a wedding in Napa, and that I distracted you by roping you in to help me cater it. You’re forgiven, but she expects her call next Sunday.”
“I’ll definitely remember.” He picked up his fork and smiled at me. “I can’t believe you made me my Gram’s mac and cheese. It looks delicious, and so does the fried zucchini with ranch dressing. The tiny carton of chocolate milk with a straw is hilarious.” He pointed at a pair of rectangular, savory pastries and asked, “Did you actually make homemade pizza pockets?”
I nodded as I took my seat. “Gram said you ate hundreds of them as a teenager. These won’t be exactly the same, because they won’t hit the same cheap, processed note as the original microwave variety. But I hope you like them.”
I watched happily as he tucked into the macaroni and cheese and told me it was exactly like he remembered. He took a drink of chocolate milk, then said, “Thank you so much. This is one of the nicest things anyone’s ever done for me.”
I grinned at his praise and murmured, “You’re welcome.”
“Come on now, eat. Don’t make me lecture you about cleaning your plate, the way my mom and grandma used to.”
I tried a big forkful of macaroni and cheese and said, “This really is good. I was skeptical about the addition of the mild green chiles, but she’s onto something here. Trevor and his family liked it too, by the way. I made double recipes of all these dishes and took them to their house this afternoon. Josh was particularly thrilled about the dessert.”
We chatted animatedly as we ate. Both of us had seconds, and we polished off the bottle of champagne. Later on, when his plate was empty, Cole leaned back and patted his flat belly. “That was so good. Thank you again, River.”
“You’re welcome again. There are peanut butter and chocolate brownies for dessert. Gram didn’t have a recipe for those, she said she used to buy them at the supermarket bakery. But she did tell me they were your favorite. I learned so much about you with this meal.”
He turned the stem of his champagne flute between his fingers as he said, “We never talked much about our childhoods. Too many painful memories, I guess. But tonight was perfection. I can’t even tell you what it meant to me.”
“I’m glad you liked it.”
“Loved it.” He came around to my side of the table, kissed me tenderly, and said, “Even though those brownies sound heavenly, I need to wait before I eat dessert. I’m stuffed.”
“Sure. What would you like to do in the meantime? Name it, and I’ll make it happen.”
“I know exactly what I want to do.” He grinned at me mischievously and pulled off his suit jacket.
As he unbuttoned his cuffs, I said, “Despite that teasing grin, I know you’re not proposing sex on a full stomach.”
“That comes later,” he said. “Right now, I’m just planning to roll around on the floor with you.” He handed me a Hot Wheel and got one for himself, and then he really did get down on the floor. I laughed as he started driving the car around, and I took off my suit jacket and joined him. I’d never seen that childlike, playful side of him before.
Cole had grown up way too fast. He’d told me once that his childhood ended the day his dad died. After that, he was expected to be the man of the house. He’d even started working two jobs after school to help out financially. It made me so happy to watch him have fun and just be silly, after all that had been taken from him.
We laughed as we crawled around, rolling the cars across the smooth wood floor. Then Cole got the idea to position one of the chairs like a ramp. We lined up two cars at the top and let go at the same time so they could drag race down the curved chair back and across the dining room. We pitted each of the cars against each other in turn until we found the fastest two, and we held the finalists side-by-side. “This is it, winner take all,” he said with a goofy grin. “My money’s on the ambulance.”
“No way! The stingray’s totally got this,” I said.
“Wanna bet?”
“Absolutely. What should we play for?”
“Winner gets to call when and where we have sex tonight,” he said, with a wicked glint in his eyes.
“Oh, you’re on!”
He counted backwards from three, and when we let go of the cars, the ambulance shot ahead of the Corvette and kept going until it was clear across the dining room. We both cheered and jumped up to chase after the toys. Once we’d retrieved them, Cole said, “When you least expect it, expect it,” and I burst out laughing.
After that, we enjoyed some brownies and coffee while sitting on the kitchen counter, and then Cole helped me clean up. Since I’d done most
of the cooking at my apartment, it didn’t take long to return the kitchen to its pristine state. We loaded the toy cars, sunflowers, and leftovers into my van and left a thank you note for Dante and Charlie, along with one of the bouquets of flowers and a plate of brownies. As I locked the front door and pulled it shut behind us, I asked, “Do you want to go for a walk?”
“Definitely.” Cole took my hand, and we meandered down Chestnut Street. At a little after nine on a Monday night, the popular strip of shops, galleries, and restaurants was fairly uncrowded. We window-shopped along the way, commenting on things that caught our eye. The Marina District was an upscale neighborhood, so we played the ‘if money were no object’ game and picked out artwork and lavish trinkets to furnish our fictitious mansion. At one point, Cole smiled at me and said, “It’s a damn good thing we’re poor. We’ve picked out some truly garish shit tonight.”
“What? That life-size ceramic sculpture of a black and green tiger was perfectly tasteful.”
“Clearly. I just have to ask though, why was it green?”
“It makes a statement,” I said. “Turns out, the statement is ‘I’ve got more money than sense,’ but hey, it’s still a statement.”
We walked for maybe half an hour, cutting through a quiet residential neighborhood before emerging at the edge of a park. Across a wide pond, the Palace of Fine Arts was lit up, and I murmured, “Every time I see that, I’m blown away all over again.”
Cole and I circled the pond and headed for what looked like an ancient, Greco-Roman ruin. In reality, the terra cotta-colored structure had been built as an amusement for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exhibition. It was supposed to be temporary, but the people of San Francisco had loved it too much to tear it down when the exhibition ended. It was easy to see why.
Long colonnades flanked a towering, open-air rotunda, which was topped by a high dome and embellished with statuary, elaborate cornices, and fluted columns. The whole thing was grand and beautiful and timeless, like something from a dream, and we wandered through it with a sense of wonder. When we reached the center of the rotunda, Cole pulled me into his arms and kissed me. Then he surprised me by whispering in my ear, “Here and now.”
We had the place to ourselves, but even so, my breath caught and my heartbeat sped up at the idea of having sex in public. It turned me on too, and I started to get hard as he kissed me again and massaged my cock through my clothes. After a minute, he led me over to one of the columns, and when he spun me to face it, I was surprised yet again.
Cole bottomed more than he topped, but it was perfectly clear what he wanted that night. He pulled my pants down to mid-thigh and stroked my cock as he kissed my neck. His bold confidence and the thought that we could get caught at any moment was exhilarating.
He didn’t waste any time. Cole pulled a packet of lube from his pocket and fingered me open as he jerked me off. I bent over for him and spread my legs as far as I could in the confines of my clothes. When his cock pressed against my opening, I braced my hands against the base of the pillar and bore down to let him in.
We fucked hard and fast as adrenaline coursed through us. We were right in the open archway at the front of the rotunda, so if anyone in the apartments facing the park happened to look outside, they’d be sure to see us. We didn’t care.
Cole slammed into my ass again and again, pounding my prostate, clutching my hips with both hands while I jerked myself off. My head swam from the intense pleasure and the thrill of being in public. In just a matter of minutes, I angled myself toward some nearby bushes, bit back a yell, and grasped my cock as I started to cum. Cole kept fucking me hard as we both rode out my orgasm, and when I finished, he slid from my body and started to jerk off, too. In just a few seconds, he shot into the bushes like I had, with one arm still around my waist, holding me up as my knees wobbled.
We cleaned up with a packet of wipes he produced from his pocket, then got dressed quickly, and he guided me to a bench at the water’s edge. As soon as we sat down, we both looked at each other and started laughing, and I said, “That was new.”
“Yup.”
“What were we thinking?”
“It’s okay. We didn’t get caught.”
“No, I mean what were we thinking by waiting this long to have sex in public? That was hot!”
Cole chuckled and pulled me close, and I put my head on his shoulder as he asked, “Are you okay? That wasn’t very much prep, and you hadn’t bottomed in a long time.”
“I’m fine.”
“If you were sore, would you tell me? Or would you keep it to yourself so I wouldn’t feel guilty?”
I tilted my head back so I could look at him and admitted, “I’d keep it to myself.”
“That’s what I thought.”
“Okay, full disclosure: my ass is aching a bit, but it reminds me of how it felt when you were thrusting into me, so I like it.”
He kissed my forehead and said, “Thanks for telling me.”
We looked out over the pond, watching the lights reflected in the dark water, and after a while I asked, “Out of curiosity, did you start off tonight intending to fuck me in public?”
The corner of his mouth tilted up into a smile. “I intended to fuck you. The ‘in public’ part was just a bonus. I didn’t know what you had planned for this evening. I figured we’d probably go out to eat, then maybe back to your place. I like the fact that you changed it up.”
“Just hanging out in my apartment didn’t feel like a real date. I wanted it to be special for you.”
“This was the best date of my life.”
I kissed him and said, “Since I know you’re working the next six nights in a row, can I take you out next Monday?”
“Actually, next Monday I’m taking you out. I already have some plans in the works.”
“You do?”
He nodded and said, “I have no intention of going a week without seeing you, though. Even if I’m working, we can still get together before or after.”
“I was hoping you’d say that.”
“When’s your next catering gig?”
“Actually, there’s nothing on the books right now,” I told him. “I’d been completely focused on Cat and Conrad’s wedding and hadn’t been hustling to book anything beyond it. The good news is, it paid well, so financially, I’ll be fine for the next few weeks. Next month’s rent is covered, and the lights will stay on. That’s a win in my book.”
“Is Quinn good about covering his half of the rent?”
“Surprisingly, yes. He has a steady job as a go-go dancer, thanks to my brother-in-law, and he’s forever picking up odd second jobs. He should be working for a major ballet company, because he’s that good. But somehow, he’s resistant to the idea. I don’t know why.”
“Good to know you don’t have to support him.” He sat up a bit and brushed the hair from my eyes. “Do you want me to go get the van so you don’t have to walk all the way back to the restaurant? It’s been a long day, and you must be tired.”
“Plus, you’re worried you fucked me too hard and I’m hurting more than I let on.” He nodded, and I got up and said, “I’m fine, Cole. You don’t have to worry about me. In fact, next time you fuck me, do it even harder. I don’t want you to hold back.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.” He got up too and kissed me, and when I burrowed into his arms, he held me securely. After a moment, he said, “You’re different, River.”
“Am I?”
He nodded. “You always wanted to be in charge before, and I’m not just talking about sex, though that was part of it. You needed to be right, and you needed to be in control. It seems like you’ve let go of that, and it’s surprising. I really thought it was deeply ingrained in you.”
“I always hated that part of myself. I acted like a scared little kid, too afraid of everything falling apart to trust anyone else to handle even the simplest things. I must have been insufferable to live with.”
“It didn’t bother me that much. Sin
ce I don’t have a burning desire to be in charge, I was usually okay with letting you steer the ship and going along for the ride. But this feels good, like we’re on more equal footing now.”
“I’m sure it isn’t totally gone,” I said. “But I’m trying to change, for our sake. It isn’t worth being in control if it also means being alone.”
He kissed me again, and as we started to head back to the restaurant hand-in-hand, he said, “Can I invite myself back to your apartment? I’d invite you back to mine, but I want to hang out with you in front of the TV and eat brownies and snuggle, and we can’t actually do that at my place. Duke doesn’t let anyone eat in the living room.”
“Of course you can. You can even spend the night if you want.”
Cole grinned at me. “On a first date? I don’t want you to think I’m easy.”
“You just fucked me against the side of a historic landmark,” I reminded him. “If anyone’s easy, it’s me.”
“Yeah, you know, you have a point there. You are easy.” He glanced at me, and I poked him in the ribs as we both started laughing.
*****
When we stepped through the door of my apartment, Cole and I froze in our tracks. I didn’t know what was more surprising: the fact that Quinn had mounted a disco ball to the ceiling, which made the glittered walls sparkle, or the fact that he was sitting on the couch in a tuxedo with Puffy the Attack Cat on his lap. Of course, the moment the cat saw me, he jumped up and raced into Quinn’s bedroom, and my roommate said, “Wow. That cat really hates you.”
“I know. Why are you wearing a tuxedo?”
“Because Puffy’s wearing one, and I didn’t want him to feel overdressed.”
As Cole and I came into the living room, I said, “So…you went out and rented a tux so you could hang out with a cat?”
Quinn raised an eyebrow at me. “Of course not, that’d be silly.”