A Wall Between

Chapter 20

As they scanned and printed photos and put them together into an album, Cooper took pictures of the best ones on his own phone and sent them to Sasha. Just a couple at first, because he didn't want to assume Sasha would give a fuck, but when Sasha started responding and showing interest and asking questions, he sent more.

"What?" Mason asked as Cooper's lips twisted together around a smile.

"My neighbour who I have a crush on said I was a cute baby."

"You know what else is a cute baby? A cute baby. And I doubt he wants to make out with one."

Cooper hunched down over his phone. "Shh, don't ruin this crush for me."

"Fine, fine. But I swear, if you end up in a happy, committed relationship, I'm going to have to start dating just so that I'm not the only one alone. And I'm really fucking busy, Cooper, so that would be really inconvenient."

"Sorry. He might still be straight. Or, more likely, just not interested in my sociable, energetic ass."

"I'm sure your ass is fine."

"That's something I'd rather hear from anyone but my brother, but thank you."

Cooper's phone binged and he smiled as he typed a message back to Sasha. He had to keep reminding himself that he'd see him tomorrow. He missed him with a constant intensity that was a mix of good and bad. Having to wait and be away from him now was hard, but there was anticipation and excitement as well. In the middle of all their family drama, it felt good to have something that he was looking forward to.

Not that the family drama had been all bad in the end. Sure, his parents were, well, his parents, but he felt closer than ever to both of his brothers and he'd gotten to meet Bianca as well. She seemed pretty cool.

"You really like this guy, huh?" Mason asked, and Cooper realised he was still grinning down at his phone like a goofball.

Cooper shrugged. "I'm trying not to get too invested in the idea of like... a relationship. But... yeah. He's one of those people you just want to hug and take care of. But like, also, I feel like he's the kind of person who'd hug me and take care of me if I needed it. You know?"

"Not really, but I wish you both the best."

"Thank you."

They finished putting the album together and Mason made sure to get a bag that wasn't see through to wrap it in, then they collected the albums and returned everything to the car. Mason called Logan and, as arranged, Bianca said she was done looking at clothes.

She hadn't actually bought much when they went to pick them up. Mason gave her a covert thumbs up from behind Logan's back and she shot him a smile in return. They got into the car to go for lunch with Logan none the wiser.

"We should get something we can take away and have a picnic down at the lake," Mason suggested.

Logan made a sound of reluctance, but before he could disagree, Bianca cut in. "Ooh, yeah! That sounds nice!"

"Okay," Logan said. "What do you want?"

"Chicken nuggets!" Mason all but shouted, which Cooper was fairly sure had nothing to do with cute picnic plots and everything to do with him still craving chicken nuggets from last night.

"Let's find a food court and we can all grab what we want," Bianca suggested.

"Sure," Logan said.

"You eat food court trash now?" Mason asked.

"Bianca made me realise that I didn't care about health or food quality as much as I thought," Logan explained. "I was mostly just being snooty about food because mum and dad taught me to be."