Safe and Sane

It'd been a long few weeks. This whole operation had eaten up almost all of his time and the only real time he'd had to himself was sleeping, and even that had been scarce. Though, when he did sleep, he thankfully didn't dream of the job (even if that was always at the back of his mind) but dreamed of a particular someone he'd been missing a hell of a lot.

But, finally, the bust happened and a few hundred reports later, he was finally able to get away from work. He walked into the club, hoping to see him, and he wasn't sorry because there he was. He smiled.

Cooper approached Haydn. "Hey," he said. He was tired, and one could hear it in his voice, but he also sounded happy.

They were walking out of the concert -- they'd gone to the Colorado Music Festival for Beethoven's 2nd and 5th symphonies -- and Cooper had a bit of a bemused expression on his face.

"Okay, so. You know, I've never really been into classical music -- I'm more of a Ramones kind of guy -- but that wasn't bad. It was loud; I like that."

It was a comfortably warm, cloudy day. The doors and windows at the cafe were open again, and it was business as usual as the kinksters descended for their weekly date with caffeine and questionable public appropriateness. The staff was braced and ready.

Sunday Night.

Pride had been going strong all weekend, but Sunday night things were just starting to ramp down in the city, and up in the club. The doors were propped open, the lights were blazing inside and outside there were strings of decorative rainbow lights wrapped around the security lamp posts.

The main lounge had elements of the club's parade float scattered about - leather bondage and roses, barbed wire twisted into pretty shapes and hung out of reach, the odd balloon (or inflated, colorful condoms) floating about the floor and furniture. The music wasn't loud, but for once it wasn't nearly inaudible.

The bar was open, and there was an actual bartender behind it. There were snacks (healthy and not), drinks (alcoholic and not), and the rooms to the scening rooms were all standing open along the halls. The single tail demo room had been cleared out and turned into a dance floor, that was plenty big enough for whoever wanted to be there -- and dimmer lights, and music that was easy to dance to.

There were condoms and lube in cut crystal candy bowls sitting about, reminders about safety and not driving - or playing- drunk. It was bright, festive, celebratory, and very much 'devil may care, as long as you're being safe', people around to make sure things stayed safe, and members who knew how to handle themselves safely or they wouldn't have been members to begin with.

The party, just this once, was a party.

Haydn made reservations at a steak house. It was Colorado; there were plenty of them. But this was a nice-ish place, nothing like a Sizzler. Hardwood floors, leaded water glasses. It was steak a step above average.

It didn't require a suit jacket, but Haydn wore one anyway. He also stood when the hostess led Cooper back to the table and said, "Here we go. Enjoy your meal, gentlemen."

Haydn smiled and offered his hand. A handshake would let him hone in on exactly where Cooper was. "You made it. Not too hard to find, I hope."

He'd just worked a 16 hour shift to execute a search warrant and needed to decompress, which made him glad he'd made plans to meet Charlie.

Cooper smirked when he thought of Charlie, thinking the kid had all sorts of balls to have come on to him like he had. He couldn't deny he was a bit impressed; he'd never admit it out loud, but he was.

He walked into the club around 9 pm, having come directly in from work.

The temperature Wednesday had dropped rapidly - from nearly 90 to right around 50 by the time the munch started, and the promise to drop below 40 overnight. The coffee shop doors were closed, hot chocolate and steamed drinks were selling well, and there was discussion about steamy kinksters amongst the employees. There was also the requisite bets - this week about how long it would be before someone suggested an inappropriate, dangerous use for fire.

He'd had one of those kind of days at work and was glad that he'd agreed to drinks with Haydn -- he needed some distraction and Haydn seemed like a cool guy.

Cooper spotted him and approached, and asked, "How do you say 'Today kicked my ass' in Latin?"

Cooper,

I hope you don't find this an invasion of your privacy. I enjoyed our conversation at the munch last week, so I looked for your email address on the off chance you might be interested in meeting again.

In other words, can I buy you a drink somewhere?

Yours,

Haydn Grey

Jethro waited outside until Coop walked out. He was hiding a grin, actually most of his face was hidden. As soon as Coop was past, Jethro barked out in his best command voice. "Who gave you permission to leave without saying hello sargeant!"

It was hot today. The cafe had all the doors open, the air going, and the fans turning. The cafe was crowded with laughing people, Blueberry smoothies were the drink of the day, and they had ice pops in addition to their normal fair.

Two employees placed a bet on how long it would take for that to get lascivious.