9. Cole

"He comes back tonight, right?"Matthew asked over a table full of chicken Caring Cuisine received from a grocery store that overbought. Matthew always wrinkled his nose when he had to do meat-adjacent tasks, so Cole usually spared him. He didn't care about raw meat. However, this was the primary task for the day.

"Plane lands in two hours." Cole had gotten a handful of texts and a selfie from Brady before the plane had taken off. "It's crazy how much I miss him. I'm trying to play it cool, but then he calls and I practically trip over myself answering. I don't know if I've ever really given a shit about a boy before."

"That's how it was with Blake. One day I thought I was going to die alone, and the next, I was moving across the continent for him. Love is a drug, when you know, you know, blah blah." Matthew was cubing up chicken breasts for a pasta bake, touching each chicken breast like it was going to burn him, even though he was wearing gloves.

The kitchen was busy—with a few interns helping guide some regular volunteers through other prep tasks that needed to get done, with the sound of several knives on cutting boards, the hollow clank of commercial-grade stainless steel bins getting passed around, and a '90s pop playlist on Spotify. The pace of Cole's job had helped the time pass between Brady leaving and Brady coming back. He wouldn't be volunteering this information, but he had a countdown on his phone.

"You know when you go to summer camp, and you make these crazy close friends because of proximity, and fear, and changed schedule, and being around each other every second of the day?"

"Sure."

"It feels like that. Like we did a speed-run of getting to know each other."

"It's scary to go from a person expecting to be single for the foreseeable future to someone who now has to factor a new person into their lives. But it's good, Coley. It's worth it."

"We talked every day, more than once. He said he wants me to meet his family when things settle down—he's got a little sibling drama right now."

"That's a big step."

"He said he wants to be my boyfriend."

"What did you say?"

"That we should take it slow."

Matthew scoffed, trying to blow a loose strand of hair out of his face. "Just fucking do it. Maybe I'm not the best person to give advice here, because I understand Blake and I aren't the usual situation, but do it. Try."

"I thought you hated this kid."

"Yeah, when he was looking at my husband like he was an all-you-can-eat buffet." Matthew's entire demeanor changed every time he called Blake his husband, like they were the first two people ever to get married. Jeez. Some couples had the audacity to make you believe in love.

"You want me to date him so he stops bugging you?" Cole raised an eyebrow at him.

"Nah. I want you to date him because you looked so happy when the two of you were hanging out all weekend. You were having actual fun, not ‘I'll have one drink, but I have to be in bed by nine' fun."

Fuck. Matthew was right. Cole could be nose-to-the-grindstone with his job. It's why he'd had to quit working in restaurants. He didn't have boundaries and would let a job eat him alive if it wanted. Caring Cuisine asked a reasonable amount from him, but he still wanted to give double effort. Self-sacrificing effort. And when he felt ground to dust, he remembered that every day, he cooked food to serve his community. Folks struggling with illness. The precious remaining queer elders left. His work felt serious to him.

But being with Brady was real fun, where he got to be in the moment and share that with someone he liked. To be silly, to tease and be teased, to give and receive pleasure knowing that your partner actually gave a shit whether you came.

He clocked out when he got the notification that Brady's flight landed. Another selfie. Fuck, he was cute. Cole was jittery with how much he wanted to get his hands on that man, and having him be in the same city again and not immediately getting to maul him was an affront.

Cole obviously couldn't pick up Brady on his bike. Brady had left his car in an airport parking lot though, so Cole biked home and straightened up his apartment a little. Brady had spent one night in his bed, and Cole was already fantasizing about that becoming a regular thing. He knew about the hockey schedule. Matthew complained about it enough. But Cole was tenacious. He'd figure out a way to get Brady in his bed as often as possible.

Brady shared his ETA with him when he got to his car, and when he was nearly there, Cole headed downstairs. Brady's SUV turned into his parking lot, and the second his car was in Park, he was out of it, the two of them closing the distance with fake casual slowness until they were close enough for Cole to leap into his arms.

"Hey, baby," Brady said, spinning Cole around once before setting him back on the asphalt. When Brady kissed him, it was with a familiarity that Cole had never felt before. Maybe this was what finding your person was like. "God, you look good. You smell good. Neither of those things applies to me."

"I literally do not care what you smell like. I want you in my bed immediately." There had been no phone-sex attempts. Brady lived in a small house with nosy siblings. Cole had respected that.

"Lead the way."