This
meets this
and their lives are changed forever. Because Jensen’s taking a gap year that turned into three, just drifting and not sure what he wants to do so he works as a waiter in a crappy chain restaurant and gets high with his friends after work, watches them going through college and making plans to move forward.
And Jared’s a single dad, recently divorced and recently out to both himself and the world at large, and he feels like a failure for hurting his ex-wife and breaking his family but living the lie had been slowly killing him. His seven-year-old’s favorite restaurant is one of those chain places where the food is all frozen and microwaved, but Jared will go there every week to make his kid smile.
So Jensen starts noticing the older man with sad eyes that light up when his son babbles about his school day, sneaks extra fries onto the plate because damn, that man needs to eat more (and he always knew he’d turn into his mom someday but he didn’t think it’d be so soon), learns that their names are Jared and Nicky, learns that Nicky is outgoing and talkative and thinks that everyone is his friend. Learns that Jared doesn’t talk much, and that “mommy moved away and lives with her friend Scott now,” learns that Jared winces whenever the subject of Nicky’s mom comes up and add in the pale band where a ring used to be and it’s not hard for Jensen to figure it out.
Jared doesn’t want to notice the waiter who always seems to be serving their table, but how could he not when the guy is so handsome. And at first he thinks the friendliness is just the kid angling for a bigger tip, but Jensen seems to have infinite patience with Nicky and doesn’t try to hurry them along when Nicky’s obviously just toying with the remains of his dessert. Jensen’s not the first guy Jared’s ever noticed, but it’s the first guy he’s ever let his thoughts linger on... even if it feels ridiculous to be falling for a guy almost half his age. A guy he doesn’t know anything about.
