homegrown alligator, see you later @elliebellyteaches - Tumblr Blog

Cody ducked his head with a quiet laugh.

“Admittedly, I think he’s under the impression that I need help in every department,” he said, already knowing Dylan would have his head for playing a hand like that. He shouldn’t start off declaring how much he was lacking, not in front of a pretty blonde that he had no doubts his friend would deem radically acceptable. But Cody had always been far better at being self-deprecating than bigging himself up.

At least his occupation helped to present the illusion of attractiveness. Cody had come to learn that there were very few people out there who didn’t get starry-eyed about firefighters. He could look like damn near anything and the FDNY badge on his uniform would do everything to make him at least a little appealing.

The grin froze on his face when Ellie mentioned Dylan. Quickly, he tilted his head in confusion.

“Dylan?” he asked faintly, knowing that in a city like New York there was a slim, slim - actually near impossible - chance that they were talking about the same Dylan. But wouldn’t that be just Cody’s luck? For the pretty blonde he was talking with to be someone the other pretty blonde in his life knew?

The thought was shattered in his mind’s eye the moment it crept into his head. A wave of bullets took it down and he quickly buried it in the sand. Vain as his Dylan was, he’d have no qualms about being called pretty. But Cody couldn’t think of him that way. He shouldn’t even be thinking of Dylan as his anything.

It seemed like the woman in front of him hadn’t taken too much notice of the way he had stumbled over her innocuous use of his best friend’s name. Why would she? Normal people didn’t react like that. Cody awkwardly cleared his throat, shifting in his seat as he tried to recalibrate the situation into something a human being with his trademark faulty wires could still claw his way through and come out reasonably unmarked on the other side. Who knew that a man who had crossed warzones could handle that better than a regular conversation? He really hoped Dylan wasn’t looking his way right now.

Thankfully, the woman across from him was graceful enough to smile when he told her he had a son. Normally, most women did a double take, wrinkling their nose a little and then forcing a pleasant expression onto their face to mask their horror. At the very least, knowing the woman in front of him also had a kid of her own was a relief. Not enough to make Cody completely relax, but his shoulders inched down ever so slightly. It was enough for now.

“Yeah. Walt. He’s ten,” he smiled fondly, fingers itching to pull out his wallet and show off the various photos of Walt he had tucked away inside. He knew most people didn’t really care to see that sort of thing though, whether they were parents themselves or not.

“Ah,” he nodded when she clarified that the Dylan she was talking about was her son. What were the odds of that?

“There’s nothing wrong with… sorry, hallmark romances?” he asked, a curious smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. “Is that different from regular romances?”

Feeling a little brave, he rested his arms on the table, leaning in. “Do they have a lot to say about…” He gestured vaguely around them with one hand. “The like, I dunno, merits of speed dating or something?”