Say You'll Be Nine

He was so good at this, so natural. He really made it seem like we were a couple. What could I do to help? I didn’t know what to do more than lie there and gawp at him.

When he turned his head to smile at me again, I leaned in and pressed a kiss to his forehead, mumbling thanks.

Now Cooper looked like the one who’d gotten the monkey treatment. It took him a second to return to normal and face the camera again. “So, ah, yeah. Stay tuned for much more. We traveled today which made for a long, tiring day. All I want to do is snuggle up with this guy and get some good sleep. As you can see, Nacho is already snoring.” He panned the phone camera around to show Nacho curled up on my feet. Sure enough, little doggie snores were loud enough for the camera to pick up. I didn’t realize I was grinning until he turned the camera back on us.

“G’night, everyone. Say good night, Nine.”

I couldn’t resist. “Good night, Nine,” I said.

He hit the button to end the recording just as he snorted with laughter.

Bright Cooper eyes met mine as his lips still turned up. “That was perfect. We’re going to rock this.” His smile faded. “Listen… I’m sorry about earlier. About treating you like you were a homophobe. You did great just now, and… and that kiss was… it was good. People will love it.” He took a breath. “You did good, Nine.”

I clamped my lips together and nodded my thanks. He’d said people would love it, but what about him? Had he loved it? And why did I care? It was a damned peck on the forehead. Hardly a sex move or anything.

He put his phone away and turned off the light again. After a little while, I noticed his breathing had steadied. I turned my head and watched his dark form against the lighter background of the sheets. My lips could still feel the warm, smooth skin of Cooper’s forehead. The gardenia smell had come from his hairline, and I wondered if it was a styling product he used. He had Hollywood hair. Probably paid more money for his cut than the ten bucks I paid Big Mike at the Shave Shack. Every time he came to visit my family, I was struck by how fashionable he looked. I’d always chalked it up to some kind of gay thing, but that was shitty of me.

Then I thought maybe it was a Hollywood thing, but I guess that was shitty too. Stereotyping wasn’t fair. But whatever it was, I liked it. I liked that his hair was always styled and he seemed so put together with stylish clothes on. He stood out from all the other guys in Wheatland. It was a refreshing change.

I fell asleep to thoughts of him and wound up dreaming about Cooper giving haircuts to thousands of different men. Only, they wanted haircuts to their pubic area too. So he’d cut their hair and then ask them to strip so he could use a mini version of an actual lawn mower to cut patterns into the hair around their dicks. And all the dicks we’re different. Light, dark, big, small. Hard, soft. One guy had so much hair, Cooper shaved a design into it until it resembled a family of bats swooping down toward his dick.

When I woke up in the morning, hard as a fucking nail, I was mortified by my brain shenanigans. The only saving grace was the empty bed next to me. Thankfully, there was no witness to my tent pole.

I took several deep breaths to try and get my dick to stand down before I could stumble to the bathroom. When I finally finished getting dressed, I heard the RV door open and Nacho came running. I hadn’t even noticed he was gone.

“Coffee’s ready,” Cooper called from the kitchen area.

I ducked through the little hallway separating us and was surprised to see Cooper handing me a mug of coffee already prepared just the way I liked it. I mumbled a thanks, but I couldn’t look him in the eye after my dreams last night.

“Sorry you have to duck in here. That must suck. I told them we needed one with high ceilings, but this was the best they had.”

I glanced up at him. “You did?”

He nodded and took a sip of his own coffee. “Yeah. I remembered that time you drove Eli’s old Camaro and had to hunch over like a granny.”

I carefully stretched to my full height to show him that the ceiling was, in fact, high enough in most areas of the RV. “It’s really just the hallway and the bathroom because of the fan. So, uh, thanks. That was nice of you.”