by Anna Martin
“He saw us,” Alana murmured.
“Yeah, I think so.”
“What now?”
Cooper looked at her. “I thought you had a plan.”
She shrugged. “I dunno. I just wanted you to stop moping around.”
Alana had chosen to wear a Grateful Dead T-shirt for her day in the Happiest Place on Earth, with black ripped jeans and her battered Chucks. Her dark hair was pulled back in an intricate braid and she was wearing purple lipstick.
“I’m taking you on It’s a Small World,” Cooper said decisively.
“No, you’re fucking not.”
“I’ll stop moping….”
Alana scowled. “I’m never going to forgive you for this.”
Cooper pressed his lips together to hide his grin. “I’m sure I’ll survive.”
When they got off the ride, there was a text waiting on Cooper’s phone.
“So, Drew wants to know what we’re doing here,” he said, letting Alana lead him over to a street vendor.
“Tell him we came to see him,” she said easily.
He quickly typed out a reply and clutched his phone in now-sweaty hands while Alana bought a huge bag of cotton candy.
“Want some?” she asked, shoving the pink, sugary mess at him.
“No, thanks. He says he finishes at three.”
“What on earth could we do to entertain ourselves until then?” Alana deadpanned, though the effect was slightly stilted by the pink fluff stuck to her chin.
“You’re going to have more fun than you’ve ever had in your whole life.”
“Doubtful. Very doubtful.”
They stuck to Fantasyland, because all of the pink and sparkle seemed antithetical to Alana’s whole aesthetic, and Cooper was man enough to admit he was endlessly amused by her attempts to not be entertained.
It wasn’t like Cooper was counting down the hours or anything… except he totally was, and they hadn’t paid to get in, and Alana had way too much fun on the scary Snow White ride. She was pumped full of sugar and a little twitchy, and Cooper decided she was the best friend he’d ever had.
Apart from Drew.
He wasn’t sure where Drew would come out from, so they stuck close to the doors that led “backstage.” It was a little after three when Cooper caught Drew wandering through the park in his regular clothes, just in front of the flying Dumbo ride. He looked gorgeous in khaki shorts and a white shirt, unbuttoned enough to show off his toned chest. With his slick-backed hair and aviator sunglasses, he looked more like a rock star than a prince.
“Hey,” Cooper said softly as Alana melted off into a crowd.
Drew looked… nervous. He was a big guy but never intimidating. He managed to seem almost fragile, and in that moment, Cooper knew he was still desperately in love.
“Hey. Do you want to go sit down somewhere?”
Cooper nodded and let himself be led to a bench he hadn’t even noticed before, opposite the Mad Hatter’s twirling teacups, the perfect place to stop and watch the world go by.
“How was the movie?” Cooper asked. “You didn’t even tell me what it was about.”
Drew smiled tentatively from behind his sunglasses. “It was a low-budget horror,” he said. “Totally not my usual thing but a lot of fun. I think I got some good contacts out of it and made a good impression.”
“That’s awesome. When’s the big premiere, then?”
“Ah, it’s going to be released digitally,” Drew said, rubbing the back of his neck. “No premiere this time.”
“Next time.”
“Yeah, maybe.”
They fell into silence then, and Cooper wanted to cringe. He wasn’t sure what had happened to their easy, warm friendship that underpinned the romantic feelings he had for Drew. It felt like everything had just slipped away.
“I missed you,” he blurted, not sure what else he could say.
“I missed you too,” Drew said quietly. He looked steadfastly at his hands, clasped between his knees, not at Cooper. “I’m not really sure where it went wrong.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I want….”
Drew looked up then, and Cooper wanted to beg him to take the sunglasses off. He wasn’t sure if he could do this without seeing the expression on Drew’s face.
“Tell me,” Drew said.
“I want us to be together again.”
“Okay,” Drew said slowly. “If we do that, then there’s a few things we need to talk about.”
Cooper’s stomach pitched, but he nodded. “Sure.”
“Firstly, I’m sorry too. I didn’t mean to make you feel like you were less than anything. I’ve always liked you just the way you are. Secondly… I want us to be able to talk about things, the future, without being afraid. I haven’t ever had a proper boyfriend before—”
“Wait… what?”
Drew shrugged and tried to hide the flush in his cheeks. “No. Casual things, yes. But not anything serious with someone I care about. This is new territory for me, and I’m going to fuck up again, I’m sure of that. So I want to know we can be honest with each other without it turning into something we can’t find our way back from.”
Cooper reached over and pulled Drew’s hands from between his knees, then laced their fingers together.
“I’m sorry. I wish you’d told me. Of course we can talk about anything.”
“I want you to meet my mom,” Drew said in a rush. “I want to be able to take you home and show you off.”
“Did you think I’d say no to that?”
“Yes?” Drew said, making it a question. “I guessed you wouldn’t be okay with that at all.”
“I’d love to meet your family,” Cooper said softly. “If we’re together, then we’re together. With everything that goes with that.”
“Can I meet your mom too?”
“Of course you can,” Cooper laughed.
“And your sisters?”
“Yeah, them too. Though they’re all assholes and will absolutely tell lies about me. Just so you know.”
“I’ll consider myself warned.” Drew tentatively reached over and took hold of Cooper’s hand. “I don’t want this to be another fight,” he said, rubbing his thumbs over Cooper’s knuckles. “But I just want you to know that I’ll support you, no matter what you want in your career. If that means staying at the Dreamy Creamery and you just getting better and better at what you do, then I’ll back you up. I mean it.”
Cooper nodded, then cleared his throat. “I don’t want to stay there forever.” He thought it was important to get that out in the open. “The ice cream truck… it’s been one of those pipe dream things, you know? Like when me and Alana are talking shit in the back room of the store, saying what we’d do if we won the lottery. She would say how she’d open up her own rock bar, like an alternative to the Viper Room. And I’d get my ice cream truck.
“I still have all of the same objections,” he continued after a moment. “About getting the licenses and figuring out taxes and all that shit.”
“That just takes research, though. I looked into it. You can get small business grants too, to cover set up. I can help. If you want me to.”
Cooper nodded slowly. “Yeah. Okay. We can look into it.”
“Okay.” Drew smiled one of his hundred-watt Disney smiles. “Is there anything you want?”
Cooper thought of a lot of things in that moment, most of them to do with Drew’s mouth. He forced himself to be practical.
“I want… I want to be able to take you out too,” he said after a moment.
“Okay.”
“This isn’t a criticism, because you come up with the most amazing dates and I love going out with you. But sometimes I feel like you don’t want me to spoil you. Let me have that too.”
Drew frowned, a little crease between his eyebrows that Cooper wanted to kiss away. “Okay,” he said slowly.
“I’m not saying don’t take me out,” Cooper explained, wondering if he was ge
tting his point across at all. “I just want it to be an equal thing. You take me out. I take you out. Instead of it being your treat every time.”
“We can do that.”
Drew finally smiled then. His fingers stroked through Cooper’s, over the palm of his hand, brushing his knuckles. They were finally figuring this out.
“You are extraordinarily easy to love. Did anyone ever tell you that?”
“Only you,” Cooper admitted.
“I’ll make sure to remind you more often. Where did Alana disappear to?”
“She’s around somewhere,” Cooper said easily. “I can call her if you like.”
“She’s going on a date with my friend.”
“I heard.”
“Is that going to be weird?”
“Nah,” Cooper said. “It’s double date time now, though. I want to see Trevor trying to take Alana on a romantic evening stroll through this place. She’ll hate it. It’ll be awesome.”
Drew laughed, then leaned over and kissed the corner of Cooper’s mouth. “Are you mine again now?”
“Yeah,” Cooper said immediately. He put his head down on Drew’s shoulder and let some of the tension roll away.
“Good. What do you want to do next?”
“Honestly? Take you home, put you in my bed, and not let you out for days.”
Drew chuckled, low and dirty. “I’m sure we can make that happen. There’s something else first, though.”
“Oh?”
“We need to find Alana and take her on Splash Mountain.”
“And make her ride in the front seat.”
“See,” Drew said decisively, poking Cooper in the shoulder. “I knew I loved you for a reason.”
Cooper fitted his hand in Drew’s and squeezed it. “Let’s do it.”
Epilogue
Cooper pulled into his favorite spot on the Santa Monica beach front, pleased that it was free. There were a few different places along the LA coast where he could park, but he always seemed to do his best trade here. He killed the engine, rolled his shoulders, then hauled himself out of the driver’s seat.
He’d done a stock count before leaving the garage that morning, so he was satisfied he had everything he needed for a good day today. As was his habit, he turned on the radio and pulled open the window to let in the warm, salty sea breeze.
Within a few minutes, a family with two young kids sided up to the truck, and Cooper prepared to do his usual sales pitch.
“Hey!” the mom said. “You sell lactose-free ice cream?”
“Yep. I make it myself. It’s totally organic and I use local ingredients wherever possible.”
She seemed like a crunchy, organic mom.
“Do you sell in stores anywhere? It’s so difficult to find good organic lactose-free products.”
In California? Seriously?
“Not yet,” he said. “I’m working on it. I also make a line called Mother’s Treat. They’re alcohol-laced sorbets and gelato.”
The dad laughed. “It’s like he knows you, honey.”
The idea had been Alana’s, after Cooper had made her a cosmopolitan ice cream for her birthday, with real vodka in it. Now, the line included a mojito, mint julep, gin fizz, margarita, and mai tai, alongside the original cosmopolitan. He regularly sold out of those flavors when he took the truck along to sorority parties and wedding receptions.
In the past year, the truck had gone from being a part-time, speculative thing, to Cooper’s main focus. With some help, he’d set up a business plan and worked his ass off to secure a loan to be able to buy the vintage ice cream truck. He wasn’t going to call it a dream come true… not out loud, anyway.
He served the smiling family two organic, lactose-free, nut-free strawberry cones, a dark chocolate salted caramel cup, and a gin fizz on a stick, to a dad who seemed endlessly amused by the entire transaction.
Cooper still wasn’t entirely sure what he was going to do when winter rolled around. Though it didn’t get horrendously cold in LA, he wasn’t sure there was going to be a huge demand for ice cream in December. The Dreamy Creamery had always managed to sustain a business year-round; Cooper was just going to have to get creative.
He stayed on the beach until just after sunset, watching the evening settle in and the people change. Less families and groups of friends, more couples enjoying the sand and the summer. Some nights at this time he drove over to a local park where they showed movies outdoors on a huge screen. Food trucks generally did well in that environment, and Cooper’s only real competition for dessert was a donut vendor.
Those nights he ended up working ten, maybe twelve hours in a day, though time seemed to fly when he was working for himself. It was a whole other deal, one he’d found difficult to explain.
He’d just finished cleaning up and disinfecting his workspace when there was a knock on the window.
“I’m closed,” he yelled, turning and rolling his eyes at the group of people who were gathered there.
Alana and Trevor, and Drew, grinning.
Cooper opened the window and leaned forward on his elbows. “Hey.”
“What does a guy need to do to get a cone around here?” Drew teased. He leaned up, tall enough to be able to angle himself into the window for a kiss. Cooper nudged their noses together and kissed him loudly.
“Turn up during opening hours?”
Alana laughed. Trevor threw his arm around her shoulders and kissed her temple.
“I’ll take a cosmopolitan in a cup,” she said.
“Chocolate whatever,” Trevor said, then changed his mind. “Double scoop of chocolate whatever.”
“Pistachio and ginger,” Drew added. “In a cup. With—”
“I know, I know,” Cooper grouched good-naturedly, turning back to the freezer to hide his smile. “Rainbow sprinkles.”
About the author:
Anna Martin is from a picturesque seaside village in the south west of England and now lives in Bristol. After spending most of her childhood making up stories, she studied English Literature at university before turning her hand as a professional writer.
Apart from being physically dependent on her laptop, Anna is enthusiastic about writing and producing local grassroots theatre (especially at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where she can be found every summer), visiting friends who live in other countries, Marvel Comics, learning new things, and Ben & Jerry’s New York Super Fudge Chunk.
Although her most recent work is in the LGBT Fiction genre, in the past Anna has worked on a variety of different projects including short stories, drabbles, flash fiction, fan fiction, plays for both children and adults, and poetry. She has written novels in the Teen/ Young Adult genre, Romance, and Fantasy novels.
Anna is, by her own admission, almost unhealthily obsessed with books. The library she has amassed is both large and diverse; "My favourite books," she says, "are The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood." She also several well-read copies of Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park books and re-reads the Harry Potter novels with almost startling regularity.
Anna claims her entire career is due to the love, support, pre-reading and creative ass-kicking provided by her closest friend Jennifer. Jennifer refuses to accept any responsibility for anything Anna has written.
Anna’s website: www.annamartin-fiction.com
Twitter and Instagram: @missannamartin
Follow me on Bookbub for news about all my new books!
www.bookbub.com/profile/anna-martin
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