[Backdated to the Flynn-Cabot Ball; closed for Coop]

[seas_open]

April would say the past few weeks have been a strange series of events, but she'd be lying. The truth is that her life has been one long strange series of events ever since arriving in Siren Cove and in any other town, in any other situation, she knows she'd be long gone. She hasn't stayed anywhere for longer than a year since she was eighteen years old and free to get out of the foster care system and while she hasn't been in town quite that long, it's long enough that she's beginning to get nervous. She's here and she isn't working anyone. She's here and she isn't making any money except the income she's making legally working for Coop.

There are a few things keeping her here. Les, of course. Caden, certainly. Her father, though she will never admit that to anyone.

And the ridiculously handsome man currently crossing the room toward her.

The amount of affection she feels for Coop is a bit surprising from time to time. She hasn't slept with him, she hasn't even kissed him, and while that's certainly not required for her to form an attachment to someone, she's formed so few over the past ten years, that any kind of attachment comes as a bit of a surprise. But she can't pretend he doesn't make her feel lighter simply by being there.

"We probably shouldn't have come," she tells him when he's close enough to hear her. She knows she looks stunning in her long silver dress and he looks incredible as well. "We're just putting everyone else here to shame."

Comments

[coopdetat]

When he'd been stuck in the cave, Coop had gotten to wondering if anyone in his life would actually miss him. He doesn't mean people he can call acquaintances or friends and would maybe show up to his funeral or send some flowers or something, he's talking genuine, long-term mourning. He's not supposed to wonder that, he's pretty sure, but there hadn't been much else to do in that cave so thinking about things he shouldn't be thinking about had won out as the primary activity. His parents would, obviously, and he thinks Owen would probably be pretty torn up about it. Maybe Sylvie, since she'd come all the way to Siren Cove for whatever the fuck is or isn't going to happen between them.

For the most part, he thinks everyone would be pretty okay. It's the difference between, say, how he and Spencer had felt about Dane's death. Dane had been Spencer's brother, of course the guy wouldn't be fine, especially when it's only been a couple years, but Coop doesn't wake up every morning thinking about his dead friend. To be fair, he doesn't know if Spencer thinks about his brother every day either, but it's entirely possible. Coop's strangely content, though, in knowing that being gone wouldn't disrupt most people's lives too greatly. He loves making friends, loves just knowing people, but if he were to pack up all his things and take off tomorrow, it wouldn't send anyone to ruin.

It's a carefully crafted thing to reach a point like that. After Sylvie had left, Coop had taken special care not to get too close to anyone. He trusts, but he doesn't trust fully. He's an open book but there's a hell of a lot of fine print. It's just easier that way and that's what he likes. No pressure. It's just that sometimes, being very aware of the way he operates and why can get a little draining. Owen's his closest friend here, the one who knows him best, but even he isn't aware of any of this, of the way Coop always tries to stay one step ahead of the game so nobody can get too close to seeing what he's really doing, what he might be hiding.

"I think I'm going to take a vacation soon," he says, glancing down at the glass in his hand and swirling the champagne in it before taking a sip. "No idea where or when, but I think I might, maybe after the new year hits. Just need to get out of town for a bit, there's too much shit always going on around here."

[seas_open]

"You should," April says and she doesn't know what, exactly, is going on with Coop lately, but she watches people. It's what she's always done. She watches them carefully without letting on that's what she's doing and while she might not know the details of everything that's happening in his life, she's sure there is something. Whatever it might be, if he needs a break from it, he should take it. She understands that need to just get out for awhile and it's an urge she's been fighting for awhile now herself, although she doesn't know why she's bothering. If she needs to go, she should just go.

But she's fairly certain there are people who wouldn't understand. Les might, but she has a feeling Caden might think he's done something wrong. It isn't her job to make sure everyone is happy and she's never really cared what people might think before, but now she does. She doesn't understand it most of the time and she's just trying to ignore it.

"If you need to get out of town, you should do it," she tells him. "Just go. Not that I'm trying to get rid of you, but sometimes taking off for a little while is the best thing in the world a person can do for themselves and, to be fully honest, everything you should do should be at least partly for yourself." She doesn't understand this urge that people have to make sure everyone around them is happy and comfortable while ignoring their own happiness and comfort.

[coopdetat]

Coops's quiet for a minute while he turns her words over in his mind, deciding that he hasn't stayed in town for anyone else but because he just hadn't really known what else to do. The thought of leaving for a little bit, even if it's just a weekend trip to anywhere but here, had been something that had only recently come to him, and he realizes that it might be for the best but the fact of the matter is, he still has clients. He has a job, his own goddamn business, and it's not like he can just close up shop whenever he pleases because there aren't a whole lot of other places people can go for veterinary services like his.

He's checked the schedule, though, and he's got a pretty good chunk of clear time right after the new year. There are a few scattered appointments but nothing major, nothing that can't be shuffled around to a different day, and he's thinking he should take advantage of that before it gets too crazy. All he needs is more time, that's what he's been telling him. He needs more time to process what's going through his head, to work through the confusing shit that has come with getting out of that cave and being alone with his thoughts for way too long.

"I need to be away from Siren Cove," he says, practically a mumble because he's not sure he'd actually meant to say that out loud. Still, he can't take it back so he flashes April a wry smile. "Too many distractions here. I just need to clear my head or at least fill it with something else for a little bit. So consider yourself on vacation from work after the first, I guess."

[seas_open]

"I'll make the most of it, boss," she says with a small smile and a flip of her fingers in his direction. Now that Coop is talking about getting out of town, though, April is beginning to feel a little more restless. If she has the time off work anyway, maybe she'll get away for a bit as well, find herself a little of her other work, the kind that makes her a hell of a lot more money than she's making as an assistant. Not that Coop doesn't pay her well, but it's always easier to take a bigger cut from the other sort of work she does.

He doesn't need to know that, though. No one needs to know it. Most of the time it pisses her off that her father knows it. He shouldn't know it, he doesn't have any reason to know anything about her.

"Any plans for where you might go?" she asks curiously, leaning against the wall behind her and surveying the crowd. There are a lot of people here, a lot of them unfamiliar faces and she thinks she should make more of an effort, but sometimes she feels like she isn't going to stay in this town for much longer. It's not the place for her, not in the long run.