Twenty: Cookie

*thanks to Niya, B, Borky, Eli, GoodbyeMarch, and akinbiadebimpe for your support!*

First, there was staticky silence. And then, shortly after, a small ‘boop’ as the call disconnected. Wren pulled the phone away from his ear, looking at the screen in bewilderment, a small part of him panicking that his dad had hung up because he couldn’t handle the news. Although, Wren’s fears were quickly assuaged as his phone rang – only this time it was a video call.

Shit. Wren’s dad was way better at sniffing out lies when he could see Wren’s face. Wren had only a second to compose himself, sitting up straight and smoothing out his expression before hitting the button to accept the call.

Wren’s dad came into view first. He was a rather pretty omega still, even now at forty-five. He had soft blond hair that was currently sticking up like wet duck feathers on his head, piercing light gray eyes that Wren had inherited from him, and full lips that were currently twisted down in a suspicious scowl.

Wren’s father appeared right over his dad’s shoulder, having to bend almost at the waist to get in the frame with him. Wren had gotten his height and his hair from his father. People often commented on how much he took after his father whenever they were in public together, though where Wren’s eyes were gray, his father’s were a deep ocean blue, and a few days’ worth of beard coated his jaw.

Bare rafters lit by warm yellow light behind them told Wren they were in the basement, meaning Wren’s dad had probably been hard at work renovating the space under the stairs into a storage closet. Or maybe he was repainting the handrail. Wren couldn’t keep track of his projects.

“I’m going to need you to say that one more time,” Wren’s dad said slowly. “I heard what you said, but it came out of your mouth, so I must be wrong.”

Wren gulped. “I said, I’m in an Entanglement with someone,” he repeated softly. The lie tasted sour on his tongue. And sure, technically it wasn’t a lie, but Wren was omitting the fact that the Entanglement was a business proposal more than a real relationship. Although honestly, the fact that Wren was in an Entanglement was shocking in itself simply because the vast majority of people didn’t bother with them nowadays. If Wren had simply said he had a boyfriend, his parents’ reaction probably wouldn’t be quite so dramatic.

Entanglements were archaic, rigid, and a practice pretty much exclusively maintained by the obscenely wealthy. And they were almost always entered with the intention of marriage, meaning telling your parents you were in an Entanglement was essentially the same as saying you were engaged. Considering that Wren’s parents hadn’t even heard a peep about Wren even being interested in someone before now, of course they were going to be shocked.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought you said,” Wren’s dad muttered, and then fell silent, obviously lost for words, so Wren’s father shifted more into the frame.

“When did this happen?” he asked, uncharacteristically serious. Wren’s father had always been a little goofy. He was the soft parent between the two of them to be sure, but now, Wren shuddered a little because his father looked a little bit murderous. Not towards Wren, no.

Vincent, on the other hand, may have gained a new enemy.

Wren’s parents had always been fiercely protective of Wren. It was why Wren had had so little exposure to alphas growing up.

“Um. He asked me a few days ago. But we’ve been seeing each other for about three months.” This was a blatant lie, but Wren knew that his parents would never accept an Entanglement he was in unless he and Vincent had already been dating for a significant amount of time. And he also knew, unfortunately, that it was going to hurt his parents’ feelings immensely that he hadn’t told them about the ‘relationship’ right when it began. Still, even knowing that, it still made some part of him cringe up inside when his dad’s lips twitched, eyebrows furrowing a bit, clearly hurt.

I’m the worst son in the world, Wren thought miserably.

There was silence between the three of them for a long while, long enough for Wren to consider just blurting out the truth, but before he could let his guilty conscience get the best of him, Wren’s dad spoke up again.

“I want to meet him. Soon.”

Wren bit his lip and nodded. He told them about the meet-up Vincent had organized between their families and ended the call. They still said ‘I love you’ before hanging up, but Wren could tell they were both distracted and reeling from the news. Wren dropped his phone to the bedspread, feeling like pure shit and wondering if any of this was even worth it. Although, not more than a second after dropping his phone, it rang again.

Wren jumped, his immediate thought being that his dad had suddenly realized he was furious and was calling back to give Wren a piece of his mind, but when he checked the caller ID, Vincent’s name popped up on the screen. Wren frowned and answered the call.

“Hello?”

“Hello. I’m in front of your apartment. Can you come down for a moment?”

“…Sure.”

Still off-kilter from the phone call with his parents, Wren didn’t immediately question why Vincent would be outside his apartment, or that it was probably a bad idea to see Vincent again so soon without taking his medication. While he’d had the prescription filled, it was meant to be taken in the morning, and given that he hadn’t thought he’d need it that same day, he didn’t even think to take any.

Wren made his way downstairs, finding Vincent leaning against the wall outside the lobby doors, wearing a rather soft-looking black sweater and black jeans, his hair a little mussed like he’d just woken up from a nap before coming over. Wren couldn’t explain why, but the first word that popped into his head when he saw Vincent was huggable.

He probably would feel pretty nice to hug…

“Sorry to call you out unexpectedly,” Vincent said first, offering Wren an oddly sweet smile that tempted Wren further to test how huggable Vincent really was. “I just wanted to apologize for my behavior yesterday. It wasn’t my intention to make you uncomfortable – ”

“You didn’t!” Wren blurted, then blushed and cleared his throat at Vincent’s stare. “I, uh, you just – caught me off guard.”

“I see,” Vincent murmured, eyeing Wren closely like he was trying to see into Wren’s head. “Well, either way, I feel I may have crossed a line you weren’t ready for me to cross, so I made you these.” He held something out, and Wren noticed for the first time that Vincent was holding a black plastic bag. Wren took it from him slowly, a little confused about how anything that happened yesterday could have warranted being given a gift.

A peek inside the bag revealed a little Tupperware container full of what looked like chocolate chip cookies.

…Apology cookies?

Wren looked back up and Vincent must have read the confusion on his face, because he shrugged and rubbed the back of his neck, something almost bashful about the way he lowered his eyes to the pavement. For the first time, Wren noticed a cute little pinprick mole on the outside corner of Vincent’s left eye, which was oddly endearing to Wren for reasons he simply couldn’t fathom.

“They’re homemade. I figured, since we didn’t get to eat dinner, I might as well make you something else.”

“Thank you,” Wren murmured after a pause. “Would you – ”

Before Wren could open his big mouth and accidentally invite Vincent up to his apartment, Wren’s phone rang again. Saved by the bell.

With a murmured apology to Vincent, who nodded graciously and stepped aside so Wren could have some privacy, Wren answered the call, which happened to be from Beau.

“Hello?”

“Bestie!” Came Beau’s ever exuberant voice. The distant honking of cars and muted voices told Wren Beau was out walking somewhere. “Be my date tonight?”

Wren frowned. “…What?”

Taking a deep breath that Wren could even hear over the background noise, Beau explained himself, all in a rush.

“So, my mortal enemy royally pissed me off and now I need to go out and do something or else I’m going to literally explode, so would you please please please come out clubbing with me tonight? I know you’re not the clubbing type, but it’ll be so fun! There’ll be dancing and music and drinks – oh, but you don’t have to drink if you don’t want to. We can consider it like your bachelor party before Vinny monopolizes all your time. So? Pleaassseee?”

Wren pursed his lips. Clubbing sounded really really not fun to Wren. But then again, he’d never tried it, so how could he know for sure he wouldn’t like it? But because he’d never done it, Wren knew he would be completely out of his element, and would probably have to cling to Beau the entire time they were out.

“…Promise you won’t leave me alone?” Wren asked, and he saw Vincent perk up curiously out of the corner of his eye.

“Of course not! I’ll be stuck to you like glue, babe. So, is that a yes?”

“…Yes. But I’ve never been clubbing before. I don’t know what to do.”

“Not a problem, just follow my lead, you’ll be fine. Ooh, this is going to be great! Give me five minutes, I’ll be at your place, and we’ll get you looking sexy as hell. I’m so excited!!”

Wren smiled slightly at Beau’s cheerful crowing, but it faded into a grimace soon after.

…What the hell did he just agree to?