One
Hadley
I can’t believe they fired me. Sure, I’m one of the younger junior architects, but this came out of nowhere. I was fresh out of college, barely able to rub two pennies together to make a dollar when I landed the job at Gardener’s Engineering. I should have known it was too good to be true. Now I’m back home, a sobbing, crying, drinking mess. A home that’s not really even mine. It’s Cooper’s, and I have a feeling when I tell him I lost my job, I’ll be homeless again. I was bartending at Tyler’s bar when I was talking to him about my lease and how it was coming to an end when he mentioned Cooper had a place with two bedrooms. I looked at Tyler like he had to heads. We didn’t know each other from Adam—Cooper and I, that is. Though the idea appealed to me, it had to be better than the slob fest I was living in with the girls. I looked at Coop with hopefulness in my eyes. He was shaking his head in a no freaking way manner. It wasn’t until Tyler, my boss and friend, went up to bat for me. He literally sang my praises. Why, I have no idea. I looked up to Tyler as an older brother. He knew what my goals and dreams were. He encouraged them. I still have no idea how he got Cooper to bring on a roommate when he clearly didn’t need one.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m thankful more than ever. My lease was up in less than three weeks, and between working, going to school, and paying bills, my bank account was rolling donuts.
Cooper didn’t need a roommate, or a friend for that matter. The way he filled out his dress shirts and slacks, wearing the finest of clothes, showed he didn’t need the first part, that’s for sure. He always came to the bar with a few guys, wearing a suit. Most of the time, the jacket would be discarded, his sleeves would be rolled up, and his tie was stuffed in his pocket.
When he first started coming in, Tyler would excuse himself from the bar and have me bartend while they’d talk and shoot the shit. I loved working behind the bar, not to mention the tips I earned those nights. Sometimes I think Tyler did it on purpose. By the time I turned in my notice when I was graduating, I bawled my eyes out on Tyler’s shoulder. I was sad to leave the bar, another chapter closing, and I was scared I’d be losing Tyler as well. In a way, he was the only family I had, something he knew because I shared when we used to close the bar down together.
Where was I living before landing in a place like Cooper’s? That was simple. Three other girls and I rented an apartment for next to nothing on the outskirts of campus. It was two girls to a room, but it was split four ways. Two of the girls I roomed with are back in their home states, and the other girl moved in with her now fiancé. It’s sad. You would have thought we’d have formed a bond living together. We didn’t though.
My schedule was beyond chaotic. Working at a bar didn’t help much either. Then, when graduation was coming up, I told Tyler I wasn’t sure what I was going to do next. He told me to sit tight; he may know someone. He offered for me to stay at his place, but he lives in the studio apartment above the bar. Fat lot of good that would have been for his busy life. He is a workaholic, not to mention I saw the women who flirted with him, how they would slide him their numbers or try to hang on him when he’d escort them out of the bar. It had me in fits of laughter. He’d shake his head and say, “You could’ve fucking helped.” I’d have been a smartass the entire time.
That leads me to the here and fucking now. I’ll more than likely get on my hands and knees to beg for my job back at Alibi.
Feeling like the idiot I am, I stopped at the grocery store on the way home and bought two bottles of wine. The cheap kind, because that’s what I prefer, now more than freaking ever. I’m silently wondering what the hell I’m going to do. Sure, I have enough money to pay my portion of rent the next two months, and my student loans are down to only a few thousand dollars. At least I was smart on this. I could always extend that, but having that debt hanging around my neck makes me cringe.
“You could file for unemployment,” I say to the outside air. Coop’s condo is freaking amazeballs. It’s in the downtown area, has all the luxuries of a home, and even has a balcony. Which is where my lonely ass is sitting, on bottle number two, when I hear the front door open. It’s a beautiful balmy seventy-five degrees in our little downtown area of Tennessee. The gorgeous view of the river, the trees rippling in the wind, and the smell of the water coasting off the seawalls. It’s crisp and cool, and I know fall is coming soon.
Cooper hates when I leave the patio doors open while I sit outside. He swears it fills the apartment with humidity. He’s a shit talker, is what it all boils down to. I came home from work a couple of weeks ago, and who was sitting in my very spot looking out at the view? Cooper himself.
“What did you say?” My eyes move from his shoes, black genuine Italian leather, to his dress slacks that have been tailor made for his legs and waist, and stop at his crisp white dress shirt that I have no doubt is custom as well. His forearms are on display, showing off his muscles. His shirt is unbuttoned at his throat. Cooper’s hair is still slicked back from how he styles it for work. His cornflower-blue eyes have me locked in his sights. He’s smirking, as if he knows something I don’t, and it’s making me want something I’ve never wanted before.
“I heard you say something, Hadley. We all know you talk under your breath when you think you’re alone. What’s going on now?” He squats down in front of me. My legs are up in front of me, my arms wrapped around them, my chin resting on the tops of my knees.
“I’m fucked,” I blurt out.
“I can see that. How many glasses of wine have you had by yourself?” he retorts. I snort, full-out snort. He’s my best friend. If I’m really being honest, he and Tyler are the only real friends I have.
“Not in that kind of way, though I’m getting there, and that second bottle of Riunite Lambrusco is calling my name. It’s the best eight dollars I’ve ever spent.” Cooper finds my wrist and glides his thumb over my pulse point. Dear God, what is going on here? It must be the wine talking. There’s no way my roommate-turned-best friend is now making my heart beat out of my chest.
“I brought dinner home. We’ll eat, I’ll drink some of your cheap wine, and you can tell me why you look sad and upset.”
“You’ll probably think I’m a failure after I tell you. So, don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Cooper helps me stand up. I somehow manage not to sway my body into him.
“I’m not sure that could ever happen. Come on. I stopped at Merchant’s and got food.”
“Please tell me you got baked pimento cheese, a wedge salad, and their turkey club?” I groan. Food and wine are my two biggest weaknesses. It’s something I’ve learned to embrace, even when it gives me more curves than I truly want or need.
“Don’t I always?” Cooper gives me his panty-melting smile, and once again, I’m stupefied about where that thought came from. I’m definitely blaming the wine. It has to be the culprit.
Two
Cooper
Hadley is well on her way to being smashed. Not that she gets like this a lot, but on rare occurrences, she does. It’s like dinner and a show. I have my arm wrapped around her, just in case she starts swaying. Her head is resting in the crook of my arm and chest when I hear her mumble, “Hmmm. You smell good, Coop. Like the outside air, with an undertone of cinnamon and citrus.”