The First Date Part One
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Jamie looked exhausted but Jensen couldn’t really say anything about it as he was tired from partying. “What were you up to last night?” he asked and Josh answered for him.
“After I put them to bed and checked they were asleep Marky and Jamie snuck back downstairs and painted. Then we get them out of bed this morning and Mary had a tantrum because they hadn’t woke her up.”
Jensen tried not to laugh and said, “Why don’t I take them next weekend?”
“Because you have a not date. Mack said she’d take them.”
“There’s not going to be a not date.”
Josh looked horrified. “Jamie, go collect up your stuff.” Once he had gone into the house Josh said, “Jen, what happened?”
“Nothing, I need to talk to Jamie but then I think Jared kind of gonna move in, partially. As long as Jamie’s cool with it. But um, I kind of need to pay you, Mack, and Annie back so I don’t think it’ll be any issue to spend Saturday home.”
“You think he’s a burden on us? He’s our nephew.”
“I know but you and Lind can go on a date next week.”
“Thanks,” Jamie came back with his backpack and lion. “See you guys next week at your place.” He stayed to wave to them as they pulled away.
And after a few quiet minutes, of Jamie almost dozing Jensen said, “Jamie, I need to talk to you.”
“It wasn’t me. I’m sorry, I won’t do it again,” the little boy rattled off clearly unsure of what he was in trouble for.
“No, baby, you haven’t done anything,” Jensen laughed. “Do you like Jared?”
“Yeah, he’s fun and he’s silly and I like him.”
“How would you feel if he wasn’t famous? If he wasn’t TV’s Chef Jared.”
“Would he still be the same, like always hungry and laughing?”
“Yeah, he’d be exactly the same, just not famous.”
“I’d still like him.”
“Well, how would you feel about him being over more? Like if he sort of moved in? Some nights he won’t be home. But he’d spend a lot of time with us. Like, he’d be there when you woke up a lot.”
Jamie smiled, “‘Cause you like him?”
“Yeah, I do. But we won’t do it if you won’t like it. I know it’s been just us for a long time. And I want you to be happy.”
“I like Jared.” He said but trailed off a little.
“But?” Jensen prompted.
“Would he come on date night?”
“No, date night is our night to do what we like. He won’t come on date night. That’s just you and me.”
“And sometimes Ma and Pa or Granny and Grands, but it’s a quiet night and I like it.”
“I love it, our night, that’s not going to change. Jared and I might still go out on Saturdays. But never on Fridays. Promise.”
“Then yeah, I’d like Jared.”
“There’s gonna be a lot of kissing. Jared’s gonna be my boyfriend. Still okay?”
“Yeah, you’ll still cuddle with me?”
“Of course.”
“Good, can Jared come over this afternoon?”
“I’m sure he’d love to.”
“Cool.” He bounced in his car seat. “‘Cause Marky taught me to spit.”
“That’s disgusting,” said Jensen trying again not to laugh. “Only in the backyard, okay? Don’t let me catch you doing it in public. What did you have for breakfast?” He thought back to the eggs Benedict and very buttery toast he had eaten with Jared.
“I had a banana, blueberry, and soy milk smoothie, Aunty Linda made it for me.”
“Cool, you hungry?” Jensen knew Jamie was always a bottomless pit and while he had packed Jamie dinner and some snacks he figured Jamie was still hungry.
“No, but can we have second breakfast for lunch? I want hash browns and bacon.”
“Sounds good to me. Did you have fun with your cousins?”
“Yeah.”
“Do you have any homework?”
“No. It’s the weekend, silly.”
They lapsed into quiet and Jensen asked after a little while, “So you’re really okay with Jared hanging out a lot more?” He realized that Jamie was fast asleep. At the house he manhandled the unconscious boy out of his car seat and into his arms. As he opened the door his back pocket rang. With a careful arm movement he answered with a soft, “Hey, how are you?”
“Why are you whispering?” asked Jared.
“Jamie’s out like a light, need to get him to bed.”
This time Jared whispered back, “Call me when you get a minute?”
“Do you want to come over?”
“Really?”
“Yeah, come when you like. Bring clothes and a swim suit if you want.”
“Cool, excellent, I’ll see you in a little while.”
Jensen laid Jamie down in his bed and sat beside him, stroking his hair he kissed Jamie’s face and singing gently, “You give me love, love, love, love crazy love. I can hear your heart beat for a thousand miles, and the heaven's open every time you smile, and when I come to you that's where I belong, yet I'm running to you like a river's song.” He hummed gently as he rested back against the headboard.
The next thing he heard was the doorbell and blinked his way awake. He opened the door on Jared’s smiling face and asked, “Were you waiting long? I fell asleep.”
Jared’s smile slipped a little, “Should I go, you need rest?” He was holding a small overnight bag and Jensen’s heart skipped a beat: this was real.
Jensen laughed, “Get your ass in here.” Pulling Jared inside Jensen kissed him hard. He shut the door and pushed Jared up against it, attacking his mouth and rubbing at his stomach. He heard Jared’s bag hit the floor and breaking off he said, “He said yes, Jamie said yes.” He slid his hand under Jared’s shirt and messaged his hip as he pulled Jared’s tongue into his mouth. “Okay?” He asked finally allowing Jared to breathe.
“Okay,” agreed Jared, “I need to get some stuff out of the car.” He pushed Jensen back slightly and opened the door again. Jensen watched him practically bounce down to the SUV. He opened the door and pulled out a large bunch of flowers. Jensen laughed. Hearing it Jared said, “What? It’s a date. I can bring flowers for a date. Is Jamie allergic?” Still laughing Jensen shook his head. “Cool,” he went around, opened the back of the car, and Sadie and Harley jumped out.
Seeing Jensen the dogs bounded up to him and Jensen leaned down to pat them. They smelled clean and had minty breath. “Did you brush their teeth?”
“After their bath… they had tuna a couple of days ago. Since then they’ve only had clean food but, um, I just needed to be totally sure.”
“Thank you.”
“Don’t need to thank me for wanting to keep Jamie safe. I want him to meet my puppies and I don’t want him to get hurt. Ergo, bath and teeth cleaning. They did not like it when I cleaned their tongues.” He brought the flowers to Jensen and shut the door behind himself. “Happy first date. So what are we doing?”
“I hadn’t thought that far ahead.”
“Good planning. Jamie still sleeping?”
“Yeah he got up to shenanigans with his cousin… I told Josh that I would take them this Saturday.”
“Good idea, he’s been babysitting a lot.”
“You aren’t mad?”
“I want to make this work. You’ve got a lot going on, so do I, and Saturdays won’t necessarily be ours.”
“Jamie says that Fridays are still his.”
“Is he cool with this?”
“So long as he gets me alone on Fridays and can still cuddle he says he’s excited.”
“Great, great. Do you have stuff you need to do today? Because I have paperwork I can do.”
“You’re really good at this whole, ‘making stuff easy,’ thing. Aren’t you?”
“You’ve had two nights on the town in a row. I assumed you had stuff to do, and hanging out is good. I’m not in a rush, there’s no urgency to get you naked, there’s no need for extreme excitement. It’s Sunday.”
The dogs were getting anxious and Jensen said, “Let’s get them outback and I’ll get some juice. We can sit out there?”
“Sure, good.” Jared opened the bag he’d brought and pulled out a folder. He walked through and into the kitchen to the glass sliding door and let the dogs out.
~~~
Jensen’s yard was big, really big. It was funny because the house was not ostentatious but the size of the yard spoke to the money Jensen had. But even there it wasn’t pretentious, instead of a pool with a waterfall or, whatever, there was instead just a very large one with a diving board. It was a great yard and it was fenced in so the dogs could just run about and amuse themselves. He sat down at the patio table and pulled out some paperwork, signing off on some new cook wear after looking over the specs. He read a form on new knives Mike wanted to brand but shook his head. Pulling out his phone he hit speed dial four and as Mike picked up he said, “It’s a no go on the knives.”
“Why?” asked Mike.
“Because their handles are cheap ass plastic that looks like it will fall off even in the demo photos. We don’t want our seal on that. I wouldn’t use them.”
“Just because their cheap doesn’t mean-”
Jared cut him off just as Jensen came outside, “I don’t care if something is cheap. Find me something inexpensive and good and I’ll slap my name on it. But too much of Middle America trusts me to put my name on something that’s going to fall apart. That makes me look like a total dick. I know that I only have top of the line but I’m willing to put my name on something inexpensive so long as it isn’t crap. And these knifes are trash. The handles will fall off after three rounds in the dishwasher and I’m not willing to peddle them to people who trust me.”
“You know that will lose you money.”
“Not in the long run, exploiting my customers is just not my game plan.”
“What about the earthen wear pots?”
“Haven’t gotten that far but I did like the colorful saucepans.”
“Good, y’wanna come over later?”
“I’m at Jensen’s.”
“Oh cool, let’s hand over our phones to our boys.”
Covering the mouth piece Jared said, “Do you want to talk to Tommy?”
Jensen nodded but Jared held the phone until he heard Tom’s, “Hello?” before handing the phone off because Mike could be overwhelming at first.
~~~
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