Chapter 13 #2
He lays a hand on his heart. “I would never.”
“I write Gilmore Girls fanfiction.”
His grin lights up his face. “Stop it! That’s so awesome. Who’s your OTP?”
I laugh a little. “You really do know fanfiction.”
“Did you think I was lying?”
I shake my head and take another bite of my bagel. “No, but you don’t meet a lot of guys who are up on proper fanfiction lingo.”
He crosses his arms over his chest and his eyes lock on mine. “Maybe you’re just meeting the wrong guys.”
I’ll say.
“I don’t have an OTP. I have an OT3.”
His brow furrows as he tries to work this out. “I think you need to explain that to me.”
“Okay, it’s like this. If you know Gilmore Girls, you know everyone is either Team Jess or Team Logan.”
“Wait, wasn’t there another one too?”
I roll my eyes. “I mean, kind of, but no one is Team Dean unless they’re a psychopath.”
He nods. “Got it. We hate Dean. Continue.”
I pop the last bite of bagel in my mouth and take a sip of seltzer.
“Okay, so, I’ve watched Gilmore Girls all the way through, like, hundreds of times, and I can never settle on a team.
There are seasons where I’m all about Jess, and seasons where I’m all about Logan, and I’ve never been able to choose a permanent side.
So, I started thinking, why choose, literally? ”
Cooper cracks up. “You write why choose Gilmore Girls fanfiction?”
I grin at him. “For a while now. In my world, Rory could never choose either, so instead she chooses both.”
“That’s iconic, Rhodes. Like, truly iconic. Do you post them?”
I nod. “Yeah, I’ve got a decent following.
I’ve always been a super early riser, and being in BigLaw means there isn’t much in the way of leisure time, so about six years ago I started coming into the office around five and being Writer Evan for an hour or two before I start the day.
I come in my pajamas with my favorite coffee and light my candles, and then right before the office gets going for the day, I put it all away and turn into Lawyer Evan.
When I started here two years ago, I kept up the habit.
Sometimes I do it at night too, but it’s mostly a morning thing.
A little ritual that’s kept me sane in the BigLaw grind. ”
“And the notebook?”
I look down at the pink spiral notebook I carry with me everywhere. “It’s my idea notebook.”
He smiles. “So, every time I’ve seen you scribbling in that notebook during a meeting or something, you weren’t being a diligent, note taking lawyer. You were…”
I shrug. “Writing ideas for stories. For spicy scenes. Little bits of dialogue. Whatever pops into my head, honestly.”
“I’m obsessed with this. Like, completely and totally obsessed with this. Jo, Hannah, and Amelia will be too. Hannah especially.”
I don’t know how to feel about the fact that he brings up his family so easily, like it’s a given that I’ll meet them, be a part of them. Does he want that? Do I? I have no idea. “I mean, I’m not a writer like she is.”
“Writers write, Ev. You write, so you’re a writer. Just like she is.”
I shake my head. “It’s different. I write stories I post on an online forum. I don’t want to make it my career or anything. I’m a lawyer. I love being a lawyer. I’ve never really wanted to be anything else.”
Cooper studies me. “I’ve always wondered,” he murmurs.
“Wondered what?”
“Whether you liked being a lawyer.”
I swallow down my instinct to jump down his throat, reminding myself that he’s trying to get to know me, just like I’m trying to get to know him, and that maybe, just maybe, it feels good to be known, especially early in the morning, when it’s still dark outside, with only the glow of my candles for light.
“I love it. I love it so fucking much I’m willing to put up with the misogyny and the favoritism and the old boys club of BigLaw because I feel like this is what I was meant to do.
” I shrug, leaning back in my chair. “Maybe it seems stupid that representing pharmaceutical companies is what I feel like I was meant to do, but it just calls to me, you know? Crafting the arguments and the twists and turns of the law and the way I get to do science all at the same time? It’s so fucking cool. ”
Cooper blows out a breath and leans his elbows on my desk. “I wish I was that passionate about my job.”
His deeply dissatisfied tone makes me want to ask him a million questions about whether it’s the law he doesn’t like or whether it’s working here, but I kind of feel like maybe that’s still none of my business, so I settle on something else instead.
“What is it that you’re passionate about, Cooper? ”
“Cooking,” he says immediately. “Baking too. Anything in the kitchen, really.”
I smile. “Ah, yes, the secret you keep from your family. Explain please.”
He chuckles. “It’s not really that complicated.
My mom was adamant that my brothers and I learn how to cook.
The first couple times she tried to teach me, I messed up in spectacular fashion—like, burned a dishtowel and shattered her favorite bowl and put salt in a recipe instead of sugar.
Since I’m the youngest of four, my mom didn’t have a ton of patience for it, so she would kick me out of the kitchen and tell me to go do something else while she made my brothers clean up whatever mess I made and finish cooking.
I learned pretty quickly that if I fucked up in the kitchen, I got to go play basketball or video games or whatever without any brothers stealing the balls or the controllers.
Then it became a kind of a game. How badly could I mess up and make it believable so I could get out of helping?
I got really, really good at it, and the habit stuck. ”
I burst out laughing. “This is the best thing I’ve ever heard. Like, peak youngest child. So, for more than twenty years, you’ve been making your family believe you’re a menace in the kitchen?”
He grins at me. “Yep.”
“So how did you actually learn to cook?”
His grin spreads. “My mom, but she has no idea. Again, youngest of four boys. If I was quiet and didn’t fuck anything else up after the first time, no one paid much attention to me.
At first, my brothers would grumble about how I didn’t have to help, but Pam Wyles has no patience for that, so she just gave them even more work to do, and they learned pretty quickly to cut that shit out.
I paid attention, and I have a really good memory.
When I went to college, I cooked all the time, and now I do it whenever I can.
It’s become kind of a game for me to keep up the ruse around my family. ”
I snort out a laugh. “Have you ever considered telling them?”
“I have, but it’s been going on for so long that when I finally do, it needs to be a serious reveal. Like, really epic and shit.”
“Oh my god, please let me be there for that,” I say without thinking.
Cooper’s eyes go soft again, and honestly, I think that look of his is going to be the death of me.
“Wouldn’t have it any other way, Rhodes.
You’re a part of this now. I’ve been cooking only for myself for so long, except now I get to make you bagels.
” The look on Cooper’s face when he looks at me makes my insides go gooey.
“It’s nice, baking for someone. Taking care of someone in that way.
I’ve never really gotten to do it before, so thank you for letting me. ”
I stare at him, entirely without words because in this moment, sitting in my dark office in my pajamas, I realize something with absolute clarity.
I like the father of my accidental baby, and I have no idea what comes next.